The Hobbit Returns!

Well, not to Lost... yet. But Dominic Monaghan is coming to CHUCK!! (WOOT!) where he will play an English rock star who is being chased by bad guys and, uh... man, I know this from somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it. Hm... Anyway, here's the piece here, where Monaghan says although he hasn't really watched Lost since he left (???) he would love to come back and reprise his role of Chah-lee in a flashforward.

The Fall 2007 TV Season... in Fall 2008

As I mentioned a few days ago, I was excited because this week marked the return of my favourite shows of last season. It's a shame the Writer's Strike happened when it did, because fall 2007 probably boasted my favourite crop of new shows... ever. Pushing Daisies is, well, you all know how I feel about that show, and I won't start gushing again. (GLORIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!) Chuck is about as close to perfect as a show can get for a TV geek -- it's got the spy element, the family element, the nerd quotient, and it's funny and well written. The cast is superb. The return of Chuck this week was great... we got the background told to us as part of the narrative when the show opened with Michael Clarke Duncan holding Chuck out over a ledge and Chuck had to quickly tell him who he was. Pushing Daisies, as I mentioned, also gave an extremely long recap just to bring people in who may have missed it the first time around. Besides, for these shows, which barely picked up (if at all) after the writer's strike, they need to give audiences big reminders of what happened, because there's a possibility it's been almost a year since we've been watching.

Chuck's return was a lot of fun... on the one hand we saw how being the Intersect has weighed heavily on him, much like what being the Slayer was to Buffy. He begins to imagine his life NOT being the Intersect and he's so happy. But I loved the little moments we saw that were outside of the plot of the show, especially his co-workers. From the Thunderdome decision of who would be the store's assistant manager, to the resume that Chuck reads that's on the napkin written in red (if you didn't pause your television to read it, it said that he's been working at the store forever and knows where all the bodies are buried, and then on the other side of the napkin it says that he's been hiding under things and taking photos of everyone's feet. It was PRICELESS), to Morgan saying he's challenged Paul to eat 90 Twinkies and Chuck and Casey both running to the back room eager to see Paul's stomach explode... it was classic.

Dirty Sexy Money is another show I watched last year as a guilty pleasure (though I feel no guilt in watching it). I've said it before, it's like an adult version of Gossip Girl. They somehow manage to get a lot of cheese and melodrama and over-the-top ideas in there, but they make it believable. Sort of. They even have a transgendered character, played by a female impersonator, who is probably the smartest and classiest character on the show. They could have taken the easy route and turned her into a laughing stock, but she never becomes that. What was interesting, however, is the return episode had NO previously on stuff, so we were launched right back where we left off. I wasn't thrilled with how they handled Patrick's wife's death at all... talk about a family trying to knock off the daughter-in-law because she's being a pain. Yeah, she's an alcoholic and a family embarrassment, but she's also the mother of their grandchildren, which apparently means zilch in this family. Jeremy is always adorable, despite being a train wreck, and while a lot of this first episode was a little clunky, it was still fun to be back with the Darling family. I couldn't figure out why Juliet, Jeremy's twin sister, was missing, but a quick google search showed she's been removed from the regular cast, with most speculation suggesting it's because of a rehab stint she did last year.

Life is not a show I really liked a lot, but I know it's a critical darling and many of my readers enjoy it. My husband is a big fan, and he thought it was a great return to the show, so there's a fourth fine show from last season.

And yet... the numbers were not what people wanted to hear. Pushing Daisies got fewer viewers for this premiere episode than for any episode last year. Chuck Bartowski's following has similarly dwindled. While Dirty Sexy Money's numbers were slightly higher than its finale last year, it was way down from its initial premiere.

Since this season so far hasn't boasted a breakout beyond Fringe (which I was happy to see has gotten its full-season order, WOOHOO!), if these shows end up getting cancelled, we're stuck with a lot of dreck. Let's hope because of the lack of other options, the execs will stick with these shows a little bit longer.

And if you're reading this and not watching them, check them out! Get them on your PVR and rent or buy the first seasons and check them out.

