The next property from J.J. Abrams, here producing alongside frequent co-collaborator Bryan Burk for creator Eric Kripke (Supernatural), Revolution is set 15 years on from a random event that permanently disabled all advanced technology on the planet. But an unlikely group band together with an item that might just be the key to not only finding out what happened all those years ago, but might be the key to reversing the effects. Jon Favreau directs the pilot, I just hope they don’t pull a Terra Nova on us when Revolution debuts on NBC this coming fall.

To celebrate the release of True Blood: Season Four on Monday 21st May, we’re giving you the chance to win every episode so far on Blu-ray.

The sexy, spooky and wildly entertaining TV series returns with TRUE BLOOD: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON released on DVD and Blu-ray on 21 MAY 2012, from HBO Home Entertainment. Bursting with even more charisma and allure, satisfy your addiction and get sucked in right from the very start as the Complete Season 1 – 4 box set is also released on both formats.

Mixing romance, suspense and mystery with a taste for humour, TRUE BLOOD: THE FOURTH SEASON takes place in the not-too-distant future. Vampires have ventured out of the coffin thanks to the invention of a synthetic blood drink meaning they no longer need humans as a nutritional source – but is that enough to stop everyone?

In the latest spell-binding series, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) finds herself entangled in a supernatural love triangle where she must decide between Bill (Stephen Moyer), the new Vampire King of Mississippi and Eric (Alexander Skarsgård), who is not the Viking he once was. However, are there bigger dilemmas on the horizon? When a charismatic Witch named Marnie (Fiona Shaw) threatens to overpower the Vampires once and for all, her Coven of white witches and mediums tempt Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis), Tara (Rutina Wesley) and Jesus (Kevin Alejandro) with other worldly powers.

As old alliances crumble and new relationships form, Season 4 of True Blood proves that nobody’s safe when there’s magic in the air.

The fourth Season arrives on Blu-ray and DVD May 21st. Available on iTunes.

For your chance to win one of three copies, simply answer this question:

Which group threaten to overpower the vampires in Season 4?

a) Witches
b) Warlocks
c) Wizards

To enter, simply follow us on Twitter here and @reply us the correct answer. Deadline 04/06/12.

Out on DVD and Blu-ray May 21st, in this exclusive clip from True Blood: Season Four, Sookie gets her job back.

With the debut of Girls and the upcoming return of sleek legal comedy-drama Suits amongst other shows, this year’s mid-season TV schedule is shaping up to be better than the craziness of every fall. And then there’s the fact we’ve got another season of Breaking Bad to look forward to. Get ready for more Walter White, back this summer.

Suits, the latest in a long line of American legal dramas to find major popularity in the UK, is not the most obvious of success stories. A flash, familiar stab at the crime-fighting buddy template, it’s tale of a dropout genius snuck into the upper echelons of a major New York law firm after acing an impromptu interview survives chiefly on the strength of its two leads, Patrick J. Adams and Gabriel Macht. Playing reformed pothead Mike Ross and legal hotshot Harvey Specter respectively, their chemistry and easy charm raise a tired formula into the realm of snappy entertainment.

Meanwhile, the show’s other coup arrives in the form of Meghan Markle. Her performance as Rachel, the sharp paralegal who guides Mike through his early adjustments to life at the top of the legal profession, provides Suits with some much needed variety and emotional heft, not to mention some difficult romantic entanglements as one of Mike’s two onscreen love interests, a progression hit by the revelation that Mike is in fact not a graduate of Harvard, and that he previously earned a living by sitting exams for less able students. Speaking recently while in the midst of shooting Suits’ second season, she cites her own easy chemistry with Adams and a playful atmosphere on set as being key to the programme’s success.

How did you get involved with the show?

MM: It was just like any other audition. I was sent the material and was asked to go and read for the producers. I had just gotten back from vacation, and it’s funny because I’m normally completely ‘off book’, meaning I know all my lines and I’m completely prepared, but I walked in and this was not the case for my audition for Suits, which was called A Legal Mind at the time.  I thought that I just blew it and I left the audition and called my agent to say ‘I have got to get back in for this audition,’ because I loved the part. He said ‘It’s my job to get you in the room and then it’s your job to do your job, there’s nothing we can do at this point’. Then a week later we hadn’t realised that all of the wheels were turning and that they had really loved my audition, and they had asked me to come in to test for the role, which was a huge surprise and I was so excited.

Your onscreen relationship with Mike is our way to getting to know your character isn’t it?

