Even as the spring TV season is winding down, the entertainment industry is gearing up for Upfronts 2012, when the major television networks head to New York to present their fall schedules to advertisers (while the media reports on it all). But while the Upfronts officially kick off next week (they’re being held from May 13-17), a few projects have already been given the green light.

NBC, for instance, has already made several commitments. It has renewed Law & Order: SVU for another season and picked up a few pilots, including the dramas Chicago Fire (pictured above, which stars The Vampire Diaries alum Taylor Kinney, the hottie who played Tyler’s uncle, Mason Lockwood) and Revolution (a post-apocalyptic tale from Alias and Lost executive JJ Abrams and Supernatural creator Eric Kripke), plus a few comedies (1600 Penn, Animal Practice, The New Normal, Save Me, and Go On) starring actors such as Anne Heche and Matthew Perry.

TNT, meanwhile, has ordered the medical drama Monday Mornings (previously titled Chelsea General), which stars Battlestar Galactica’s Jamie Bamber as a motorcycle-riding neurosurgeon (yum!).

We’ll continue to follow the pickups at H&H (especially those with shipping potential and/or beefcake), but in the meantime, are there any shows from pilot season you’re hoping to see get picked up? What kinds of shows would you like to see on your TV next fall?

If last week’s penultimate episode of In Plain Sight, “Sacrificial Lam,” was jam-packed, tonight’s series finale, “All’s Well That Ends,” promises to be even more so. It will also (one assumes) answer the question once and for all: Is there more to Mary/Marshall than friendship, or is romance/romantic love just not in the cards after 5 seasons as partners and BFFs?

This here is a finale reaction post. Therefore: Danger, Will Robinson! ***SPOILERS & SPECULATION AHOY!*** Do not read the comments unless you want to be thoroughly spoiled. You have been warned.

I’ll be watching the finale live (or close to it) if anyone wants to join me now or over the course of the next few days to discuss the ending (good? bad? ugly? we’ll see!) and to say good-bye to Mary McCormack’s Mary Shannon, Fred Weller’s Marshall Man, and the rest of the awesome IPS cast (*sniff*). LET’S MOURN TOGETHER, SHALL WE?

Previously on The Vampire Diaries: Once-more-good Stefan confronted Elena about her possible feelings for Damon, evil!Alaric hid one of the last remaining white oak stakes that could kill Klaus & co., Tyler was still off trying to break his sire bond, the Originals were tied to all the vampires in their respective bloodlines (an Original dies, so too do all of the vampires directly or indirectly descending from them), and Jeremy was happy for once in Denver (if, you know, still brainwashed by his own sister).

(Need to catch up? Visit our TVD recap index for links to past episode recaps.)

And now, on to this week’s episode, “Heart of Darkness,” for which I present a pros and cons list:

Pros

—The Damon/Elena stuff in the motel room (and just outside it) was the best it’s been in ages. Honestly, the writers should let Nina Dobrev and Ian Somerhalder simply be hot more often because I swear I am never as interested in Delena as when they’re dancing or staring at each other before feigning sleep or making out or just generally not talking.

[They say it best when they say nothing at all...]

Kristin Cashore
Bitterblue
Dial / May 1, 2012 / $19.99 print, $10.99 digital

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck’s reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle—disguised and alone—to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck’s reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn’t yet identified, holds a key to her heart.

Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue, the sequel to the YA fantasy novel Graceling and a companion to Fire, is as enchanting a read as its predecessors, not least because it brings the return of several favorite characters.

[They’re baaaack!...]

Last night was the premiere of HBO’s Girls, a show you may have seen me mention the other day.

Twitter’s all abuzz with reactions, both good and bad, from critics and viewers, but I don’t know that I’m ready to jump into that fray (yet?). For now I’m just looking forward to sitting back and taking in a few more episodes before I try to analyze my feelings on it any more.

I will say now, though, that while I recognized some things in these characters and probably will yet more (for better or worse), to my mind it’d be a mistake to think that we’ve got a whole generation covered here. That huge, unquestioned, ridiculous sense of entitlement they all seemed to possess, for instance? We do not all have that. Hannah & Co. are a *few* voices of *a* generation, and that’s OK.

Did you watch? What did you think? Will you tune in next week?

As the networks gear up for their last big push of the current TV season, May sweeps, many shows are on a short hiatus before they begin airing their exciting final few episodes. But it’s also the perfect time to clear out the ol’ DVR and officially quit watching that show (shows?) you haven’t watched in weeks (months?). If you haven’t missed it yet, you probably won’t, know what I mean? (Once Upon a Time, Hart of Dixie, Two Broke Girls, Smash, I’m afraid I’m lookin’ at you.)

So what are you still watching? And what have you given up on? Any big disappointments or surprises this television season?