TV Roundup: The Week So Far
I still have a lot sitting on my PVR, but here are my thoughts for the week so far:

Heroes:
I finally got around to watching it last night, and I must say it was the best episode of the season. Of course, I still had nitpicks (for example, Elle says she caused a blackout in 4 states when she was 8, then was put into a room attached to a lithium drip when she was 9 while psychiatrists tried to figure out what to do with her, and then The Company stepped in, and she's spent the last 16 years of her life with them. Then she says she's 24... she'd be 26 if the writers could actually add). But going back 4 months just felt right. Unfortunately, there should have been 2, maybe 3 episodes before it, rather than making us wait almost 2 months for some answers. And apparently it's not important what happened to Parkman, Mohinder, Molly, Claire, Noah, Hiro, and Ando, although... when you think about it, their stories are pretty much self-explanatory. Regardless, I thought it was really well done. I hope next week's is more of the same. I might just be persuaded to go back to doing full posts on it. :)

Dexter:
ROCKED. Dexter stepped up his game this week, and actually brought his life as a serial killer into the office to help him get rid of his arch-nemesis. The scene with him and Doakes alone in the room, with Dexter whispering, "I own you" and what followed, is possibly my favourite of the series. Everyone on staff thinks Dex is this quiet meek little man. They have no idea who they're in the company of, and that's what's so much fun about this show.

Ugly Betty:
I forgot to mention last week that playing the show out to Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" -- despite it being one of my all-time favourite songs ever (especially as covered by him) -- was SO 2002. And so overdone. Every other show on television used that song years ago, and now Ugly Betty has to get on that train late. That said, this week's was great. The final reunion of Claire and Bradford; Betty and Mark saying, "The Secret Sex Room" and then pointing at each other in shock; Wil telling Mark that she's worried Bradford will leave his money to charity, and Mark saying, "Then we need to hunt this Charity down and kill her" (HA!); and the final scene with Alexis and Daniel sitting by an empty space. Loved it. I think it's even better this season than last. Oh, and Mo'nique was BRILLIANT.

The Office:
This week's, like last, was kind of meh. It had its moments, but it was actually far more interesting to watch it as a drama than a comedy. Steve Carell is amazing in the scenes with the lawyers, as he goes from goofily compliant to stupid to upset to hurt to furious to vengeful. He's put his loyalties in the wrong place, as usual. It was actually a little disappointing to have it end with him and Jan casually talking about what to eat for dinner. The drama was so important, and then deflated in the end. I think the scene of Dwight and Mose playing ping-pong was the highlight of the episode (though I did LOVE Kelly's distinction between trash talk and smack).

America's Next Top Model:
You know, I've kinda been with Bianca on Heather for a long time... she's beautiful, yes, and she seems to take a great picture and handles Jay's suggestions perfectly. But critique her and she falls apart like a house of cards. She just does not have the tough skin required for the business, and if she wins, it could destroy her.

Kitchen Nightmares:
Boring. I actually have the second half of it still running in the other room as I type this, and stopped watching. Yawn. That said, if you want to see Gordon Ramsay in a HILARIOUS scene with Ricky Gervais, check it out:



Pushing Daisies:
LOVE LOVE LOVE. See post from yesterday.

Gossip Girl:
I still like this show, and its soapy goodness. I'm glad Nate didn't go through with what his parents wanted, because he's right: I saw Blair all excited on the bed thinking they're going to get back together, and all I could see her was as a socialite years from now, alone while her husband is off with another woman. So I'm glad he saw the error of his ways early. Why am I talking about this show so seriously? It's campy awesome. :)

Dirty Sexy Money:
Haven't seen this week's yet, but last week was just too tied up in the whole quest for Nick's father's killer. I hate that storyline, and just want to focus on the Darlings.

