Of its five new fall shows, NBC has given full season orders to two — Whitney and Up All Night — and canceled two — The Playboy Club and Free Agents — leaving Prime Suspect the only one unaccounted for. No longer-ish: NBC has just ordered six more scripts of the low-rated detective series, which means the show will be all set to continue production should the network give it a full-season pickup. So if it’s not a total vote a confidence, it’s certainly a good sign. (Another good sign: NBC recently tapped reruns of it to air in The Playboy Club’s vacated slot.) Though the chatter about Prime Suspect has largely focused on Helen Mirren’s shadow and Maria Bello’s headgear (and no one is more guilty of making it all about the latter than us), the show is actually pretty great, by far the new season’s best procedural, funny, well-executed, and with a cranky, salty performance from Bello, so, as far as we’re concerned, this is good news. Now if NBC can just rustle up some people to watch it … [EW]
