Fall TV Roundup, Round Two
I guess the only new show I've watched that I didn't mention in my last post was Invassion, the third of this year's alien invasion dramas. This is the one that takes place in the aftermath of a hurricane down in Florida; either the show's hurricane wasn't too graphic, or I'm just too numb to storm news, but that didn't bother me. Anyway, a few people saw strange lights in the sky during the storm, and strange things in the waters afterwards, and a few of the survivors are acting strangely. Storm aside, the pilot went kind of slow, but without any real missteps that I noticed. My preliminary response is to want to see how the story develops over the next few episodes.
Lots of shows continue to sit on my TiVo while I'm off playing World of Warcraft, but I am watching a bit here and there. After a second episode, I can't argue with TeeVee's critique of Threshold, but even with plotting problems, the scientific mysteries look like they'll be enough to keep me hooked for the duration. I'm not holding out much hope that the show will attract enough of the non-me demographic to stick around. The second Bones, on the other hand, turned me off in some way that I can't quite define, and I'm probably just going to let it slip past. Lost started its new season with enough of a kick to restore my interest. Unfortunately, UPN in its finite wisdom moved my favorite new show from last year, Veronica Mars, into the same timeslot, so I'll have to either use a primitive 20th century VCR, or worse, watch television in real time. Finally, this may be the time for me to concede that the original CSI has jumped the shark. I loved last season's literally explosive Tarantinoized finale, but it looks like they're going to draw a loose thread from that episode and drag it out into an ongoing minor story thread of the kind that I've seen kill too many other shows.
Aside from the Veronica Mars premiere, I'm most looking forward to the new Night Stalker series. I may give Smallville another chance this year as well, if only to see James "Spike" Marsters as the classic Superman villain Brainiac.
