Heartland

• NBC is streaming full episodes of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," Broadcasting & Cable reports — but, on the down side, the New York Times reports that NBC won't renew its contract to sell shows through iTunes. (Apple says NBC wanted to charge $4.99 per episode)
• According to Variety, Sony is releasing a Bob Dylan concert DVD filled with footage from his Newport Folk Festival performances later this year.
• Drew Lachey has signed on to host "Dance War," ABC's midseason "Dancing with the Stars" spinoff, the Futon Critic reports.
• ComingSoon says that Jim Belushi will take a stab at directing his first film, a sports movie titled The Catch.
• The LA Times has the latest "Kid Nation" scandal: The children were sometimes told what to say.
• It's official: Victoria Beckham will play one of Wilhelmina's bridesmaids on "Ugly Betty," Zap2it reports.
• TNT has canceled "Heartland" but is looking into a pilot about a band of high-tech thieves, Variety reports.

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Much of this season's best TV is on cable, and tonight TNT premieres its first round of summer shows: the third season of "The Closer" and the first of "Heartland."

I rarely go out of my way to watch "The Closer," but when I do catch it, I'm never disappointed. As cop dramas go, it's pretty by-the-books, with decent (if not groundbreaking) cases for Deputy Chief Brenda Johnson (Kyra Sedgwick) and her team to solve. But the plot matters less than Sedgwick's strong performance: Her engaging presence invites us to try to make sense of Brenda, a tough yet lovable bundle of neuroses. I love how she takes no sass from nobody, but still maintains her Southern sweetness in a job that can break the best of 'em. Even though I'm just an occasional viewer of the show, I can understand why Sedgwick took home the Golden Globe for best dramatic actress this year.

Unfortunately, judging by its first episode, "Heartland" isn't yet a worthy companion to "The Closer." Treat Williams stars as Nathaniel Grant, a talented transplant surgeon whose philandering and single-minded dedication to his work have screwed up his relationship with Kate (Kari Matchett), who works as a counselor for the families of organ donors. The medical parts of "Heartland" are perfectly adequate, but when the show focuses on the characters' personal lives, it can be downright dreadful. Something about the pacing in the first episode seemed off, too, as if the show were simultaneously trying to do too much and not advancing the plot carefully enough. Still, it wasn't unwatchable, and true medical show junkies might want to give it a shot.

To watch previews for both shows, read more

TBS and TNT are getting into the online-TV act with their summer series. Much like ABC and NBC, the networks will be making each new episode of several original series available online at 3 a.m. the day after they air. The networks are the first major cable networks to commit to streaming a whole season of shows, though some smaller networks have tried it and other large ones have made individual episodes available online.

Episodes of original series "The Closer," "Heartland," "Saving Grace" and miniseries "The Company" will be available on TNT's Web site, while the TBS site will have episodes of "My Boys," "Tyler Perry's House of Payne," "The Bill Engvall Show" and "The Frank Show." "The Closer," "The Bill Engvall Show," "My Boys" and "The Frank Show" will also be available on iTunes.

I think this is a great idea — as long as they make the episodes available to as many people as possible. Right now the whole first season of "My Boys" is online, but only those with Windows computers can see it.

"The Closer" photo Source