Featuring a terrific ensemble cast led by Lee Tergesen, Melanye Linsky and Gillian Jacobs Helena From the Wedding is a straightforward and simple story well told about a group of friends gathered at a house in the mountains for New Years Eve. Naturally, none of the relationships among these people are exactly what they seem on the surface and as the film progresses you learn more about their darker, hidden sides and their flaws and insecurities.

When you have a great cast and give them interesting things to do you end with a good film that doesn’t rely on any sort of effects, CGI, explosions or any of the crutches many of the big time directors making big budget movies rely on these days. It’s the mark of a skilled filmmmaker who can take a simple film where people interact and talk about things and still manage to make it interesting.

Of course, it helps to have a very gifted actor at the center of the film. Lee Tergesen is one of those actors you’ve undoubtedly seen in something but you may not be able to place him. He inhabits a role so well that you almost don’t recognize him from project to project. That’s one of his major strengths.

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News came in last week that NBC’s latest addition to their Thursday night line-up, Community, will be returning for a second season, and we couldn’t be happier. We are all in agreement that Dan Harmon’s sitcom about a group of community college students and their weekly antics is one of the funniest shows on TV, and we’re happy to see it return.

With that said, this week’s episode, entitled “Basic Geneology”, looks to be yet another funny one, as former American Idol star Katharine McPhee stops by. From NBC:

It’s Family Day at Greendale Community College and the gang’s families come to campus to join in the fun. Meanwhile, Jeff (Joel McHale) agrees to help Pierce (Chevy Chase) connect with his stepdaughter Amber (guest star Katharine McPhee). Things take an interesting twist when Amber shows an interest in Jeff.

We’ve got two new hilarious clips from the episode, which you can check out after the jump. Be sure to catch the “Basic Geneology” episode of Community on NBC this Thursday at 8/7C.

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As we previously reported, NBC has given new season order for 30 Rock, The Office and Community while, according to a recent interview with NBC network president Angela Bromstad, a fifth season of the beleaguered Heroes is still undetermined. In addition, the CW has ordered a 10th season for Smallville.

Now, Fox has officially renewed the J.J. Abrams sci-fi procedural Fringe for a third season. The show had perfoemed reasonably well but was not a ratings powerhouse. Still, it’s hard to believe it wouldn’t get renewed, especially given its J.J. Abrams connection and the fact that Lost is ending this season.

Two big reasons for Fox to keep it around for another year. Plus, any show with the great John Noble, the hot Anna Torv and the cool Leonard Nimoy should be on the air as long as it wants to be.

The fate of Jack Bauer and the CTU team of 24 is still up in the air due to falling ratings and the show’s considerable expense to produce. Fox president Kevin Reilly recently told The Live Feed:

“It’s a very tough call. It’s a huge part of our legacy, and there’s not a lot of shows that could do a 9 share against the Olympics. Tremendous sales asset for us still; a show we’re so very proud of creatively. So it’s not an easy call.”

Well, if our own Shannon Hood has anything to say about it, that call should be an easy one.

For those of you who were anxiously awaiting news that your favorite Thursday night comedies were getting another season, the wait is over. Today, NBC announced it was giving another season to 30 Rock, The Office and one of our favorite new shows, the extremely funny Community.

This news comes on the heals of NBC’s recent announcement that Parks and Recreation was renewed for another season. Seeing as how we are huge fans of these shows, this news is great and we’re looking forward to more fun and laughs.

For more info, check out the official NBC press release following:

NBC Gives Pickups To Thursday-Night Comedies ‘30 Rock,’ ‘The Office’ And ‘Community’ For 2010-11

Renewals Follow Previously Announced Green-light for “Parks and Recreation” on Thursdays

NBC has renewed three more of its Thursday-night comedies – “30 Rock” (9:30-10 p.m. ET), “The Office” (9-9:30 p.m. ET) and the freshman series “Community” (8-8:30 p.m. ET) for the 2010-11 season. The returning programs join the previously announced “Parks and Recreation” (Thursdays, 8:30-9 p.m. ET) that also will return for next season.

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Once again with last night’s lineup of comedies, NBC proved they are a force to be reckoned with on Thursday nights. And if you missed any of the shows, which include Community, Rock and Parks and Recreation, you’re in luck because we’ve got highlights of all of the shows to share with you right here. Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about The Office as we already had a full recap of that show earlier today.

On Community, Jeff and Slater hit a rough patch but Britta saves the relationship by playing some touching moments from a drunken voicemail that Jeff left her. See how Valentine’s Day ended for Jeff and the rest of the gang in last night’s episode highlights. On 30 Rock, Jenna finds out her stalker has been seeing someone else and Liz deals with Valentine’s day by scheduling oral surgery. Of course, that doesn’t go exactly as planned. Plus, the awesome Elizabeth Banks shows up to give Jack (Alec Baldwin) a run for his money.