The Next Great American Band:
OK, I've been wanting to post on this show FOREVER now. No one is talking about this show, for some reason, like it's the poor man's American Idol, but I am SO completely hooked. This show is where bands perform for the lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls, Sheila E. (!) and some judge from Australian Idol named Dicko. (Seriously.) Unlike Simon Cowell, who just says stuff to be funny, this guy is good. Every time a band performs my husband and I are critiquing them for one thing or another, and 80% of the time Dicko says exactly what we'd just said. He's always got good advice, even when the stupid audience is booing. Speaking of which, whenever they boo dude from the Goo Goo Dolls he gets SERIOUSLY pissed and upset and begins complaining about it like a big whiner. It's worth it just for that. :) My favourite band in the competition right now is Sixwire, a country band. Yeah, I said it. A COUNTRY band. I HATE HATE HATE country music. HATE IT. (The other day I'm in a store and over the sound system comes this line: "I want to kiss you out in the sticks/ I want to check you for ticks." I stopped what I was doing, thought, I couldn't have possibly just heard what I think I heard. And then I did. Came home, googled it, and it's apparently some huge hit for Brad Paisley. What the hell is WRONG with country music fans???? Anyway.) But Sixwire has a lead singer that looks like a slightly heftier version of Josh Holloway (if you don't believe me, tune in) and they are brilliant. There's a retro 60s band called Tres Bien, who were fun in the beginning and now are kind of boring. Last week this screechy grrl band called Rocket got booted (thankfully) but we are still subjected to the horrors of this tiny hardcore metal band called Light of Doom, where all of the members are between the ages of 9 and 11. Seriously. They were awesome in the beginning, now creepy and weird (especially since all of their moms are in the audience screaming for them and drooling... ew...) My other fave is The Clark Brothers, a sort of gospel band (yeah, I said it... oh forget it) who are unbelievable. The thing about this show is, typically the band I'd be listening to would be more along the lines of one called Dot Dot Dot, a guy who wants to be the lead singer of The Killers but appears to be too coked out to even focus on the judge's critiques, but when you're watching this show, you don't care about the STYLE of music being played, it's how good they are. And the country band is stellar, as is The Clark Brothers (and the lead singer of the Clark Brothers is seriously hot.) Franklin Bridge is another wicked band, and they play sort of a funk/rock thing, kinda Jimi Hendrix. It's on tonight: TUNE IN. I love this show... it's seriously addictive. Unlike the trumped-up karaoke night that is American Idol. The best part? You don't have to suffer through an annoying results show. Instead, they make everyone prepare a song for the following week, and then one by one they announce the bands who made it, and they come out and perform. At the end there are 2 bands left in the green room (which is, literally, green), and they're booted. Bwaaaahahahahaha. Awesome. I have a feeling this week we'll be saying goodbye to Denver and his Mile-High Orchestra. Awesome name, but not very good.

Friday Night Lights:
The show I will miss the most (equally with Pushing Daisies) during the writer's strike. Last week Landry's dad found out what was going on, and what he decided to do as a result was nothing short of shocking. Would any of us do it for our children? Probably. That's why I love this show. Good parents teach their children it's wrong to murder. Special parents help their children cover up that murder. Awesome. Did anyone else think that Jason was going to be killed off the show two weeks ago, by the way? Whoa...

Aliens in America:
This show just cracks me up to no end. It exposes the subtle racisms that we seem to all accept, and makes them look ridiculous. This week the mom -- who talks like Margie in Fargo -- runs into the breakfast room and says, "This is my running partner I told ya about... ya know, the one with the black husband?" Last week Raja got a job working for an Indian boss in a convenience store (causing the sister to say, "What are you, a total stereotype?") and the boss kept muttering under his breath that he was a dirty dog eater. I always thought the actor who plays Raja was over the top and not particularly good, just funny for sitcom's sake, but this week when they showed him screaming in nicotine withdrawal, I thought it was some of the funniest stuff this show's ever had.

Reaper:
I think I'm behind on this one, too, but last week with Leon trapped in the snow globe was particularly hilarious. I loved the actor who played Leon, especially when you just heard his voice calling them douchebags.

