Whachya Watchin?

We've crawled on our bellies through the desert of summer TV, drinking at the oasis of Kathy Griffin and scoffing at the mirage of Dancing With The Surreal Bachelor. Now it's time for TeeVee proper, when the serious TiVo fills up with more than gardening shows. (By the way...never buy your mother a TiVo, unless you like to watch This Old British Garden endlessly.)

The season's just starting, but I've staked my Season Pass Territory pretty firmly.

Arrested Development

If you aren't watching this, you are letting yourself down. This is the most brilliant television created in the last 5 years. Seriously.

Kitchen Confidential

It's on after Arrested Development, and I liked the book. We'll give the show a shot.

Prison Break

They sold me on this with the Shawshank references. Since I love Shawshank to the point of having the entire movie memorized, I figured I'd give this a shot. Four episodes into it I'm not so convinced, but I'll give it another couple of bedoop-heavy weeks.

Medium
I love this show as much for the family dynamic as for the crime-solving aspect. This, more than any other program ever made, captures what it is really like to be a working married woman. Alison's true irreplacability mirrors what every woman feels about her role at work. I can't speak for every woman, but most women I know feel like wives and mothers as much at the office as they do at home. This show softly conveys the ensuing relationship issues and the inner grief of the working woman with too many hearts on her plate. Plus, the middle daughter is a riot.

Gilmore Girls SPOILER
This show won me over for the sheer fact that many of Loralei and Rory's conversations about movies and popular culture sound like either me and Tim or me and Beth. I've kept watching because I love all the characters. Except one. I cannot stand Jess. So imagine my thrill when I read about that heel returning to the show. Apparently he's Alexis Bleidel's real-life boyfriend. Remember what I said about how hard it is to balance working relationships with personal ones? Alexis must feel the heat every time she has to beg Amy and Daniel to write a story arc to keep Milo Ventimiglia in clove cigarettes and hair gel. I'm still gonna TiVo it, but there is some bedooping in Stars Hollow's future.

NCIS

A) We have two TiVos. B) I love Mark Harmon's character.

Supernatural
It's fun, but you should really watch it with the lights on. We really enjoyed the first episode, but I was scared to death.

My Name Is Earl
I like Jason Lee, and this show looks like it might be similar to Ed. More than that, constant exposure to it from The Twenty (brought to you by Christie Projectors) has worn me down. I'll at least TiVo it once.

The Office
It will never be the same without Ricky Gervaise--the Complaint dialogue from BBC Season One is the single funniest thing I have EVER seen on television--but if you don't like Steve Carrell after The 40 Year Old Virgin, then I don't know what to say to you.

Law & Order:SVU
Sex Fiends and Richard Belzer. Appointment TV at it's finest.

LOST

J.J. Abrams gets one more season to prove to me that he has an overarching story in mind. I was with him until the season finale last year, at which point I felt like I was on the receiving end of a drunken fraternity prank. He owes me a better exploration of Hurley's backstory and a serious playdown of Kate and her Krime Spree. Focus on Locke, Hurley, Sayid, Sawyer and the Hobbit. (Seriously, isn't Dom why half of us tuned in to begin with?) More than that--give us some answers. What are the numbers? What's down the hatch? Why was Hurley in the asylum? What's Walt's deal?

Veronica Mars
THIS is how you do a story arc, JJ. This is how you create compelling drama. And she better end up with Logan.

Joey & ER
NBC Thursday Night reminds me of the center from the high school basketball team. I have vague recollection of once being entertained by them both. Now they're older and sagging around the middle but you still feel some sort of obligation to see them through.

CSI
Tarantino's finale last year kicked keister, save for the painful locker room dialogue. They kind of lost me with last year's Holmes story, but I'm reeled back in by QT. Hope they can sustain another season from that momentum.

Reunion
They're my age (okay, 2 years older) and I like the reverse-24 style architectue of the show. So often I get involved in the lives of characters that it's nice to be able to see them grow and develop. I think that's been one of the strengths of the Harry Potter series, and it certainly kept us all focused on Friends long past it's expiration date. Reunion gives us the chance to really watch the effect that 20 years has on a group of people.

BSG
It's almost over, but then the DVD comes out! Woohoo!


I hope these shows are with us for the whole season. PLEASE watch Arrested Development. Please. Please.

Let me know if you've seen something I've missed that I should add. Right about now I'm really tired of Shark Documentaries.