Not since the days of watching clips of Endurance and Takeshi's Castle have we seen a really bonkers TV show from the Far East. Why this is, I don't know. I thought Five would have been on this from their birth. So it's surprising to see that stuffy ol' Auntie BBC is considering making a weird and wonderful Japanese show dubbed, 'human Tetris'. The show, called Hole In The Wall, was first made for Japanese TV and has been a big hit on the web. BBC One has ordered a pilot of the show from distributor Fremantle and may take it on for Saturday primetime, according to Broadcast. If you wanna know what it's like, watch the video below (more videos over the jump).

With two of my "narrow miss for the top 6" selections leaving the show in consecutive weeks - in the BOTTOM 6 - my overall predictions have now had a significant hole blown in them. Amanda Overmyer also left last week (no!! no!!), and although I had predicted she wouldn't make the top 6 and she had been looking pretty samey for a while, I was sad to see her go. Chikezie was the latest to bite the microphone this week after a fairly lacklustre performance. But never mind all that - the stunning, storming, stand-out performance of the competition so far has to be David Cook's rendition of Chris Cornell's version of the Michael Jackson classic Billie Jean. Click through to see what I mean.

Check out this new "dark comedy/drama" from the AMC TV network (original home of Mad Men) and co-producer of the X-Files Vince Gilligan. It's about a high-school chemistry teacher who, discovering he has terminal cancer, tries to ensure the future financial security of his family by setting himself up as a manufacturer of crystal meth. In a Winnebago. Starring Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle) as Walter White - the Albuquerque professor whose deep and abiding love of his subject is shared by none of his students, or anyone else he knows.

There's a highly entertaining Flash site where you can unlock the first darkly comic scene of the first episode if you're smart enough to navigate through the challenges, and more details on Wikipedia, but if anyone out there is listening, please please bring this to UK TV soon! Anyone care to start a petition?

Channel 4 has confused me for some time. It's been promoting home-grown shows, usually comedy shows, in place of the imported American programmes, which, on the surface, isn't a bad thing. However, it seems like Channel 4 don't know a good thing when they've got it. Personally, I've become infuriated by the shunting around of the brilliant My Name Is Earl in favour of inferior progs like Star Stories. So with that, it's mixed feelings about their confirmation that they are to scale back its investment in acquired US series, spending £35m less on imports over five years and instead switching the money into homegrown content.

The Channel 4 chief executive, Andy Duncan said the intention was to "reduce both the volume and the amount" it spent on imported series. Could this mean the end for The Simpsons, ...Earl, Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives? The first signal of Channel 4's intent was when they dropped out of the running to retain Lost, which was instead snapped up by Sky One at a reported cost of £1m per episode.

We've raved and raved about the brilliant Dexter on TVScoop, and soon, we can all watch it for repeat viewings in marathon sessions over the weekends, just like we did with the first series of 24 and various series of The Sopranos. How? Read the headline.

For those who still aren't sure what the show is about, lemme fill you in. Dexter is based on the story of Dexter Morgan who was orphaned at the age of four and harbouring a traumatic secret, Dexter (played by Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor Michael C. Hall of "Six Feet Under" fame) is adopted by a police officer who recognises Dexter's homicidal tendencies and guides his son to channel his gruesome passion for human vivisection in a constructive way - working for the Miami Police Department as a 'blood spatter analyst', visiting crime scenes and helping to solve murders.

Remakes. Are they a good idea or not? Is it even possible to generalise? If a show was really popular 20 years ago, then don't you risk alienating the original fans who're never going to think it's as good as it used to be? And even if your new version is as good, or better, isn't there inevitably a "so what" factor? What about the new audience - are they up for a rehash of something their parents watched, or would they rather have something of their own to grow nostalgic about over the years? Something more original?

Let's face it, it's the originality thing that gets in the way. Remaking a hit show smacks of desperation, dearth of new ideas, and cowardice. Sticking with something tried and trusted rather than making something new and fresh. Which would you rather have: Bionic Woman (2008 version) or Heroes?

It's a big night for itv2 tonight - not only does the US import Bionic Woman begin (I still can't believe Zoe Slater stars in it...!) but there are not one, not two but three brand new British comedies getting under way too. I can't guarantee that every one will be a classic obviously, but worth a watch, I'd imagine.

