I had to take about an hour to sort through a mountain of paperwork on my desk this morning, and watching "Heroes" on Hulu to help pass the time seemed like an appropriate combination of drudgery and a show that deserves a whole lot less than my full attention. Some brief thoughts coming up just as soon as I eat some birthday cake...

So, it's still unimaginably stupid. We have to just take that as a given, along with the arbitrary shifts in allegiance, the stilted dialogue, wooden acting, etc. All the usual problems remain. I want to talk about two specific things in this episode, one good and one bad.

First, the good: Hiro's reunion with his dying mother, and, to a lesser extent, Claire getting to hang with younger versions of HRG and her mom. On the emotionally simplistic scale in which this show works, those sequences were very effective, and well-played by the actors, even the usually-problematic Hayden Panettiere. Nothing ground-breaking, but grown-up Hiro being the one to cry over his mother (because, of course, he knows what it's like to miss her for so long) was a nice human moment, the sort the show rarely pulls off anymore.

Now, the bad: now Sylar's the funny super serial killer? Really? This is the direction they want to take that character? Campy, quippy imitation Hannibal Lecter? Oy.

Beyond that, I got nothing. One more episode left in this "volume," then a hiatus until February, and we can't even rely on Bryan Fuller to save the day since he won't be coming back on the show until around episode 20 of this season.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Spoilers for tonight's "How I Met Your Mother" coming up just as soon as I call timesies...

Ain't nothin' deep going on in "The Fight," but that's okay, because I laughed harder at the revelation of what Marshall's fights with his brothers really looked like than I have at the rest of this season combined. This was a fundamentally silly outing, and a well-executed one. Among the highlights:

• Barney's ability to fake conversation while citing the titles of '70s/'80s black sitcoms, and somehow always choosing the appropriate one ("What's Happening Now?");

• The guys imagining what fight night at the Ericson household must have been like, complete with cocoa breaks;

• Robin's pathological attraction to guys who get in fights -- complete with the filthy "I'm surprised to see you had it in me" -- well-played by Cobie Smulders and one of the funnier iterations of the Robin-as-Canadian joke;

• The run of Marshall-as-a-girl jokes, especially Marshall demanding a spoiler alert after the "Sex and the City" put-down;

• Mahatma Panda and Martin Luther Koala;

• The return, however brief, of Barney's lesbian get-up during the "Forest Gump" insertion of Doug into old scenes;

• Barney's girlish scream-and-run when Doug threatened to beat them both up;

• Ted having played the hammer dulcimer in college;

• Marshall with the light saber;

• Did I mention the heavy metal-scored glimpse of the real Ericson fight club?

Not deep, but damned funny. What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Oookay, this is just slightly jaw-dropping: NBC is on the verge of handing over the 10 p.m. timeslot, Monday to Friday, to Jay Leno. Some thoughts on the most unexpected chapter of the ongoing late-night wars -- or, in this case, primetime wars -- coming up after the jump...

I've been on record as saying that NBC was making a bad business decision to push Jay out the door so the could give "The Tonight Show" to Conan O'Brien. Even though I vastly prefer Conan's show, Jay is a proven commodity, a rare broadcast star in an age of ever-tighter narrowcasting. All along, NBC executives insisted they had a plan to somehow keep Jay in the fold even while giving his job to Conan, but I don't think anyone suspected they had something this radical in mind -- not even after Jeff Zucker said earlier today that he could envision a future where NBC programmed fewer hours per week in primetime.

Now, if the Leno deal happens (seems likely), and if he can bring his audience with him to primetime on a nightly basis (a big if), this could be a masterstroke by NBC. They keep Jay away from the competition, and they have fixed programming in the 10 p.m. hour, where they've been struggling recently, and where the networks have been struggling in general of late, since studies have shown that DVR users tend to use the hour to watch shows they recorded earlier in the evening. A Leno primetime show (shot in the traditional Burbank studio, but with a different name) with a stable audience would also be good news for the NBC affiliates, who make a good chunk of their money on the late local newscast. And even though Jay doesn't work cheap, I imagine that five nights of his show will still cost less than five nights worth of dramas.

But will people watch what sounds like it will basically be the Leno version of "Tonight" when it's on 90 minutes earlier, before it's time to get ready for bed? DVRs have rendered timeslots meaningless in many ways, but the late night shows seem more habit-driven than most. And does still having Jay on, doing more or less the show he's been doing for almost 20 years, in any way neuter Conan's big promotion to the 11:35 slot?

