Weekend monster update: previews, cast news, and interviews with Jane Espenson, Magda Apanowicz and Kacey Rohl

Okay, let's start with what's on TV tonight.

Tonight's episode of Once Upon a Time (8 pm, ABC) was written by Jane Espenson. The synopsis and a bunch of clips are posted below.

Nerdist has finally posted the Writers Panel podcast with Jane and Douglas Petrie, recorded in late March. Details:

Jane Espenson (Once Upon a Time; Husbands; Buffy; Caprica) and Douglas Petrie (Charlie’s Angels; Buffy; Pushing Daisies) return to the studio to revisit Jane’s old blog, janeespenson.com, and discuss how, while the business may have changed since she was regularly updating it, writing has not.

You can listen to the podcast on Nerdist.com.

Once Upon a Time: The Complete First Season will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 28. You can pre-order them on Amazon: DVD, Blu-ray. Special features include audio commentaries, deleted scenes, bloopers and the featurettes "Fairy Tales in the Modern World," "Tell Me a Story," "Building Character," and "Noble Creatures."

Patton Oswalt voices the food critic on tonight's Bob's Burgers (8:30 pm, Fox).

When the restaurant receives a bad review from a food critic, the Belchers fear that the negative press will keep customers away. When Bob shows up at the critic’s house for a redo, his plan quickly spirals out of control when the kids and his fellow restaurant owners show up to support him in the all-new “Moody Foodie” episode of BOB’S BURGERS airing Sunday, May 6 (8:30-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

A new episode of The Killing airs at 9 pm on AMC.

And one for BSG fans: Tahmoh Penikett guest stars in the season finale of Castle tomorrow (10 pm, ABC). Teaser.

Friday updates: previews, new projects and interviews

The usual Friday round, with more updates coming later this weekend.

Mary McDonnell has joined both Twitter and Facebook this week. Hit the links to follow her.

If IMDB is anything to go by, Hiro Kanagawa makes an appearance in tonight's episode of Fairly Legal, "Ripple of Hope." He will also be appearing in Robert Redford's upcoming thriller The Company You Keep, as "FBI Agent Kanagawa."

Deadline reported this week that Grimm writers are already working on the show's second season, which might be premiering sooner than expected, in August. Here is the synopsis for tonight's episode:

Nick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) are called to investigate the mysterious death of a wealthy matriarch, after her stepdaughter loses everything in a Ponzi scheme. Meanwhile, Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) does some digging into the mysterious death of Nick’s parents in an effort to help him find closure. Silas Weir Mitchell, Sasha Roiz and Reggie Lee also star.

And a clip, introduced by Sasha:

Leo Award nominations

Big congrats to all the Leo nominees this year!

The nominations were announced earlier today. Sanctuary, Arctic Air, Endgame and Blackstone are up for Best Dramatic Series and all five films nominated for Best Feature Length Drama have familiar faces in them: Daydream Nation (Luke Camilleri, Calum Worthy, Genevieve Buechner), Doppelgänger Paul (Ben Cotton), Marilyn (Ryan Robbins), Sisters & Brothers (Kacey Rohl, Michael Eklund, Ben Cotton), and The Odds (Calum Worthy).

Sisters & Brothers nabbed 12 nominations, Hamlet (with Peter Wingfield) and Marilyn have eight each, Sunflower Hour (with Kacey Rohl and Ben Cotton) has seven, Donovan's Echo (with Hiro Kanagawa) has six, Daydream Nation and Doppelgänger Paul five each, The Odds has four, and Everything and Everyone (with Ryan Robbins) and Hannah's Law (with Ryan Kennedy and John Pyper-Ferguson, to be aired in June) scored two each.

On the TV side, Sanctuary is way ahead of the pack with 18 nominations, followed by Arctic Air with nine and Blackstone with six.

Blood & Chrome and general updates

Eventful week. To play catch-up:

The big news that every site reported in a slightly different way is that Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome will be a digital series and a TV film, but not a TV show, at least not one produced by Syfy/Universal Cable Prods. You have probably read the Deadline article by now.