After Bionic Woman, there's a new show from Leigh Francis - yup, the Bo Selector guy - in which he stars as Keith Lemon, the northern businessman whom you might have seen in Francis' other programmes, who goes off around the world. And that's about all I can work out... At 10.30pm, there's a new sketch show, called Laura, Ben and Him, which stars Perrier Award winner Laura Solon, Ben Willbond, and Marek Larwood, a member of the sketch troupe We Are Klang. Knowing a little about their individual work, I think we can expect this to be rather surreal and very silly. Finally there's a new series of Comedy Cuts, in which comedians deliver monologues to the camera in different situations. I talked to one of the stars, Tom Basden, last week, and you can read that interview here.

The much-heralded and long-awaited new series remake of the Bionic Woman starring our very own Michelle Ryan starts tomorrow. As one commenter has already declared, it's worth watching just for her alone, but I'm sure there'll be some good storylines too.

The "we can rebuild her" scenes have been heavily trailed on ITV2 over the past few weeks, but there's bound to be a few surprises still left in store...isn't there? One thing always puzzled me about the Bionic Woman though. OK she can run fine with her two bionic legs, but with only one bionic arm how come it was never torn off at the shoulder? Maybe we'll find out tomorrow.

So the final four also-rans (which American Idol likes to call the "best of the rest") have been culled and we're left with the 12 best singers from the tens of thousands of auditionees, at least, if you believe the publicity machine.

Much has been made of how this year's contest is stronger than ever before. Simon Cowell calls it more "open," meaning he can't easily predict the result, and has gone on record saying there are four really strong boys and four strong girls from which elite group anyone could win. Take a look over the cut for a list of the 12 in pictures, and my reprise of their Idol career so far. And, since I don't have anything like as much credibility to lose as Mr Cowell, you might even find some early predictions in there too.

Good news! I finally got to grips with the schedule and didn't miss ANY of the Idol coverage this week. So when I sat down in front of the telly last night with my sweet chilli chicken pizza and played back Thursday's show (we like to make it "Idol night" on Fridays round here), the first voice I heard was Luke Menard. The guy who, last week, was in the bottom three but didn't leave.

Guess what? He sounded just like you would expect someone to sound if they'd been in the bottom three and two other singers were gone. As in, bottom. So did he leave? And who else was pared from the 16 to give us the American Idol final 12 for 2008? Jump over the cut for my take on this week's proceedings.

I'm still slightly stunned at the fact that, after watching Rock Rivals, there's a programme on ITV really worth shouting about. Last night, I watched Dexter (ITV1, Wednesday, 10.35pm) and it was brilliant. There's no punchline coming. No snide remarks. Dexter, quite simply, is one of the best things on the box. Period.

The show focuses on a forensics type, who specialises in blood patterns... and he just happens to be a serial killer himself. There's loving your work and there's Dexter. The shows stars Michael C. Hall in the main role, you may know him from Six Feet Under, who is a magnetic screen presence. His delivery is superbly detached and mischievous and makes for incredibly addictive telly.

You think I'd be used to it by now but the Thursday night scheduling caught me out AGAIN this week, starting as it did about 20 minutes earlier than last week and causing me to miss the first two acts. Ironically when I fired up the PVR (sorry, slight Gene Hunt influence creeping in there) the first guy I saw was Luke Menard and he really wasn't very good this week. Sure enough, at the end of the evening, he was in the bottom three, stood up next to Ryan and awaiting his fate. He wasn't the one leaving though.

Yes, tonight was the night that 20 became 16, which admittedly isn't as snappy a song title as two becoming one, but at least it took us one step closer to the top 12 for 2008.

One of the best parts of recording stuff to watch later, as we all know, is being able to fast-forward through the ads. Only these days it's not just the ads you want to skip, it's those interminable trailers. Watching American Idol on Friday night proved again how insistent ITV2 are (it's not just them, but they're worse than most) that you sit up and take notice of their upcoming shows. Every single commercial break featured either Supernatural, or Bionic Woman. You know what? Yes, you. ITV2 people. I'm talking to you. The trailers are cool. The first time. But I *really* don't want to sit through the same damn thing every twenty minutes for three hours. Enough already.

Still, I have to admit it looks good. The idea was always a winner and with Michelle Ryan taking on the mantle of Jaime Sommers and bang up to date special effects, what's not to be good? Don't get too hooked on it though. As with many American shows, once ratings started to dip (as they did throughout the first series) the rumours began to spread that the plug would be pulled by NBC, and when the show was notable by its absence from NBC's list of the shows that were back in action after the recent writers' strike in the US, Variety reported last week that it had been "essentially cancelled."

