Sons of Anarchy Goes for Season 5

It's all good.

Given that Sons of Anarchy is most of the way through its best-rated season yet, it’s not a huge shock that FX has picked up the show for a fifth season.

Over the summer, the show got most of its attention by accident, after creator Kurt Sutter essentially blamed Mad Men boss Matthew Weiner for wanting too much money and ruining everything good at AMC, prompting Sutter himself to temporarily abandon Twitter. (He approves of the news.) Meanwhile, Sutter’s own show premiered to its best ratings ever and has stayed high through much of the season.

Incidentally, the renewal also comes just in time for The Walking Dead to replace it as cable’s No. 1 scripted series.

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So Long, Memphis Beat

Swan song.

It probably wasn’t a great sign that Memphis Beat‘s second season ended two months ago and TNT still hadn’t renewed it, but the network made it official today and canceled the show.

The delay probably means it was a close call, and you can see why: the show’s audience fell this year, but rebounded in the second half of the season, and the finale pulled in its second-biggest crowd ever.

Memphis Beat was the last of TNT’s shows to have its fate decided by a long shot; the network has already renewed Falling Skies, Franklin & Bash, Leverage and Rizzoli & Isles.

Charlie’s Angels Canceled

They're not much else, either.

There we go. Even though Charlie’s Angels actually improved in the ratings this week, ABC has reportedly pulled the plug. Although production has been shut down, marking the network’s first cancellation of the year.

It looks like we will get to see the four remaining episodes of the series that have already been produced, so anybody who was actually invested in the story won’t need to buy the DVD to see how they don’t wrap anything up.

The cancellation also means that we’ve basically done away with nearly the year’s laziest and most ill-advised new shows. I haven’t really decided what I think about Pan Am, which looks like ABC’s next-most-troubled show, but if it survives longer than Prime Suspect then there is no justice in the world.

Revenge, Suburgatory, Happy Endings Get Extended

Making their move.

Apparently, ABC couldn’t live with the idea of having fewer pickups than the CW, so they’ve announced a few of their own. Revenge and Suburgatory are getting back-nine orders, and Happy Endings got another six.

It helped that all three scored solid ratings on Wednesday night, helping ABC top the other three networks for most of the night. Only Suburgatory slipped a little, but it still beat its lead-in, The Middle.

That gives us 22 episodes for both Suburgatory and Revenge (even better, the back nine will take place after the engagement party that started off the series), and nineteen for Happy Endings. I’m not sure why ABC has more faith in its new shows than the one it’s already renewed once, but maybe they’re still surprised that Happy Endings is already working.

And no, they still haven’t canceled Charlie’s Angels yet.

Revenge: Doctor-Patient Privilege

Happy family time.

I’m going to assume that Revenge knows that Emily is kind of going off the deep end, and count that as a point in favor of the show. We got the first sign this week that she’s beginning to hurt people who probably don’t deserve it, although most of the damage was done by mysterious non-Emily actors and the show has a few too many balls in the air to keep itself coherent.

“Duplicity” sees Emily take down Dr. Michelle Banks, the Hamptons’ resident psychiatrist, who got the job after Victoria convinced her to have little Amanda committed. In the course of ruining her reputation, Emily also manages to air the dirty laundry of a half-dozen other Hamptonites, and draws first blood on Victoria.

Score One for Big Theater

It’s been a while since we brought you an update on the movie industry’s grand plan to make you give them way more money to watch their films at home slightly earlier, but they suffered a major setback today.

Universal, which is releasing Tower Heist on November 4, was planning to offer it as a rental to Comcast customers only three weeks later, just in time for Thanksgiving, for only $60. (Yeah. Sixty.) In response, Cinemark threatened not to show the movie in its theaters — about one-tenth of all screens in the United States. Universal apparently guessed that they probably couldn’t make that up with $60 Xfinity rentals, so they blinked.

A couple thoughts here. First, charging $60 to rent a movie about a bunch of working-class people who get fleeced by a greedy businessman is kind of odd messaging. (I’m thinking maybe a movie about the NFL lockout.) Second, this is not the plan that revolutionizes the moviegoing experience.

NBC Extends Prime Suspect, CW Extends Everything

Big day.

So maybe this is what Robert Greenblatt meant about giving his shows time: NBC is ordering six extra episode scripts for Prime Suspect, following up on a similar order it made for Harry’s Law yesterday. Meanwhile, the CW picked up another nine episodes of  its three new dramas, Ringer, Hart of Dixie and The Secret Circle.

Prime Suspect seems to have inherited the magic of its creators’ previous show, Friday Night Lights, producing weak ratings and great television. But NBC is letting the show air reruns in The Playboy Club‘s old timeslot, so it looks like somebody wants the show to succeed.

Ringer, meanwhile, has okay ratings and got introduced as part of the CW’s effort to expand beyond teen soap operas. (Never mind that it’s practically become one.) The show has hinted at ramping up the intensity and finally got its ratings to stop sliding this week. Hart of Dixie and The Secret Circle were both in stronger positions than Ringer been losing viewers since they premiered, but both score better demographics than Ringer.

The CW is now close to matching NBC’s record for show pickups — since Harry’s Law and Prime Suspect just have script orders for now, NBC has technically only picked up three shows itself — and Parenthood only got two extra episodes. The CW has also (blessedly) canceled H8r already, rounding out its entire lineup of new shows.

Boardwalk Empire Gets Third Season

It's all good.

The networks can have their little ’60s revival wars; HBO is doubling down on the ’20s. Tripling down? Whatever. The point is, they’ve ordered a third season of Boardwalk Empire, which is so far only three episodes into its second.

No direct word on the show’s episode order, but HBO tends to give twelve episodes to its non-Game of Thrones dramas and both of Boardwalk‘s first two seasons fit that pattern. The show’s ratings have fluctuated a bit in the second season so far, scoring near a series low for its second episode before rebounding, but HBO doesn’t measure ratings the way everybody else does and their statement counts the show among its most popular ever.

Ringer: You Come Clean, Everyone Else Gets Dirty

It's a very happy episode.

I think my biggest problem with Ringer is that the cast aren’t good enough liars. For a show that’s built around a convoluted web of secrets, the characters spend a strange amount of time explaining things and telling each other exactly what they’re thinking.

Probably that’s because it’s the only way we can keep track of the show’s roller coaster of plot and character swings. “A Whole New Kind of Bitch” was dedicated to reversing the personalities of half the cast, while demonstrating it will stop at nothing to keep Bridget’s secret for her. Oh, and two characters appear to die offscreen, if you’re actually still inclined to trust this show.

Syfy Brings Haven Back for Third Season

All will be revealed, later.

If Syfy hadn’t ordered a third season of Haven, last month’s double cliffhanger would probably go down as one of the more annoying series finales of all time. (Though maybe the Christmas episode could wrap everything up?) Fortunately, they just did: The show will get another thirteen episodes to air in summer 2012.

While Haven‘s second season never recovered the audience who turned in for the pilot, it’s averaged more viewers than it pulled in last year. Plus the show itself is getting better. The fact that Syfy had to wait a week and a half after the finale before renewing is kind of troubling, but I guess that’s something to worry about next year.