Fall TV Roundup, Round Three
The culling has begun.
I came to the conclusion that there wasn't a single character on Surface that I didn't want to see eaten by sea monsters. Not a good sign, so that season pass was the first sacrifice. I also realized that Supernatural was a show with a moral. Unfortunately, that moral is that you should never let Dungeons & Dragons players reference the Monster Manual during a game. House is therefore the clear winner for that time slot.
Still in contention is the Wednesday night 8 Central timeslot. Both Lost and Veronica Mars came out of the gates strong, though I'll admit to a preference for the little lady from Neptune. Thankfully, it appears that the local UPN franchise may be giving Veronica a second airing on Saturday evening, though I'll keep the VCR (Curse serial-access media!) standing by until I'm sure that airing is of the first-run episodes.
Thursday night, however, is still a major battleground. At 7, Smallville is up against the rescheduled Alias. I haven't watched that much Smallville over the last couple of seasons, but I want to check out James Marsters's stint as classic comic villain Brainiac. The premiere reminded me why I havcen't been a regular watcher, though, so we'll see how long that lasts. With Jennifer Garner's pregnancy, Alias may be foundering as well, but I'll give the new fill-in spies (especially the creepy-hot chick from that FBI drama that tanked a few months ago) a chance. There are rumors that Lena Olin will be returning fo a few episodes, and that may be enough to keep me around in the hope of catching some Spy Mommy action. (For that matter, if they ditched the rest of the cast except for Lena Olin and Victor Garber, or gave them a spin-off, the resulting program would have my slavish devotion. Not that I don't like the rest of the APO crew, but Spy Mommy and Spy Daddy would be the baddest duo on TV.)
The 8PM Thursday slot is still in play as well. While the Night Stalker revivial didn't fully draw me in with its pilot, I'm willing to give it another episode or two to find its footing. On the other hand, I'm still not convinced that the original CSI (I've given up on the spin-offs) is holding up very well anymore. I'll wait and see, but Thursday night could end up being a loss all around.
What else am I watching? I'm still hoping for a payoff from Invasion's slow development, to see if the show is worth following long-term. Threshold's pace of revelations is more to my liking, though its dependence on pseudoscience geekery over action makes me worry about its survival in front of a mainstream audience. Finally, I still like Numb3rs, even if it's not gripping me as much as it did in its first season.