TV remote image by HarshPatel;Photographer via Flickr

HBO’s Girls—set to premiere next week, on Monday, April 15—chronicles the lives of four 20-something women, led by the quirky Lena Dunham as Hannah, living and working (or, uh, not working, as the case may be) in New York City. While clearly not intended to be as glamorous as another HBO original series, Sex and the City, who knows? Maybe realism will prove just as appealing. It’ll be interesting to see whether viewers find themselves relating to and thus enjoying the characters as much as they did SatC’s Carrie et al.

I definitely plan to give this a shot, whether because I myself am a 20-something in NYC or because I’m all for awesome ladies being awesome (even as they “live the dream—one mistake at a time” like the show’s tag line suggests; I mean, being able to constantly pick yourself up and get on with things makes you awesome in my book) or just because this looks like it could be genuinely good TV. Thoughts?

While watching Moonlighting, did you find yourself pulling for Maddie and David to end up together? Did you tune in to The X-Files every week as much for Mulder and Scully’s chemistry as for the cases? Do you think New Girl’s Nick and Jess should admit they have a thing for each other already? Are you hoping Will and Alicia give it another go in The Good Wife? If you answered “yes” to one or more of these questions, you might be “shipping” TV couples. And if you find yourself rooting for, or shipping, a fictional couple, you are what’s known as a “shipper.”

Thanks to the success of Twilight-fan fiction-turned-erotic-novel Fifty Shades of Grey and the well-known wars among The Hunger Games (Team Peeta vs. Team Gale) and Twilight (Team Edward vs. Team Jacob) and The Vampire Diaries (Team Damon vs. Team Stefan) fans, shipping and shippers have been getting more exposure in the mainstream media than usual. Since this coverage, from what I can tell, has not been very flattering, I’d guess those not already familiar with the idea and terminology have not been in any rush to run out and learn more.

[You say “hopeless romantic,” I say “shipper”...]

Previously on The Vampire Diaries

 Mama Original tied all of her evil vampire spawn together so that killing one would kill them all, Damon and Elena were still in a snit over something or another (Damon’s bad behavior, I’m guessing?), Alaric discovered he had a council member-murdering alter ego, Damon done did Rebekah wrong, Stefan continued to try to claw his way back to being The Good One, Sage revealed Original Finn is her reason for living (or, er, not living?) literally and figuratively, Bonnie’s mom left AGAIN after being turned by Damon, and the gang discovered that the wood used for the Wickory Bridge sign could kill the Originals for once and for all (*fingers crossed*).

(Need to catch up? Visit our TVD recap index for links to past episode recaps.)

[Could it be? Are the Originals as good as gone?...]

The cover for Gwenda Bond’s upcoming paranormal YA novel, Blackwood has been revealed by the blog Bookshelves of Doom.

Blackwood—set on Roanoke Island, the site of the Lost Colony, where more than 100 colonists disappeared in the late 16th century—will be available on September 4, 2012, and is the debut novel for Bond, who has blogged for H&H on YA.

Here’s the official description:

On Roanoke Island, the legend of the 114 people who mysteriously vanished from the Lost Colony hundreds of years ago is just an outdoor drama for the tourists, a story people tell. But when the island faces the sudden disappearance of 114 people now, an unlikely pair of 17-year-olds may be the only hope of bringing them back.

Miranda, a misfit girl from the island’s most infamous family, and Phillips, an exiled teen criminal who hears the voices of the dead, must dodge everyone from federal agents to long-dead alchemists as they work to uncover the secrets of the new Lost Colony. The one thing they can’t dodge is each other.

Looks wicked cool, right? I love the cover art, and the paranormal twist on the Lost Colony legend. What do you think?

Hooray, hooray, The Hunger Games movie is finally here! Fellow staffer Christopher Morgan and I saw it this morning, and I have to say, we were pretty impressed. In fact, I think we both came out of the theater way more excited about it than we had been going in.

That said, if you’re like us, you’re already wondering: What’s next?! After all, it will be months before we get another Katniss & co. fix with the next movie, Catching Fire, which is set to hit theaters on November 22, 2013.

Well, here are a few Hunger Games-esque books we’ve either already read and loved or are looking forward to getting our hot little hands on soon:

• The Hunt (out May 8, 2012) by Andrew Fukuda (Read the first 80 pages on Facebook — you just have to like the page!)
• Divergent (out now) and Insurgent (out May 1) by Veronica Roth (Read an excerpt from Chapter 2!)
• Enclave by Ann Aguirre
• Legend by Marie Lu
• Delirium by Lauren Oliver
• All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin
• Blood Red Road by Moira Young

And if nothing will do but more of The Hunger Games (believe me, I know the feeling), there’s always The Hunger Games Companion by Lois H. Gresh, The Girl Who Was on Fire edited by Leah Wilson, The Hunger Games Tribute Guide by Emily Seife, The World of the Hunger Games by Kate Egan, and more.

How about you? Do these recs hit the spot? Can you think of any other books a fellow fan might enjoy? My list is all YA—are there Hunger Games-like romance novels we should be reading too?