Chuck:
Still one of the best new shows on TV. If you're not watching this show and they rerun it during the strike, tune in. It's SO hilarious. I love Casey, who's so hardcore and wanting to kill everyone in sight... Chuck is great, his friend Morgan is funny, Tang is awful (as bad as he is on Dexter), and the premise just doesn't get old. I love this show.

30 Rock:
Haven't watched last night's yet, but last week's was brilliant as usual. I'm so glad Alec Baldwin stuck with the show. A couple of weeks ago he was pretending to be Tracy's father and I was doubled over. Baldwin is a comic genius.

Journeyman:
A couple of weeks behind on this one too (man, all the shows I watch with my husband I'm behind on!) but while it started out strong and then faded a bit, it's definitely back on track and I think it's great. Another one to check out if you haven't yet. Now that his son also knows what is going on, it's definitely stepped up things. It's only a matter of time before they have to let the brother know what's up.

I think that's everything. I'm sure I've missed something. :) Oh, I've dropped Everybody Hates Chris. It was just getting too samey. And, you know, that extra half hour was TOTALLY eating into my week. Har.

WATCH PUSHING DAISIES...
And that's an order.

I just watched the second episode, and I am absolutely head over heels in love with this show. I feel like it was written just for me, with an Edward Gorey/Tim Burton feel to it that I adore. The second episode was fantastic: Olive broke into Olivia Newton John's "Hopelessly Devoted" in the middle of The Pie Hole (how much do I love the name of the restaurant, seriously...), but kept getting interrupted, which was hilarious; Ned and Chuck shared a kiss through body bags that was more romantic than any other kiss I've seen this season; Ned installed a protective guard in his car between the passenger seat and driver seat so Chuck could ride shotgun without dying... and he included a little glove so they could hold hands (squee!); Emerson is a knitter, and it actually gets them out of a tight fix... he was the highlight of the ep for me, knitting his little gun cozies, almost making a comment about Ned and Chuck being the real dummies but keeping it to himself, using his knitting needles to get them out of a tight fix, and giving the single most hilarious face in the episode when the car in front of them explodes and a fiery box of laxatives lands on their hood...

If you haven't watched the ep, this will all sound seriously insane, but this is my fave show that's on right now (and yes, I'm officially putting it ahead of a lacklustre Heroes this season...). I can't wait for next week.

News: Fisher Stevens -- i.e. that guy who was once engaged to Michelle Pfeiffer back in the 80s, and then... I dunno, did he do something since then? -- has been cast on Lost as the guy you heard talking on the sat phone at the end of the finale last year.

Bionic Woman, Cane, Journeyman, and Life have all gotten requests for more scripts. It doesn't meant they'll get full-season orders, but this is a good sign! Gossip Girl has been picked up for the full season, and is the first show to have gotten the order. Yay!

Other shows I'm watching:

Heroes: Did I mention lacklustre? I still love it, and enjoy it every week, but I need some new heroes, quick (Kristen Bell doesn't show up until week 5 so I have 2 more weeks to wait).

Cane: Is still great. I've seen the first two episodes, and Jimmy Smits' character has that same moral ambiguity of Angel or Spike, but without the camp. You do NOT mess with him, yet as the protagonist he gets us to cheer him on, even as he's doing terrible things to people. Please don't cancel this show...

Reaper: Still hilarious, but it might be one I drop, only because it's SO much like Chuck, as I've mentioned, that I'm starting to mix the two up in my head, and Chuck is far superior.

Chuck: In this week's episode, Chuck goes to a fancy ball with an art auction, and as he's drawn to the one painting, a woman comes up to him and asks what he thinks, to which he replies, in a fluster, "It has a certain... Bob Ross-ian quality to it." I nearly fell off the couch laughing. I'm sure I'm not the only person who's been on the couch on a Saturday afternoon channel-surfing, and stopping when I see a white guy with a giant afro standing on an entirely black stage with a single spotlight on him, painting and talking about inserting "a happy little tree." At least, now I know Chuck has also sat and watched this guy transform a white canvas into a painting of an outdoor landscape that I would see hanging in my grandparents' home. Best line of the week.