MM: When I found at that Patrick Adams had the role as Mike Ross that was the icing on the cake, because he and I had done a project for a different network several years before and had had great chemistry. Working with Patrick is so much fun and we’d known each other for years, so it’s very easy and it makes work a bit more like play when you can laugh at the same jokes and have a shorthand with each other which we really do. I’m sure that resonates in the Mike and Rachel dynamic.

Your character’s relationship with Mike changes dramatically over the course of the first season…

MM: At the onset Rachel is one of the strongest characters there, who has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the firm, and her Achilles heel is not being able to test well, which has kept her in the role of a paralegal  for so long. She had become so used to having these young hotshot associates come in and just be rather obnoxious, and turn her off personally and professionally. But as they spend so much time together and as the season progresses and they work on cases together, one of the largest shifts is this trust that she begins to have in him, which of course is thrown a little askew when she discovers his secret. We start to see Rachel, who started off as such a strong, independent and almost disinterested character, soften quite a bit towards Mike Ross, and you definitely start to see more of that in Season Two.

Working as an actor, what is it like working with the uncertainty surrounding whether a pilot you work on is going to get picked up?

MM: I have done probably five pilots that haven’t gotten picked up, and ones that the industry, the buzz, the cast, we were all so certain they were going to get green lit. So the time that Suits came around, because I had felt so disappointed in the past when other projects hadn’t been picked up, I was really able to let go. When we eventually found out there was a communal ‘Oh my God!’ To have a second season on top of that, and great ratings, and to have people really respond to the show, it’s unbelievable.

Is an atmosphere of letting go the key to the show’s success then?

MM: Well, because our dynamic as a cast is so close knit, and because we all have such specific personalities both on and off camera that mesh so well, we are really lucky because we’re able to improv, be silly between takes and just loosen up a bit, so that the amazing writing that our writers give us is able to have a lot more life to it; because we’re able to take more chances.

In the last episode you your character interacts a little more with some of the other cast members. Do we see you broadening out of your character continuing next season?

MM: How it was conceived initially was that Harvey and Mike are the two pins in the middle of the wheel, and so each of the rest of us in the ensemble are the spokes that some off of them. So in all of Season One you don’t see any of us outside of the context of the office or out of relation to Harvey or Mike. Season Two is exciting for us as an ensemble because you do get to see more of where we come from what we do after work, our relationships with each other.

Patrick and Gabriel have a very snappy, likable rapport as Mike and Harvey.

MM: I think that they just have this really easy chemistry and banter. I think s somebody in Season One has said they were sort of like Clooney and Matt Damon in Ocean’s Eleven, they have that energy together which is easy and cool. You can tell that they get along, and they are both such good guys, I think it does help the dynamic that we all have such a solid friendship outside of the show. It definitely reflects on the two of them.

There is a great scene towards the end of Season One in which Mike is surprised at the revelation that Rachel hasn’t seen Casablanca. Have you?

MM: You know what I haven’t! And the creator Aaron Korsh hasn’t, which is why he wrote it into the show. Life imitating art!

Suits Season One is out on DVD today. Season Two arrives on both US and UK screens in June

Coming this summer with the pilot directed by Greg Mottola, The Newsroom is Aaron Sorkin return to TV, about a “big-time, buttoned-up news anchor who finally lets his real personality fly, and then has to deal with the career fallout that results.” Obviously it’s coming to HBO, hopefully they don’t cancel this one just when it gets into gear.

Many people would agree that subtlety and minimalist presentation can often be superior to a gilded extravaganza. Succeeding with such an approach, however, is very difficult to get right. The Bridge and Louis Theroux: Extreme Love are examples of beauty in sparseness, expertly done.

The Bridge (Episode 1, available on BBC iPlayer until Sat 26 May 2012)

Scandinavia is a region that polarises opinion. It seems to be viewed either with noticeable disinterest or significant fascination and curious awe. The former view is perhaps due to a subconscious preference for sunny weather, whilst the latter is inspired by an appreciation of the exact opposite. Existentialism, that harbinger of thinking man’s depression, is inextricably tied to the icy winds and tempestuous skies of the region, and it is this affinity with intellectual darkness that makes Scandinavia so interesting. With sombre relish, then, did I take in the intro to The Bridge. Grey shots of imperious buildings in the snow, coupled with subtle, mysterious music set the scene perfectly. The storyline, in and of itself, is not the most original (a dead body is found straddling the Sweden-Denmark border), but the expertly toned-down style of the show makes for gripping viewing from the beginning.