Finally, on Parks and Recreation, Andy dreams of being a rockstar were slightly derailed last night as his band was relegated to playing at the senior center. He wants to know how his band sounds, but how does he find out?

Check out all the highlights and some deleted scenes, after, you guessed it, the jump.

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Love is in the air for the gang at Greendale Community College this week as Community airs it’s very first Valentine’s Day episode. They’ve done a Christmas episode and a Halloween episode, so why not celebrate the Day of Love?

Things get a bit awkward for Jeff and Britta while Señor Chang finally gets his comeuppance. From NBC:

Jeff (Joel McHale) sets out to fix his relationship with Britta (Gillian Jacobs) after things get awkward with a drunken phone call. Meanwhile, Annie (Alison Brie) and Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) make plans to humiliate Señor Chang (Ken Jeong) in order to defend Troy (Donald Glover) and Pierce’s (Chevy Chase) dignity.

We recently got a whopping six new clips to share with you, which you can check out after the jump. Be sure to catch “Communicative Studies” this Thursday at 8/7 Central on NBC.

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This week NBC’s Thursday night comedies, including Community, The Office, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation, return with all new episodes and we’ve got previews for some of these shows for you this afternoon. For Community, we’ve got the latest “Hanging With The Cast” video where you can see the cast fool around during their down time and share some basic rules of the study room.

On Parks and Rec, you’ll learn the ins and outs of meeting women from Pawnee’s own Tom Haverford and get a closer look at the legendary mustache of Ron Swans. On The Office, we are introduced to the new buyers of Dunder Mifflin, Sabre Corporation.

Finally, on 30 Rock, Jenna’s mother Verna is in town visiting for tonight’s episode which, of course, lead to all kinds of trouble. Tune in tonight for new episodes from all four starting at 8/7c on NBC.

Check out all the previews after the jump.

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In case you didn’t know, NBC is taking a little break from its regular primetime programming soon to bring you about 10000 hours of the Winter Olympics. Then, after the Olympics are over, they will bring back all the shows you missed with brand new episodes. Plus, they will be debuting a few new shows as well.

Of course, one of our favorite shows, Community, will be returning and to get to you excited, NBC is bringing American Idol alum Katherine McPhee on the show and we’ve got a preview of that to share with you today. Also, the network will debut a new show, Parenthood, from Exec. Producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and based loosely on the film of the same name, after the Olympics.

We’ve got an extended preview of that show for you today as well. In the preview, the cast, which included Peter Krause, Monica Potter, Lauren Graham, Erika Christensen, Dax Shepherd and Craig T. Nelson, discusses the show and how it will find humor in real parenting situations.

Catch Community on Thursdays at 8/7C and Parenthood premieres on Tuesday, March 2 at 10/9C on NBC.

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Yes folks, it’s that time again here at The Flickcast. Recap time. In this edition we’ve got clips and previews for some of NBC’s shows including Mercy and the soon to be on his own Conan O’Brien from The Tonight Show. First up on Mercy, Veronica’s patient last night was an interesting one and didn’t look all that bad for a man who wakes up from a ten year coma.

Next, Conan had some pretty good guests on his show last night and the love fest continued. The very funny Adam Sandler and Community’s Joel McHale stopped by. Joel even made a very generous offer – to let Conan host his show The Soup.

He wasn’t the only NBC actor to support Conan as Ed Helms of The Office also stopped in (and brought his piano) for a quick  song: a remix of his song from The Hangover with lyrics just for Conan. Oh, and apparently some sort of Masturbating Bear was also there.

Check out all the video clips after the jump.

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Much like the rest of the college youth, Community makes it’s return to school this week, starting up the Spring semester with new stories, new laughs, and even new faces. Kicking off the second half of this season, guest star Jack Black will be stopping by to play. . . Jack Black?

Well, not really. Black is playing Buddy, a fellow classmate of the Spanish study group’s. This character breaks into song at random times, skats, and jumps around impishly, which is the exact opposite of the Jack Black we’ve come to know. In the episode, Buddy tries to join in on the study group, seeing all the fun they have, buy ends up causing more harm than help.

It’s not that outrageous that Black would guest star on an NBC sitcom. Not only did he have a quirky cameo in an episode of The Office, but he’s also good friends with show creator Dan Harmon. Black and Harmon worked on previous projects such as Laser Fart and Heat Vision and Jack, the latter of which being a failed Ben Stiller pilot about a man and his talking motorcycle.

Check out the clips after the jump, and be sure to catch this week’s new Community on NBC this Thursday at 8pm Eastern.

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