If you watched the ER finale, you probably saw the previews that they were running for Southland like a million times. If that whetted your appetite, wait no longer. You can watch the full premiere, thanks to Hulu, below. No waiting until next Thursday. I already watched it and it brought to mind visions of The Shield and Homicide and some other favorites. It's dark and gritty and a bit depressing, and the cast is great. I'm sure this show won't last long, so you might as well catch it while you can.

Leave it to ER to surprise me in the end. I had my box of tissues handy, expecting a tearjerker of an episode as everyone said goodbye and surely someone died or the ER had to close for lack of funding. Instead, this show went out exactly as it came in, with a finale that mirrored the pilot in many ways and was more befitting of the series than the sobfest I was prepared for. Since the show went through so very many cast changes and highs and lows, it was appropriate to have the closing scene filled with the majority of the current staff in the ambulance bay, awaiting an onslaught of patients, and to have one aspiring med student staring in awe and confusion. It really just ended on the note of, "no matter what happens, no matter who lives, dies or quits, this ER will continue to do what it does, which is to save lives." To have that hopeful med student be Mark Greene's now-grown-up daughter Rachel, and to have Dr. Carter, who stood in those exact shoes 15 years prior, be the one to ask her if she was coming in (mimicking Dr. Greene's words to him from all those years ago) was just icing on the cake. And having new intern Julia (Alexis Bledel) stuck in many of the same situations that Carter faced on his first day made so much sense. Everything came truly full circle. And that's the sort of ending I wanted.

Bones has long been the one crime-fighting procedural show that I watch on a regular basis. There are others that I find enjoyable (I'm loving Lie to Me right now, and Castle is growing on me) but Bones has always been the one that I watch the night it airs and really look forward to. Lately though, its been really off, and I'm getting sort of discouraged. Its spot on an already overcrowded Thursday night -- as well as the other recent scheduling issues -- isn't helping matters at all. It's fast going from a favorite to frustrating in my book. I hope that things get turned around, and soon. Here are my biggest issues with the show.

Ahhh, April -- it comes in like a prank-loving lion and goes out... I don't know, a little warmer maybe, and without the pranks. And it rains a lot. Anyway, celebrate the first full month of spring by going outside to roll around in a field full of crocuses and dandelions! And if you have debilitating allergies or, like us at TWoP, work nowhere near such a field, celebrate by reading these TV newsbites! And give your brain a break from thinking about the ER finale tonight.

It's a great news day! Pushing Daisies's last episodes finally got an air date, Chuck got a third season pickup and I'm going on The Amazing Race. April Fool's! I know, it isn't nice to toy with people's emotions like that. I feel a little guilty, but that last one is sort of true... just as soon as I can scrape up the cash! Some smart person finally found a way to offer TAR travel excursions to regular people, where you bebop all over Europe and do crazy stunts... for a fee, and sadly without Phil and his eyebrows. Still -- cool, right? Now if we can just work on the networks about making those other two things happen, it really would be a banner day. In other news...

Frankly, the whole variety show thing isn't a format that ever really appealed to me personally, even when it was popular. (Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters being the sole exception, because I was young and loved their big hair and outfits.) And after that whole recent Rosie Live debacle, my expectations for this one involving the Osbournes (who haven't really been interesting since 2002, approximately) were abysmally low. Who wants to watch a variety show hosted by a man who is notoriously incomprehensible? And judging by the commercials, it seemed to involve pranks, which I typically hate even more than variety shows (Howie Do It being the latest excruciating example). So imagine my surprise when I watched Osbournes: Reloaded and actually didn't hate it. Shocking. I know people were protesting having this un-family-friendly programming on after the wholesome Idol, and I have a higher tolerance for their antics than most, but still, it could have been so much worse. I'm not saying that we necessarily need more installments any time soon, but for what it was, it was just more of the foul-mouthed craziness that made their original reality show watchable in the first place. Here's my reasons for not hating it.

Ten shallow girls were picked to live in a house to have their lives taped to see if they could become better people... for cash. Does that sound familiar? Like that True Beauty show that aired a few months ago? It's exactly like that, except it's only women in the house, its on Oxygen instead of ABC, they've swapped Vanessa Minnillo for Top Model alum CariDee English, and the cash prize is half the size. Basically, these girls think they're going to be on a beauty competition, but then find out it's judging their inner beauty, and they have to live in a house with (gasp!) no mirrors. The horror.