Talking about the footage he's seen so far, Michael Lombardo told the Hollywood Reporter:

Everything looks fantastic. The director got great performances. Unlike a lot of projects like this, everything was shot on location. It has such a rich texture that it looks more expensive than it actually was... The fantasy is so incidental, it has a very adult tone. You forget it's fantasy while you're watching it, and that's what I love about it.

Look, we're not asking for cut-rate Lord of The Rings-isms or anything, but when one of the selling points for a genre show is that you forget it's a genre show, we're kind of thinking that something's gone wrong somewhere along the line. Or have we missed NBC telling people that the latest Law & Order is so good that you'll forget there are cops in it?

Games of Thrones is expected to be on HBO in "March or April" of next year.

HBO: 'Games of Thrones' dailies 'look fantastic' [THR/The Live Feed]

According to Variety, HBO executives approached Spotnitz some time about the possibility of developing a medical thriller. Given that Spotnitz spent eight years writing for The X-Files, it's not terribly surprising that he gave the idea a near-futuristic twist. Humanitas takes place in a future more medically advanced than our own, where doctors are able to manipulate genes and create viruses, resulting in a host of ethical dilemmas and general anxiety that a pandemic is imminent.

Spotnitz's second project with HBO is flung much farther into the future. He is looking to adapt The World Inside, Robert Silverberg's novel about humanity in the year 2381. The human population has exploded thanks to a strictly enforced culture of free love and uncontrolled reproduction, and most of the world's population lives inside vast, sprawling buildings and never go outside. It's an apparently utopian society of unfettered sex, happiness drugs, and mutual reliance, where everyone lives in harmony. But it's also a closely monitored and regulated society with no privacy or individuality, and deviation from the social norms can be punished by death. But a computer engineer in one city finds he has perverse thoughts of leaving the building and exploring the world outside.

Of course, there's no guarantee that either show will get picked up, but it's encouraging to see HBO, a channel whose recent speculative offerings have tended more toward modern fantasy, take an interest in shows with a scientific and futuristic bent.

[Variety]

Created by longtime concept designer Doug Brode, who previously worked props for Iron Man and JJ Abrams' Star Trek, Forbidden Science is a fun, Flash Gordon-style adventure story set at a company called 4Ever Innovations that makes clones, androids, and the nefarious technologies that support them. In last week's episode we met new hire Bethany, who is curious about the history of a mysterious 4Ever clone named Julia, whose gene and memory donor died the week before.

But forget about the plot for a minute - I'll tell you more about it tomorrow, when we'll be posting an interview with show creator Brode. Just focus on this scene, which demonstrates what happens when female geeks take over the world. Here mega-genius chief scientist Penny welcomes Bethany to the 4Ever team by giving her "a vibrator for your mind." Oh yeah. I'm really liking this show already.

Also, I would like a mindbrator please. Kthx.

Forbidden Science [via HBO/Cinemax]

Was anyone else sad when they killed off my favorite couple, the Rattrays? I will miss their idiotic banter and white-trashy ways. After the Rattrays lay into Sookie's body with their feet, vampire Bill shows up and murders the two of them. But not before saving Sookie's life by making him drink his V-juice. She then gets very keen senses and can smell stuff better (lame). But more importantly this episode marks the return of the sec-tape vampire who is still bald and doing that eye-roll thing. Sookie runs into him in the very last minute of the show. This episode was more of a go-between than a fulfilling bite, I'm still not sure where I stand on this show and last night's screening didn't help. Bring on the dog-men and vampire vikings please, then I'll be able to judge more appropriately. But right now, I'm just not sure.

Pro: Sookie is covered in blood, head-to-toe. There is blood everywhere in this episode. It's fantastic. Thank you for weighing out the breast/sex stuff with some good old fashioned coughing up of blood.

Pro: Methinks there is something to this poochie always appearing when Sookie is in trouble. Then I spied a dog painting on Sam's wall that looked just like the dog that had been "hanging out" around the bar. Is Sam the dog? I haven't read the books, so I'm just glad I was sober enough to notice these things.

Pro: Jason getting questioned by the cops completely confirms the "he's an idiot" stereotype, but he makes it work. I enjoy watching Jason sweat and try and lie himself out of a murder (even though he didn't do it). If he could only lighten up on the vampire hate a little. Still his loud-mouth moment at Bill when he comes over to meet the family suits his MO.

Con: They killed off the Rattrays. Booo Hissss. I loved the Rattrays, they were the only ones who could pull off the Southern accent, and they totally reminded me of the bad second cousins that you were scared of. These guys were great baddies, I'm sad that Bill had to kill them and then throw their house on top of them. Look at them making out while beating the living hell out of Sookie, I heart them and I'm sad to see them go.

Con: The scary vampires that pop up at the very end of the episode at Bill's house are supposed to be intimidating. When in reality they just look like the manager of a Hot Topic and his lame shop-keep.

Con: Bill moves like The Flash. In a very odd moment where Bill came to save Sookie he zooms just like a superhero, I think that maybe we could have spent a little more time on that effect.

Con: We still haven't got to see the Vampire fantasy sex den yet. I'm worried that I've spent most of my time while watching True Blood, just waiting and wishing for the vamp sex club and the vampire Viking.

Con: Sooke and Jason's grandmother is the most annoying person in the history of the world. That is all.

So will I continue to watch True Blood, yes. But only because I was promised more. Is this the episode that will sell the audience, heck no, but it had the glimmer of what's to come. It's like all second dates, you're both just waiting until you can do all the nasty stuff to each other. Was I bored while it was on, not at all. But if it doesn't pick it up soon and get deeper into the other characters besides virginal Sookie and old-vamp Bill I will be.

Serializing a print comic that will also include backstory on the series as well as an interview with the show's creator, Six Feet Under's Alan Ball, Top Cow Productions' True Blood: The Great Revelation aims to fill in some of the history of TruBlood, the show's synthetic blood substitute, as California's "vampire king" visits Japan to meet with its creators.

Following it's San Diego Comic-Con debut, True Blood: The Great Revelation launches on HBO's website July 24th.

Exclusive: "True Blood: The Great Revelation" Preview [Comic Book Resources]