If there's a genre that's really taken a dive as of late, it's crime films. The argument can be made that crime is better suited for the slow-burn timelines of TV, as evidenced in "The Sopranos" and "The Wire." Of the handful of solid crime stories that have made it onto the big screen in the past decade, the bulk have been set on the mean streets of Boston ("The Departed," "Gone Baby Gone," "Mystic River"). Unwilling to let Beantown corner the market on crime, director Antoine Fuqua turns the focus to NYC's best borough with "Brooklyn's Finest." The above video peels back the layers on what to expect heading into this weekend's release.

In case you haven't heard already, the new Starz series, "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," has a lot of nudity in it. We're talking full-frontal, kids. Did I mention there's a lot of sex, too? And a lot of sweaty, grunting, oiled-up dudes grappling with each other? Moreover, there's a lot of bloody violence, which is made either more or less graphic by the fact that it's stylized, "300"-style, with slow-motion streams of blood that hang in midair after spurting out of a man's jugular. As star John Hannah puts it, "We're really pushing the boundaries." Last night, Sling.com chatted with John Hannah, Lucy Lawless, and Andy Whitfield about their new series, which premieres on Friday (and has Starz so excited that they've already ordered a second season). See the full interviews, after the jump.

There is still more than a month before the January 22 premiere of the Starz network's original series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" (if the anticipation is killing you, you can always watch the preview, here, or the Academy Award-winning film from which the show is adapted, above), but Starz has already ordered a 13-episode second season to commence filming in New Zealand in early 2010.

As my colleague Tara noted after attending Starz's panel at TCA this summer, the series echoes the visual effects of the film "300," with lots of gratuitous squelching sounds as burly men swipe at each other with axes and send blood spurting into airborne ribbons. We're also baited with oily torsos, heaving breasts, and -- so we're told -- Lucy Lawless in some kinky nude love scenes that will undoubtedly take place in firelit tents littered with animal pelts.

The second season will have a different subtitle than the first -- "Vengeance" instead of "Blood and Sand," which I predict will mean the following: in the first season finale, someone beloved by Spartacus will endure a bloody, sandy death at the hands of someone unexpectedly evil, leaving a major cliffhanger that will force us to wait around for the next batch of episodes. Our hero will then dedicate himself to avenging the deceased (shirtlessly, of course). Season 3 will be something like "Bone and Sinew," and involve lots of bone-cracking and sinewy biceps; Season 4 will be "Boobs and Loincloths," and so forth. Even if it turns out to be nothing more than a well-toned, scantily-clad romp fraught with spattering bodily fluids and animal skins, I'll probably be highly entertained.

Above, Kenny and Inez show why they were the hottest couple in the first season of "Crash," the original drama on Starz. But as I learned today, we shouldn't expect to see Inez in the show's second season, which premieres September 18. In fact, only a handful of the characters from Season 1 will return; new stars on the panel included Eric Roberts (who plays billionaire Seth Blanchard) and Linda Park (Blanchard's wife Maggie). But don't worry -- Dennis Hopper's Ben Cendars is back. (And don't worry: Dennis Hopper is still a character in real life, too: he had his sunglasses on -- inside -- throughout his panel.)Another look at Season 2 is at the official site.

The real excitement at the Starz panel surrounded its new series, "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," coming January 22, 2010. Though you can see a version of the show's trailer here, the version that was screened at the presentation this afternoon was quite a bit racier, and by that I mean crammed to the gills with violence and nudity. Some of that, we were promised, would eventually involve series star Lucy Lawless, who described her character, Lucretia, as a "Lady Macbeth" to husband Batiatus (John Hannah, not present). As a non-fan of the film "300," I was dubious about this whole enterprise, but based on the panel discussion, "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" may have less in common with that film than with HBO's late, lamented "Rome" -- but maybe with an extra dash of fun courtesy of Executive Producer Sam "Spider-Man" Raimi.

The great American road trip has been romanticized for as long as America has had roads. Men and women riding in wagons/trains/cars, discovering their country and, somewhere along the way, discovering themselves.

Take your pick of the classic literature and movies dedicated to this experience. (I'm partial to the Breckin Meyer classic "Road Trip" in which he plays Josh Parker, a modern-day Dean Moriarty.) (Or maybe "Cannonball Run.")

Now imagine if the trip had been made on a Segway that goes 10 mph.

In this documentary, two guys give up their corporate jobs to trek from Seattle to Boston on the two-wheeled gyroscope contraption, crossing some of the same paths as the Oregon Trail and the Lewis and Clark expedition all while traveling about the same speed as the Pony Express did way back when.

But the best part about watching people on a Segway is the wipeouts, right? Heh. Click "continue reading" for some more fine Segway moments for you to enjoy.

I'm not kidding. The Today Show said so. Apparently, planes are also getting quieter, so geese can't hear them coming. This deadly goose/plane combo clearly poses a mounting threat to air travel. While we've been wringing our hands over terrorists, our feathered friends have been hatching [heh] a plot to take over the world, one kamikaze stunt at a time.

For more on the events of yesterday's surprise swim-landing, click here; journalists shed light on the situation here.

I still can't decide how I feel about Josh Brolin. On the one hand, there's the incredible CV he's quietly been building over the past couple of years. He's pretty talented in "Flirting With Disaster," but he really started blossoming in 2007 with his remarkable performances in "American Gangster" and Best Picture Oscar winner "No Country For Old Men." Also, if he doesn't get a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for "Milk," then we will know for absolute sure that the Academy is homophobic (as if "Crash"'s Best picture win over "Brokeback Mountain" wasn't proof enough). On the other hand, there are Brolin's troubling arrests for spousal battery and bar fighting. Obviously, it's possible to separate an artist's acts from his works -- Roman Polanski's statutory rape charge is abhorrent, but "The Pianist" is sublime -- but is Josh Brolin enough of a freak for me to have to put him in that Polanski category? Perhaps tonight's episode of "Inside The Actors Studio" will enlighten me. There's a sneak preview above.

If I had to choose a reality show for a time capsule as an ideal example for future generations, it would be Oxygen’s "The Bad Girls Club." Rather than go with the traditional casting variety, with the rebel, the meat head, and the promiscuous loud-mouthed girl with self-esteem issues, producers of the Bad Girls Club decided to go with seven of the latter. Why have one train wreck when you can have seven?