Stop now if you haven’t read all three books in The Hunger Games series. No, seriously. Go no further!

***

Look, I’m not here to convince you that Gale should have gotten the girl in Mockingjay, or that Peeta shouldn’t have. Honestly, I am sure Katniss was as happy as it was possible for her to be with Peeta. I think we can all agree she deserved some peace, and it sounds like she got it. I’m baffled, however, by the fact that so many people consider Peeta to be their ideal hero while the word “sociopath” is bandied around with regard to Gale. I mean, what the what?

Despite the headline of this post—which, not gonna lie, is mostly for Chris’s benefit, and because I liked the alliteration—I actually don’t have much to say about Peeta. He’s a nice enough guy, and he obviously has a useful way with words. He’s just not my ideal romance hero, in large part because he’s just so b...zzzz. Sorry. Fell asleep for a minute there. He’s so BORING.

[Peeta: As dull as the dirt with which he likes to paint himself...]

When I first read The Hunger Games a few years back on a recommendation from a friend (thanks, Tara!), I was all about the triangle: Who was Katniss going to pick, Peeta or Gale?

(Warning: Beware of possible SPOILERS for all 3 books in the series.)

I was Team Gale then, naturally, as I’ve always been a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope, and Katniss made it clear pretty early on in The Hunger Games (on page 6, in fact) that there was potential for this, at least: “In the woods waits the only person with whom I can be myself. Gale.” There were other great moments, too, like in Catching Fire, when Katniss thought to herself: “Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable.” *happy sigh*

[Honestly, Liam Hemsworth’s hotness is just the cherry on top...]

Previously on The Vampire Diaries: 

Alaric was shot by his apparently psycho new girlfriend Dr. Meredith Fell, Damon and Stefan killed and turned Bonnie’s mother to protect Elena, Bonnie needed some space from Elena while caring for her in-vampire-transition deadbeat-but-possibly-redeemed (?) mother and getting over the fact that her family’s had to sacrifice everything AGAIN for Elena, the Originals continued to bore me (though luckily most have left town for a time, at least), Matt and Elena continued to bond, Damon and Elena put the hate back in their love-hate relationship (is this because he turned Bonnie’s mom, slept with Rebekah, both, or something else? can’t remember), and Tyler was still AWOL.

(Need to catch up? Visit our TVD recap index for links to past episode recaps.)

This week in “1912”:

A++

—The Salvatore brothers in period clothing! YUM. This was undoubtedly my favorite thing about the episode. Damon, especially, rocked the look, IMO. Thanks, Ian Somerhalder!

[You handsome devil, you...]

On Facebook, Avon Romance is currently taking a poll on the cover for Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s July 10 release, The Great Escape. After you like the page, you can take a first look at the cover and cast your own vote: Pink or gold foil? (I’m partial to the pink myself—you?)

Plus, you can read the first chapter of The Great Escape at Phillips’s site. About the book, she says: 

[I]t’s Lucy Jorik’s story. You remember Lucy, right? The bride who runs away from Ted Beaudine in the second chapter of Call Me Irresistible? How could I resist telling her story?

Maybe it’s the accents or the actors or both, but I was ridiculously charmed by this trailer for the romantic comedy The Decoy Bride, starring David Tennant (Dr. Who fans, what do you think?) and Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire), which opens in the U.S. tomorrow, March 9.

The upcoming film Brave, which looks to be about a young Scottish woman named Merida who defies customs and breaks curses and generally kicks ass, is the first Pixar movie to feature a female protagonist. I hadn’t even realized that until a friend brought it to my attention. Crazy, right? What took so long?! Not sure. But I’ve seen the trailer a couple times now, and I can’t wait to see it in June. How about you?

Here’s hoping Brave is merely the first of many, many movies with awesome ladies in the lead; the recent news that Veronica Mars a.k.a. Kristen Bell has been cast in Disney’s Frozen seems like a good sign...

Hooked on ABC’s Revenge? Well, so are we, which is why we’ve taken to reccapping the soapy new drama, starting with episode 14, “Perception,” and episode 15, “Chaos.”

And now, on to last night’s “Scandal”...

****SPOILERS****

The Good

—As always, Nolan tops my list of Revenge positives. He’s easily the smartest guy on the show (not that that’s saying much; see the Beautiful but TSTL section below for more on that!) and gets the best one-liners (like last night’s gem: “You ever notice how whenever you want girlfriend to leave she keeps popping up like the homicidal stripper version of whack-a-mole but whenever you need to find her she vanishes?”). He’s the best, pretty much.

[Nolan FTW!...]

Harlequin unveiled the cover for contemporary romance author Lori Foster’s upcoming novel Run the Risk on Facebook today, providing us all with a much-needed beefcake fix. Yum!

According to the post, Run the Risk is the first book in a new series and will be published in October 2012. There’s also a brief description over there, so be sure to check it out!

What do you think? Looking forward to this new (gorgeous!) hero?