The things you learn from TV

This could be an ongoing series if I play it right, but more to the point, who out there knew that the movie "Octopus" was good enough to warrant a sequel? I was alerted to this while watching my Friday night lineup on the Sci-Fi Channel. Does "direct-to-basic-cable" trump even "direct-to-video" as a sign of poor performance?

In other news, I'm not sure what to make of the WB taking Angel out of the sweeps mix in order to show the two-hour finale of the cancelled Birds of Prey. Certainly not a vote of confidence, there, or maybe they're thinking that the plot of Angel has gotten to the point where trying to bring new viewers in for ad rates when they'll need Cliff Notes to figure out what's going on isn't as lucrative as showing hot chicks kicking ass with plot exposition at the top of the show.

I'm also hearing bad things about the future of Andy Richter Controls the Universe, which just plain sucks. NBC kvetches about how they can't find something worthy of replacing the vomit-inducing Friends, and a show this good is getting canned? It doesn't make sense.