Gossip Girl: Still awesome, and I'm enjoying the ongoing tension between Serena and Blair. Does anyone else get the feeling that Dan is Gossip Girl? I know that's probably not the case, but I swear he's standing right there whenever you hear Gossip Girl's voiceover.

America's Next Top Model: Not awesome. Boring, in fact. I think I'm watching it out of habit at this point. This week was makeover week, traditionally a great ep, but they showed us the digital image of what each girl would look like, taking away the final result so it's not a surprise. Wah.

Dirty Sexy Money: In last week's ep, there's a quiet scene at the end of the episode where Nate Nick tells Tripp that he can't get his dad's briefcase open. Tripp, gazing out of the window, suggests he try 712, which is his wife's birthday. As Nick sets up the numbers and pushes the button, the loud click of the briefcase causes Tripp to close his eyes in pain. The moment he's dreaded for 40 years -- proof that his wife had been having an affair with his best friend -- has finally come. Sutherland is terrific in this scene, and this is coming from someone who's not a big fan of his. This week he's just as good, when he explains to Nick that he probably knew deep down about the affair, but didn't actually know know. Jeremy and Juliet continue to intrigue me (Jeremy's hot in a going-nowhere kind of way), though the scene at the end where Juliet finds out Jeremy bought expensive jewellery for her nemesis featured the worst acting I've seen on the show yet. I really like the scenes between Patrick and Carmelita (played by Candis Cayne, possibly the most beautiful and believable female impersonators I've ever seen). They could have gone the route of the outlandish with this plotline of Patrick -- the guy running for senator -- sleeping with a transsexual, but instead he's really in love with her, and she's pretty amazing.

Ugly Betty: Continues to make me laugh. Too bad Papi's back (I don't like him very much), but the scene this week of Henry telling off Marc and Amanda and Marc saying he can't remember ever being so turned on was a riot.

30 Rock: Last night's ep was as brilliant as the week before: Jenna deciding to "keep" her belly roll as if it's a baby; Liz eating the steak WAY too fast and saying with a straight face that a dog came into the room and took it from her; Jack taking a little too long to save Will Arnett from choking to death; Tracy sending Kenneth as a gift to his wife; Kenneth telling Angie that he's really good at the "sex stuff." I love this show.

The Office: Finally back to its original form. The scene where Meredith walks up to Jim and has him sign her pelvis cast had my husband laughing so hard we had to pause it (by the way, I'm positive he signs "John Krasinski" and not "Jim Halpert" in that scene... did anyone keep the episode so they could pause and look?). Dwight's computer becoming "self-aware" was pure prank classic (and it was sweet that Pam felt sorry for Dwight and was nice to him, but she said he "mercy-killed" Angela's cat, and there was really nothing merciful about what he did...); Kevin saying Alfredo's pizza is like eating a "hot circle of garbage" had me howling (now... why didn't Michael just send the kid away with his pizza and not pay for it, since he was going to order pizza from the other place anyway?); Phyllis trying to use psychology on Angela's bitchiness; Stanley grooving to the Infinity Web site music; Michael giving a speech and everyone in the office just watching the TV screensaver hoping it'll go straight into the corner slot (ok, I've TOTALLY done that with the computer windows screensavers); Andy getting his Barbershop quartet on the phone and doing ABBA's "Take a Chance on Me" (HA!)... how could Angela not fall for that, even when the guy is Andy?; . This was a great episode.

Journeyman: I liked this week's ep more than the previous, but like I said last week, I want a little more tension in the present. Luckily, Katie discovered at the end that one thing Dan is doing in the past is seeing Livia, and if that doesn't cause serious tension, nothing will. I was talking to someone who knows the writer on this coming week's ep, and said it was going to be a high-concept episode. I'm intrigued.

