TV Tues - Revising Expectations

Finally starting to get a little caught up, although there are still a couple of shows I'm lagging behind on.

FRIDAY SEPT. 28

Moonlight (CBS 8:00): First of all, whatever genius at CBS's advertising department decided to market this as a show about a type of hero you've never seen before needs to be tied down and forced to watch every single episode of Forever Knight and Angel until they're finally willing to admit that, honestly, vampire detective? Not necessarily "original." Outside of that, I liked Jason Dohring as the baby-faced capitalistic vampire mentor, and thought that the female lead was likable. Not too keen on the main character as of yet (kind of bland in a brooding avenger of the night sort of way), but maybe that will change with time. Of course, that's assuming I stick with it long enough to find out . . .

MONDAY OCT. 1

Chuck (NBC 7:00): Still my favorite new show of the season; the fast food fist fight between the warring agents was quite possibly the highlight of my TV watching week. Could have done without the awkward dinner party sequence, but I can forgive one small stumble in an otherwise entertaining show.

Journeyman (NBC 9:00): Finally got a chance to watch the first two epsiodes which turned out to be a lot more entertaining than I had predicted from the previews. The twist of having him miss out on huge portions of his current life due to his new powers does add some interesting tension, although his wife's reactions in the pilot really bugged me -- honestly, when your husband shows up after two days and says he can't remember where he's been, wouldn't a more compassionate, loving response be "Honey, let's get you to a doctor and make sure there's not something wrong" instead of her oh-so-sweet "Well, at least you could have called!" Sheesh. I just want to know how long it is before someone actually sees him disappear.

TUESDAY OCT. 2

Cavemen (ABC 7:00): Not as catastrophically awful as I had feared, but in no way, shape, or form does it qualify as "good."

Carpoolers (ABC 7:30): Oh, Fred Goss, how far you have fallen; couple of mildly amusing moments, but probably not going to make it onto my watch list.

WEDNESDAY OCT. 3

Pushing Daisies (ABC 7:00): See, you'd think by now I would have learned not to get my expectations up too high. My biggest issue with the pilot stemmed from the fact that I went in expecting this to have the same dark, cynical, snarky sensibility as Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls, and instead found myself immersed in a bright and shiny fairy tale. Sure, there's a bit of an edge hiding there, what with all the death and murder and such, but the overall perkiness of the characters threw me for a loop.

Private Practice (ABC 8:00): Muuuuuuuuuuuuuuch better second episode; sure, Addison getting all bent out of shape at Tim Daly (yeah, I still have no clue what his character's name is, and I"m too lazy to look it up on IMDB right now) was stupid, but overall the characters were much more likable this time around. Still not up to the quality of Grey's, but maybe it's starting to find its way.

THURSDAY OCT. 4

My Name is Earl (NBC 7:00): The Earl in jail storyline shows no sigh of ending anytime soon as we're introduced to the bumbling warden with his "one month off your prison term" certificates and see Randy get a job at the jail. I'm guessing that Earl will be spreading the wonders of karma throughout the penal system until the first batch of sweeps.

The Office (NBC 8:00): Lots of great stuff in this ep, especially psycho-stalker Kelly's attempts to woo Ryan back, but Michael driving his car into the water was a bit much for me; I prefer it when he comes across as clueless and not functionally retarded.

Survivor (CBS 7:00): Still not really finding anyone to cheer for, although James did earn points when he was complaining about being the only person out there who had apparently had the brains to go by a Barnes & Noble and read up on survival skills beforehand.

Grey's Anatomy (CBS 8:00): Some really great stuff with Bailey in the first two eps of the season, especially her shanghaiing of Meredith for help in the clinic and the exchange between her and Karev after his blunder with the meth-head dad. Right now I'm just waiting for the George/Izzy/Callie triangle to come to a head; hate all of the sneaking around.

MONDAY, OCT 8

how I Met Your Mother (CBS 7:00): I always enjoy the show when it highlights the competitive nature of the guys' friendship, so between the Wii Wimbledon and hunt for The Belt, this was a nice ep for me. Especially liked Barney's attempts at sabotage, his plan to put Ted back into the hunt, and his final "You did. You didn't. He didn't. No, wait, he did!" run. Good stuff.

Big Bang Theory (CBS 7:30): After being only so-so towards the show after the pilot, I find myself pleasantly surprised by how much I'm enjoying it. Loved the WoW bit at the beginning of the ep, and emotionally stunted Sheldon trying to cope with slightly-less stunted Leonard's romantic woes was entertaining. Even better was seeing Sara Gilbert and Johnny Galecki play potential love interests yet again, even if their current characters are about a zillion miles away from Darlene and David.

Two and a Half Men (CBS 8:00): Not much to say about the ep, other than after Robin's restaurant head injury was followed closely by Leonard's possible restaurant concussion on Big Bang Theory, PigPen and I were wondering if it was a theme night on the CBS sitcoms; sadly, Two and a Half Men broke the bleeding-head-in-a-fancy-restaurant streak, even if Charley's blind date did qualify as restaurant carnage of a sort.

Heroes (NBC 8:00): Much like the first season, it's the adventures of Hiro which capture my attention more than anything else. I am intrigued by what the painting means for HRG, and was glad to see Maya actually take some initiative (of sorts), but really, until we get full into the story of this season's Big Bad, it's almost like we're treading water.