With the finals only three weeks away, the public are now drafted in to whittle down the American Idol Season 7 contestants from 24 to 12, losing 2 boys and 2 girls from the line-up in each of the next three weeks. This has clearly given ITV2 a challenge with the scheduling this year. A 2-hour boys' show and a 2-hour girls' show, which in the US are screened on consecutive nights, are followed by an hour of results, and this plethora of programming has been dancing around the ITV2 schedules a bit. This week the boys were split into two hour-long segments on Thursday night and the remaining shows screened back-to-back in a marathon of American Idol running from 9pm to midnight. They manage to squeeze in a whole host of repeats too!

The judges are unanimous in declaring this season is one of the strongest ever for talent. More finalists than ever before have reappeared from previous years' contests having gone away, worked on their singing and come back better and brighter. And those for whom this year is their first Idol experience also seem more confident, assured and professional. That said, as with any group of 24 performers there will be a spectrum of ability. So did the American public get it right with their first attempt at voting this year, or were there upsets?

It's two years after Miles Dyson was killed and the Terminator artefacts destroyed in the events portrayed in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and things have been quiet for the Connors - now living under the pseudonym Reese. But Sarah is getting twitchy. Charley, her partner of six months has bought her a ring and the threat of being "settled" - with all that that means for John's protection - makes her realise they have to leave. They pack, and Charley is left looking at his ring, back in its box.

Arriving at his new school, John meets Cameron, who befriends him even though he is a nerd. Their friendship is shortlived when relief teacher Cromartie proves to be a Terminator. He shoots through Cameron to get to John, who escapes by diving out the classroom window. As the chase spills out into the school grounds and Cromartie takes aim point-blank at John's head, a truck speeds past knocking him to the ground. It's Cameron, miraculously back from the dead and come to save John. "Come with me if you want to live," she barks, and John immediately knows he's on familiar territory.

We seem to have been waiting for this one forever (indeed Paul first told us about it back in May last year), but at last on Thursday the wait is over. Virgin 1 have been doing a great job of bringing us some of the less-high-profile US sci-fi shows (even if Blade was a bit hit-and-miss), but here's one which looks as though it could really hit the mark.

Sarah Connor was always my favourite character from the Terminator movies. Gutsy, sexy, at her best when forced into a corner by the deadly machines, she always managed to bring her resourcefulness to bear to protect herself and her son John. This series appears to be set shortly after the events of the second movie and earlier than the third, which won't come as a surprise to Terminator fans. If Skynet had already gone sentient there wouldn't be much good Sarah Connor could do (and she was dead by then anyway) and in his early teens as he was in Judgment Day, John wouldn't have been much help to her. Besides, he never really believed his Mom until he saw the Terminators for the first time. This period in their lives is ripe for some heavy action and that action gets underway right from the opening scenes...

There's no doubting that Channel 4 makes some very odd scheduling decisions. They buy up the quality imports that the US is churning out at the moment, and then seem to have no real system for whether they stick them on a Friday in the sitcom slot (Ugly Betty?!), mid-week on E4 (Reaper) or, well, anywhere they can be bothered to stick it (My Name Is Earl). So while it should be surprising that this new American sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, is being shown on Channel 4 on a Thursday rather than a Friday, in reality it's not surprising at all.

The Big Bang Theory isn't one of the sitcoms that we've heard particularly great things about over here, unlike, say 30 Rock, but Channel 4 are obviously expecting big things. It follows a couple of highly qualified, but socially backwards scientists in their twenties, as they try and reconcile their massive intellect with their inability to talk to a girl. The odd couple is a comedy cornerstone, and, when the rapport's there, very rarely fails. Occasionally, it can create something really special. As long as the guys aren't just portrayed as bog-standard, stereotypical science nerds, then this has potential.

So the Idol auditions came to a close this week in Atlanta, and it was worth watching the final show just to see this girl: Amanda. Authentic biker rock chick and the closest thing we've seen so far to a dead cert to go through Hollywood and into the final stages. All the usual comments about "knowing who you are" and "being honest and authentic" applied to this girl in spades. The Ace of Spades probably.

Apart from her, and the young guy who had come back from a previous year having done his homework and vastly improved his performance, the action from this particular audition show played out pretty much as we've come to expect. I don't know whether Idol is losing popularity among contestants (the viewing figures seem to be holding up) but this year saw "only" 100,000 contestants, and from these only 164 have made it through to Hollywood. Tune in next week (still on Thursday and Friday!) to find out how they get on.