The characterisation is appropriate for the setting too. There is little extravagance or bombastity, with the stark dialogue often playing second fiddle to the facial expressions of Kim Bodnia and Sofia Helin. Of course, I cannot speak too knowledgably about the dialogue, as the show is subtitled. It is de rigueur to laud subtitling for its superiority to dubbing, but this often causes one to ignore the other benefits it affords. Acting, for example, can be easier to objectively assess in an unknown language. The Bridge again scores highly in this department, as the performances are believable, but without being so real that they become dull. Every element of the first three quarters of the episode is basically a feast for the senses, at least for lovers of the mysterious and the slightly strange. It is a pity, then, that the plot (cursed destroyer of the sensory orgy) returns to the fore for the episode’s conclusion. I won’t reveal any details, suffice to say that the whole process is reminiscent of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. That film had a similar air of Nordic mystique and dark beauty which was ruined by a crappy plot no better than that of Saw. The Bridge may yet prove strong enough to recover from the sudden dive into silliness that you have to see to believe the disappointing effect of, but one still can’t help feeling slightly betrayed after the first episode. In a sense, this is testament to how strong every other element is, but it is a strong storyline that makes a show worth returning to every week. Overall, The Bridge is definitely worth watching, but be warned that there is a risk of descent into a catch-the-killer bore fest.

Louis Theroux: Extreme Love (Episode 1, available on BBC iPlayer until Thu 3 May 2012)

Television rarely affords the opportunity to watch a master at work. Louis Theroux’s return to the small screen is, for this reason alone, extremely welcome. Extreme Love is not the documentary king’s most probing or fascinating work subject-wise, but this somehow heightens the appreciation of the craft itself. This episode is about autism, following several families with severely autistic kids and a school that is designed to help the kids develop social and work skills. Such a subject is ripe for both the BBC Three childish sympathy treatment and the ITV/Channel 4 freak exposée. In trademark style, however, Louis ignores the obvious and picks the most difficult path. Thus, unaided by sad music, on-demand weeping and hand-picked success stories, the real and actual lives of the kids, their families and their teachers are presented.

One of the main reasons this approach succeeds is Theroux’s manner. He has perfected a tone of voice that blends earnestness, inquisitiveness, politeness and charm in such a way that it is almost impossible for him to cause offence. This allows him to ask probing questions that others wouldn’t, or at least would get called aggressive for asking. “Does his condition make it harder to love him?” he asks, deadpan, of an emotionally-drained mother. “Why can’t you create a safe environment at home?” he enquires of the parents who have sent their child into full-time care. Were Jeremy Paxman to ask these questions, he would be accused of bullying. Were Piers Morgan to ask them, the parents would break down in floods of tears without giving a response. When Louis Theroux asks them, he gets honest, frank answers, which reveal far more about the true emotional and mental difficulties of caring for autistic children. Not only does he know how to talk to people though, he also knows when to stay silent and observe. At several points during Extreme Love some very hard to watch, personal and sometimes dangerous scenes unfold. Rather than cut the recording or intervene, the camera team and the presenter subtly back away, so that you get the feeling that even the interviewees forget that they’re in the room, so natural and real are their actions. It bears repeating as well that such scenes are never accompanied by tender piano strains or emotive voiceovers. Only the cold thuds of reality punctuate the scenes, making for ridiculously gripping and involving viewing. Most people don’t need any encouragement to watch a Louis Theroux documentary, but take this as one anyway – Extreme Love is nothing short of factual TV at its finest, and it should not be missed.

The entertainment industry has been a joyous place since Charlie Sheen was unceremoniously fired from show Two And A Half Men early last year but unfortunately he’s back. And even in the bare 15 seconds of teaser for new show Anger Management, he’s entirely insufferable. The double episode premiere is slated for June 28th. Ugh.

Premiering in just 11 days, Armando Iannucci and Simon Blackwell’s (In The Loop, The Thick Of It) Veep “centres on former Senator Selina Meyer who finds being Vice President of the United States is nothing like she expected and everything everyone ever warned about.” The show sure sounds promising, so hopefully the creators deliver.

Premiering April 15th, Lena Dunham’s Girls is building up quite the head of steam. Off the back of a new found fame after Tiny Furniture, Judd Apatow serves as executive producer for the series following a group of 20-somethings attempting to navigate their lives in NYC. But by the looks of things, they’re not doing all too well.