Moonlight: Week 2 was a vast improvement over week 1. However, the writer was David Greenwalt (i.e. the guy who created the Angel character on Buffy, and helmed the show Angel in the first season it was a spinoff). What is he doing writing for this show? A) doesn't he recogize it's ripping off his baby? B) doesn't it kill him that all of the vampire tendencies/myths/belief systems have been thrown out the window to make the writing easier? What is he thinking?
Anyway, all that aside, I liked it a lot more, but by 3/4 of the way through, thought this was it, and I'm not tuning in beyond this. And then in the final 5 minutes, I changed my mind: when Beth walks into Mick's apartment and finds him greedily sucking back blood from blood bags and his eyes all white and the teeth showing, she discovers that he's a vampire. That's going to put things in a new direction. I'll give it one more week...

Aliens in America: HILARIOUS. If you're not watching this show, please do. There's a scene where Justin turns to his bitchy sister to find out how to distance himself from Raja (after Raja has stood up in class and announced that if he were trapped on a deserted island, the only thing he would want is Justin, prompting people to say they were a gay couple), and she says, "Just do what I do: I told everyone you were my brother, and we adopted you from a retarded family." He stares at her and says with a dead voice, "You had to make my WHOLE family retarded." I was in stitches. I love this show.

Everybody Hates Chris: Something's been lost with this show. The scenes at home are still funny, and there are still moments in Chris Rock's voiceover that make me laugh, but it just doesn't compete with The Office or Aliens in America. But I've been watching it for 2 years now, so...

Torchwood: I checked out this series last Friday when it premiered on CBC. It was intriguing, and had some interesting twists, but I don't think I'll stick with it. A little too Doctor Who, without the Daleks. Not that that's a bad thing, but it just didn't feel original.

The Tudors: Holy Henry Hotness! I've just watched the first ep of this show, and it was great. And Henry is one fine-looking dude. This is the pre-50-inch-waist years. Thank god.

Dexter: Still creepy as hell... this week's was hilarious and tragic, as Dexter tries to get his killin' mojo back. His voiceovers are still SO great, as they're usually ironic or sarcastic commentary on what is happening on the screen. He had to put his brother to rest, finally, though I felt it was done a little quickly (I was hoping his bro would dog him for the season, and maybe he will reappear, but the final scene seemed pretty... final). The scene of Dexter being pulled away from his brother when they're in that carton was heartbreaking... what kind of cop would take only one child and leave the other one in that horrid place?? It made me cry.

Friday Night Lights: Yay, it's back!! I was talking to a friend who was pretty disturbed by what happens with Landry and Tyra (she's not alone), but I actually found it pretty believable, and in keeping with how they might react to the situation. If you didn't like it, and thought it was contrived, Jason Katims has said in an interview that this week's episode will change that, and offer more explanation. I love love this show. And I'm still in love with Coach Carter...

Bionic Woman: Hmm... I wanted this show to be better... here's still hoping.

Kitchen Nightmares: Haven't seen this week's ep yet. See above.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: OK, this show was supposed to have been finished after last season, and that's what Larry David said, and then, like the Who, the show came back. But I'm so glad... it's the same horrid discomfort that the show's always done best, and I love it. Larry meets the "Black family," who happens to be black, and blurts out that it would be like his last name being "Jew." Larry is late getting home, and drives past the site of his best friend's mother's recent death, which is covered in flowers, and actually steals some flowers from it to take to his wife as an apology. Yeowch. Only Larry...

OK, I think that's it. Well, I'm also watching EastEnders (where Michelle Ryan is NOT bionic) and loving it, but it's too far behind (I think they're in November 2005 at this point) to comment on it.

I think I need to cut down on my TV. Thank goodness for long periods of feeding my newborn son on the couch. :)

What’s on my PVR – Part 2

Returning Shows:

Dexter: Ah, how I love that this show is back. Opening episode was seriously awesome, and made me even angrier that Michael C. Hall was completely overlooked for the Emmy. I wasn’t sure how they were going to possibly follow the first season up with a further season, considering what happened, but now I see that while the first season was about him chasing another serial killer, in this season he will become the hunted. By his own sister, no less, while “helping” the force find him. Awesome.