With the possibility that Universal may still shop B&C around, it doesn't sound like they have any immediate plans to make more of it beyond the existing pilot/web series/MOW.

No word yet on a release date, but Battlestar Wiki reports that we'll be seeing Blood & Chrome as a web series first and then as a TV movie.

Doug Drexler posted this the other day (full post at the link):

If sets had been built for this show, it would have cost 6 million easily, instead of only the 2 million it did cost, and I guarantee you it never would have had the scope that B&C has. CG got us a new exciting Galactica episode that looks amazing. I know that 54 out of 55 of you will be thrilled.

Weekly roundup: cast updates, interviews, previews and new projects

A bunch of stuff has happened since the last update. Let's start with Caprica.

Caprica season two will resume on Beginning of Line with episode 14 (of 18) this Tuesday. Teresa Jusino posted this earlier:

There are 18 episodes total in Caprica Season 2 here at Beginning of Line. Episodes will now be posting every Tuesday between November 29th and December 27th. Just in time for your Solstice celebrations. :)

Anyone interested in writing an episode of season three (coming in 2012) or submitting fan art, hit the link.

Luciana Carro (Caprica's Priyah Magnus, Battlestar's Kat) has joined Twitter. You can follow her here: @LucianaCarro. These days, she is working on season two of Falling Skies, along with Ryan Robbins and a bunch of Caprica and BSG writers -- Remi Aubuchon, Mark Verheiden, David Weddle and Bradley Thompson. From their recent tweets, Luciana is playing a character called Crazy Lee and they recently wrapped filming episode four. Season two will most likely start airing in June.

On TV tonight:

Grimm premiere tonight (9/8c, NBC), new interviews with Sasha Roiz & Friday roundup

Grimm finally premieres tonight at 9 pm on NBC and a bunch of new articles and interviews have showed up since yesterday.

Teresa Jusino has an excellent new interview with Sasha Roiz at Tor.com, mostly about Grimm, but some of this other recent projects get mentioned too, including Caprica.

Knowing that Roiz has expressed a preference for fantasy over sci-fi, I asked him whether this being an urban fantasy (created by Angel exec producers, David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf no less!) had something to do with his accepting the role.

“Personally, as an actor, it matters very little me what genre (if any) I’m engaged in.” he says. “It’s all make-believe and requires the same process and imagination. I respond to good writing and good people. I’ve been very fortunate over the years to get both. I think the term ‘genre’ has become very gray in recent years, and we continue to see a crossover as more and more viewers are tuning into to shows that stimulate and indulge their imagination. With Grimm, it’s a lot of fun for me to be able to play within the familiar world of fairy tales. As for satisfying my inner fantasy geek, anything that would have me wielding a sword or shooting a bow would be a dream.”

Polly Walker on Psych, Mike Dopud in Blue Mountain State, interviews with Scott Porter, Philip Granger and Kacey Rohl

It's the Willow clan update today, for the most part. More updates coming tomorrow.

Polly Walker guest stars in the Psych season opener, "Shawn Rescues Darth Vader," tonight at 10 pm on USA. Synopsis:

While on a mission to retrieve a stolen Darth Vader collector’s item from the British Ambassador’s son at the British Consulate Residence in Santa Barbara, Shawn finds a dead body left in one of the rooms. In order to get SBPD on the case to find her killer, Shawn tells Lassiter and Juliet that the image of a dead body at the British Consulate Residence came to him in a psychic vision. However, Shawn’s credibility as a “psychic” could be placed in jeopardy if SBPD finds out he actually witnessed the dead body in person and didn’t “divine” the image of her murder.

And at 11 pm, you can catch Mike Dopud in Blue Mountain State 3x05, "Training Day," on Spike. He tweeted yesterday that he makes an appearance in tonight's episode. Synopsis:

Thad offers to instruct Alex on how to be a local celebrity; Mary Jo tries to impress the coach’s wife.