TV Tues - Wish I Had Me One of Those Crystals So's I Could Go Back and Stop Myself From Watching Smallville . . .

I’m really looking forward to tonight’s Gilmore Girls, which will feature the first full Gilmore family Friday night dinner this season; from what I’ve read, the dinner will encompass the entire episode. Fun and fireworks ahead when Emily learns that Christopher’s paying for the rest of Rory’s schooling.

But enough about what’s ahead; let’s take a look at what’s behind

Stargate: Atlantis: Perhaps my favorite line on any show this week: "You claim to be a creation of my mind, and yet you are in no way dressed provocatively."

Dirty Jobs: The firefighter and sugar segments were all right, but both paled in comparison to the alligator farm; any time Mike Rowe is worried about his physical safety, you know it's going to be a good one, and getting into a pen filled with little alligators certainly fit that bill.

Lost: Every time they'd show Charlie looking at someone jealously, all I could think was "We wants our precious, tricksy hobitsses stoles it from us and we wants it back."

Invasion: Okay, the show is getting better, but I still can't stand Russell or Larkin; isn't it sad that I have more sympathy for the potentially murderous alien hybrids than I do the "heroes" of the show?

Battlestar Gallactica: One thing I respect about this show is that they're not afraid to shake things up and frak around with the characters; I might not like what they do with the characters (the previews for next week's "Starbuck's an alkie" ep worries me), but the fact that you never know what's coming next helps keep it interesting.

The O.C.: Not really enjoying the evil sister storyline, nor the "Sandy's turning into Caleb" plot; I did enjoy the "Seth is stoned" story, up until the part where it became evident it wasn't going to be a one-off thing. Not looking forward to the sure to come very-special-intervention episode.

The Office: Jim is the master of the "silent look to the camera," he can put more comedy and meaning into a single glance than most sitcoms manage over an entire season (of course, that's what's known as "damning with faint praise," I suppose . . .). While the episode was underway, I messaged Zinger that the name of the ep should be "Worst Day of Jim's Life." After Jim got his multiple voice mails, Zinger sent back "Best Day of Jim's Life." Hard to argue with that.

My Name is Earl: While the wrestling-the-little-old-lady scenes were close, I think my favorite moment of the ep was the prisoner’s determination to “close [his] eyes and power through it.” So, so wrong, but so, so funny

Veronica Mars: Going to have to pay attention to the opening credits next time to see if Teddy Dunn is really off the show for good; I can't see how they can realistically bring him back now. I was pretty sure Veronica was in on the kidnapping from early on; I might have just been mildly suspicious on any other show that had featured the oh-so-public break-up and the like, but the thing that pushed me into dead certainty before the big reveal was this: there was no Veronica voice-over through any of it.

Surface: I have to say, this show has not gone in any of the directions I had originally anticipated. Finding out the creatures are genetically engineered wasn't a super-huge surprise, but finding out that there was also a genetically engineered talking ape was, not to mention the fact that the evil federal agent is a clone. My only really big complaint about the show is how they have Rich's wife acting. I have no problem with her wanting to leave him because he's acting like a psycho; perfectly understandable. But her constant explosions over him being around Laura are just idiotic; I might have been able to handle the jealousy angle if it had built slowly and displayed itself more rationally, but with the way she constantly flies off the handle, I keep thinking he might be better off without her. But, at least she didn’t turn him in to the feds like Laura’s ex, the bastage. Can't believe next week is the season finale already; it's supposed to answer all the big questions but still leave room for another season; we'll see how that works out.

Courting Alex: So, one mediocre sitcom's time slot is now being filled by another mediocre sitcom. Just dandy. Seriously, while I'm glad to see Josh Randall getting work, I wish he had been able to parlay his guest shots on Lost or Scrubs into something more permanent, rather than being stuck in this mess. It's like Bizarro Dharma & Greg, and I don't just mean that it has the genders of the stuck-up lawyer and free spirit reversed, I mean that their concept of what is funny and entertaining seems to be the opposite of conventional wisdom. Such a waste.

24: “Hi, Jack, I know you’re in the middle of a life-threatening situation, but please, let me distract you by talking about our relationship.” Good thinking, Audrey, good thinking. Meanwhile, the weaselly president continues to be a weasel, but at least he was forced to confront his weaseliness a bit.

Smallville: All right, I admit it; I got sucked in by all of the hype, not to mention a morbid curiosity. The first half hour of the show was actually pretty good, although it definitely had a dream-like, "there's no way any of this is really real" quality to it. Then, from the instant the voice of Jor-El gave Clark the oh-so-convenient-and-did-I-mention-its-the-only-one-of-its-kind time travel crystal, the ep went straight into the crapper. I did think the final conversation between Clark and his mom was handled well, but everything leading up to the death of Pa was just horrendous.

Love Monkey: Tom Cavanaugh is doing his darndest to carry this show, and so far it's working, but who knows how long it can last? So far I've seen little to indicate that his supporting cast here is as strong as it was on Ed. And besides, the gratuitous musician cameos have already grown tiresome, and we're only two episodes in: "Oh, look, it's Ben Folds and Leeann Rimes, who have apparently just stopped to talk to me so I can go 'oh, look, it's Ben Folds and Leeann Rimes'." Just sad, that it is. But, I'm willing to give it at least a couple more eps before I say yea or nay.

The Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: I know a lot of people talked up the Star Wars Geek segment on this disc, and yes, it was funny, but for my money the best thing here was the footage of Triumph doing the weather for a Hawaiian NBC affiliate. Watching the poor anchors trying to keep a straight face through the tirade made the whole disc worthwhile.

Alien Nation Disc 4: Some of the weaker episodes of the series on this disc, I’m afraid; the “Eyewitness News” ep is noteworthy for its inclusion of Angela Bassett as a guest-star, but I’m afraid even that wasn’t enough to redeem these mediocre eps.

Red Dwarf Series 7 Disc 1: The first three or four series of Red Dwarf are some of the best of British comedy; unfortunately, the quality declined after that. There are still some nice touches here and there, and the redemption of Rimmer was nicely done; sadly, this came at the cost of Rimmer as a recurring character, and once he left the show, so did the bulk of my interest.