Gossip Girl: Still love.

Bionic Woman: Halfway through ep 2, and I’m enjoying it still, but it’s not knocking my socks off.

Journeyman: After week 2, I’m a little worried this show is going to be a “who will Dan save this week?” show and won’t have enough of the present circumstance in there. What I liked the most is the conundrum between sticking with his wife and child in the present and wanting to go to Livia in the past. I hope they delve more into that.
**Peter Bjorn and John Watch: “Young Folks,” which I previously spotted in Gossip Girl and Dirty Sexy Money, ALSO played in the end moments of Journeyman. Come on, people… sure, it’s a great song, but there are other small indie bands that have a huge song that could be inspiring you.

America’s Next Top Model: Same old.

Kitchen Nightmares: This week’s was more like the first ep, unfortunately. Now that someone posted in my comments that last week’s was, indeed, the contentious episode the show is being sued over, I wonder if Fox just toned it way down, making it far more subtle and not so over-the-top. THEY SHOULD KEEP DOING THAT. It was the subtlety that makes the show work on the BBC. This week, they pretended to return 2 months later, but they didn’t really (I was so excited, and then…) All of the scenes they showed were from the final night, not 2 weeks later. To make it worse, they made it look like Mike the manager had a blowup during service, when in fact it was long after the restaurant had closed. Not sure if Fox thinks were stupid (correction: they do) but the owners tell him to leave, he goes outside, cut to edit of a full restaurant of people looking outside. Cut to Mike, standing outside waiting for them to make a decision, and he’s standing near the window, which is DARK with the curtains drawn and it’s long after closing. Duh. I think Martin from ep 2 just might have a case.

New shows:

Chuck:
Premise: Guy who works as a Nerds on Site person for a Staples-type store gets an email from a former roommate, now working as a spy, sending him all of the government secrets encoded in a series of weird images. The spy is killed, and the NSA and CIA are in a race to see who can find Chuck and put him to good use.
What I Liked: The show is hilarious. It has a wry humour about it that made me laugh out loud at parts (in one scene he goes to “LargeMart,” which is clearly a Costco, and when a spy begins chasing him throughout the store he runs up to an employee and asks her if she can find someone from security “or that guy who checks the receipts.” HA!!)
What I Didn’t Like: I can’t really think of anything I didn’t like about this. It’s bizarre and over-the-top, and in just the right parts.
People from my other shows: Jayne from Firefly; General Beckman made appearances on Buffy, Alias, and Angel.
Verdict: Chuck’s a keeper.

Moonlight:
Premise: If you’ve seen Angel and Forever Knight, you know the premise.
What I Didn’t Like: Geez… where to start? First of all, in the opening five minutes they drop every myth about vampires you can imagine. This guy can walk around during the day, it just gives him a headache (??) Holy water has no effect on him, nor does garlic, a cross or any religious symbol, and if you drive a wooden stake through his heart, he “gets better.” COME ON. The writers just tossed everything about vampires out the window because it makes their job easier. Unlike the writers on Angel, these ones don't have to worry about actually setting everything at night and making sure they're consistent, etc. And as if the premise of the show wasn’t Angel enough, between every scene they do an overhead shot of L.A. shot very quickly with the traffic sped up below… EXACTLY the same segues they used on Angel all the time. There’s a blond woman in the show who finally catches on that Mick’s a vampire… think Elizabeth Rohm in season 1 of Angel, without the attitude problem.
What I Liked: Jason Dohring was great; he was NOTHING like Logan, showing the guy’s actually got a lot of range. And the second half of the show was a lot better than the first.
People from my other shows: Logan from Veronica Mars; Hiatt from The Shield; I know there were some others but now they escape me.
Verdict: One more week, and then I’m dropping it. The fight between the two vampires at the end was pretty cool, and enough to bring me back, but I was SO ticked about them dropping the vampire myths it’ll take a lot to keep me.

