It has already started airing in the U.S. on the Sci-Fi Channel, but in Canada, CH broadcasts the premiere of Painkiller Jane on Thursday, April 26.

Kristanna Loken stars and co-produces the series based on the comic book created by Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada back in 1995.

Read my take on it all in this week’s Channel Changer.

Edmonton actor Nathan Fillion is back on the television airwaves as one of the ensemble cast of Drive, a new series from Tim Minnear (Firefly, Wonderfalls, Angel). He’s pictured here with Vancouver’s Kristin Lehman.

I haven’t seen the show yet, but that didn’t stop me from writing about it in this week’s Channel Changer.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must also note that Nathan and I share a friend in Francois.

I am such a name dropper.

Drive premieres on CTV in Canada tonight, and on FOX this Sunday. Set your TiVo.

In this week’s Georgia Straight, an extra Trigger Happy column looking at the forthcoming upgrade to the Xbox 360, called the Elite, and the wildfire rumour about a larger hard drive in the PS3.

Get the details over here.

The New York Times reports today that “apprehensions of illegal immigrants along the Mexican border fell by 30 percent” last year. Along the Arizona and California section of the U.S. border with Mexico, the number dropped by 68 percent.

President George Bush is taking credit for the drop, because he has increased the number of border patrol guards from 9,000 to 13,000. There will be 18,000 of them by the end of 2008.

Because it couldn’t be that fewer people want to enter the U.S., with Bush running the country. That couldn’t be the reason for the drop. Everyone in the world is desparate to live in America, right? ‘Cause there is no better place in the world to be, right?

Sorry, I’ll stop now.

It took me a while to watch an episode of this new show, from Canadian writer Paul Haggis and his partner Bobby Moresco, because it was dropped into the time slot held by Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

I guess it was a bit of a tantrum.

But having watched all the episodes aired until now, I can say that it is great television, albeit very intense. Read more about the show in this week’s Channel Changer.

In an interview with reporters, Haggis mentioned that calling the show The Black Donnellys was a reference to the Canadian Black Donnellys, the family that got caught up in the notorious feud in Ontario.

My first memory of the historical Black Donnellys was a paperback – a true crime type publication – that I remember seeing in the possession of my uncle, J, when he was a teenager.

The feud was tied up in a land dispute, but was also reflective of the tensions among the Whiteboys, Blackfeet, and Orangemen factions from Ireland.

These themes are certainly reflected in the television show.

Don’t stress too much if you haven’t caught an episode, though, as NBC is replacing The Black Donnellys with a reality show starting April 23.

Still no word on a return of Studio 60, either.