Reaper:
Premise: A guy’s parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born, and now on his 21st birthday the devil’s come to collect, making him a bounty hunter, collecting people who’ve escaped from Hell.
What I Liked: Another really funny show, Sock has a very Kevin Smith sense of humour (Smith exec produces and directed first ep), and the cast is great. Also had moments that made me laugh out loud. In the second ep they chase a guy who can make lightning, and they dress from head to toe in rubber, causing Sock to worry aloud that they’re going to die “dressed like a bunch of condoms.”
What I Didn’t Like: Odd that Chuck and Reaper are two similar shows in the same season – two geeks who both work in big box stores and have things happen to them by people on the outside that sentence them to a life of doom. I honestly keep mixing up the two shows in my head.
People from my other shows: Chuck’s crush, Ali, is the illusionista from Heroes.
Verdict: Another keeper. Man… my poor PVR. Why so many good shows this year?!

Pushing Daisies:
Premise: A piemaker has discovered since he was a kid that if he touches a dead thing he can bring it back to life, but with a second touch he kills them again, permanently. A second catch: If he brings them back to life for longer than a minute, someone else drops dead to balance out the universe. He makes money on the side of pie business by finding out where reward money is offered, and going in to the dead people, touching them, asking who killed them, getting the info, and killing them again.
What I Liked: I LOVED this show. The night before I watched it, I was saying to my husband that despite this season having a bunch of great shows that I really don’t want to stop watching, there was no standout like Heroes or Friday Night Lights that I became completely emotionally invested in. And then I saw this one. Okay, I won't become "emotionally invested" in it, not like Friday Night Lights, but it's a keeper for sure. The colours are a little too bright, the sets too unrealistic, the music very Tim Burton/Bernard Herrmann, and it features a voiceover that sounds like a man reading a bedtime story. It’s perfect. In fact, the thing I could compare it to over anything else is a Tim Burton film, which I was saying to a friend of mine the other day. It’s like an outlandish fairy tale… about killing people for money. Lee Pace is great as Ned; actually the cast is fantastic overall. The humour is very funny (the waitress at the Pie Hole, the hilarious name of the restaurant, keeps mixing up words and says for years she thought masturbation was when you chewed your food slowly, hahahaha!), and yet it has a twinge of sadness about everything.
What I Didn’t Like: Only one nitpick: When he’s a little boy, his dog is hit by a car, and he touches the dog, who jumps back up and starts running. Unphased, the kid runs after him. Some time later, after touching flies and bugs, etc. his mother drops dead of an aneurysm. He touches her, and she’s fine. Then that night she kisses him goodnight and drops dead, and that’s when he realizes if he touches something twice, it dies again. My question is… we’re to believe he NEVER touched that dog again? I find that hard to believe. Just a small nitpick. And I’m not sure how it’ll continue; I just hope it doesn’t become a “dead person of the week” show.
People from my other shows: Locke’s mom from Lost.
Verdict: The best of the new shows. I’m praying it doesn’t get cancelled after 3 episodes. Then again, it’s reminiscent of Wonderfalls, so…

Aliens in America:
Premise: A guy who is a complete loser in school gets an exchange student, thinking he’ll get some swim team captain from Sweden who will make him totally cool, but when an equally nerdy kid from Pakistan shows up, he knows his loserdom just plummeted even further.
What I Liked: Three new comedies that are really funny! STOP. I can’t take another show… how am I going to decide what to drop? The mother in this one is especially great; she’s uber-aware of the giant L on her son’s forehead, and does everything to make him “cool,” but nothing works. When he ends up on the jock’s list of top 10 “bangable chicks,” I was howling. (But felt bad about it.)
What I didn’t Like: The scene at the airport where the boy shows up from Pakistan would have been funnier with that crazy music, if I hadn’t seen the movie Election 4,000 times and completely associated it with Reese Witherspoon. Again, stop with the music that is so readily identifiable with something else.
Verdict: I’m going to keep watching. Dammit. I need to get a bigger PVR.

Still on the PVR: The Tudors, Five Days, The War