Whether it works or not, this feels like the latest in a long line of decisions by Zucker and Ben Silverman that are entirely about their failure as actual entertainment programmers. If Silverman had developed a single scripted success in his time at the helm, or if Silverman hadn't spent all his time either buying shows from his own production company or trying to recreate the NBC fall lineup circa 1983, then 10 o'clock wouldn't be such a disaster that they would need to plug Jay in five nights a week to potentially save their hash. This is yet another move along the lines of super-sized "Friends" or two-hour "Celebrity Apprentice." Even if it works, it's a Band-Aid on a very deep wound. Click here to read the full post

Spoilers for tonight's "Chuck" coming up just as soon as I buy the car from "Hardcastle & McCormick"...

"The bigger the lie..." -Jack Burton

I've been watching a lot of grifter stories lately. I had to watch the first four episodes of TNT's "Leverage" in a very short span, re-watched a bit of "Hustle" before doing the "Leverage" review, and keep stumbling across "Ocean's Thirteen" while channel-surfing. And because I have so many elaborate fictional con schemes rattling around my skull, it made the one in "Chuck vs. the DeLorean" seem a little thin in comparison. Yes, it's a wonderful grand gesture that Sarah's dad tries to get away with selling a skyscraper he doesn't own (the 21st century LA equivalent of the Brooklyn Bridge, I suppose), but the actual plan to get the sheikh to give up the 10ドル million -- and to give up the account numbers that would allow the CIA to freeze his assets -- struck me as very simple, and the kind of thing that would require a really gullible terrorist financier to fall for.

But if you're willing to file the entire scam as this week's gaping plot hole we have to ignore to enjoy the rest of the wonderfulness, then "Chuck vs. the DeLorean" was very much in form after last week's minor misstep.

Gary Cole is great virtually all of the time. That's a given. (The rare exceptions are roles like the one in "Pineapple Express" where he's not given anything to do, as if his mere presence will elevate material that isn't there in the first place.) He's so comfortable in his own skin, and in the skin of whatever character he's playing, that I bought him as a master con man even when the episode itself wasn't always giving me much evidence of that. And I thought Yvonne Strahovski again knocked a showcase episode right out of the park. She played so well off of Cole, and did such a fine job of showing how badly Jack has hurt Sarah in the past, that I just went with a lot of the material that was on the skimpier side.

It helped that, unlike last week, there were only two stories, and Morgan's purchase of the titular DeLorean took a decided backseat to the main action, which gave the A-story more room to breathe and more time for nice small moments like Jack dubbing Casey "Cop Face" or Jack swiping the victory cigar back almost immediately after giving it to Casey. And it was a nice tweak on the show's recent formula to have a spy world development (the sheikh stealing the DeMorgan) provide a solution to a nerd world problem (Morgan needing money to repay Captain Awesome), when it's been vice versa of late.

And the DeMorgan subplot provided more than our usual complement of '80s references, from the car itself to the use of Yello's "Oh Yeah" (famous from both "The Secret of My Success" and from the scene where Ferris Bueller admires Cameron's dad's Ferrari, which provided the model for Lester's dialogue here) to the General Lee punchline.

Good stuff. How can there only be one more episode this calendar year, and no more episodes of any kind until the day after the Super Bowl? Because, of course, the last time NBC decided to keep the show off the air for its own good worked out so well. (And that time it didn't have to worry about "House" moving into the timeslot while it's gone.)

Some other thoughts on "Chuck vs. the DeLorean":

• Is this the first time we've actually seen customers in the Orange-Orange? And since it's a CIA front for The Castle instead of a regular business where Sarah works, are there other CIA agents who have to man the counter when Sarah's off on a mission? Or does the place constantly have a "Back in 5 minutes" sign on the door?

• Along similar lines, what happens if the company changing the upholstery on the Nerd Herders finds all the extra bonus features in Chuck's car?

• One more probable '80s reference: the skyscraper is Nagamichi Plaza, which sounds an awful lot like John McClain's old Nakatomi Plaza stomping grounds. (Or is there a real Nagamichi tower?)

• Every time you think Jeff has reached a new disturbing low, the show manages to make him even creepier, this time with him saying he would use a time machine to witness the moment of Lester's birth because "I'd love to see the look on your face when you emerge from the vaginal canal." Ewwww...

• Hearing Devin propose such a high interest rate and threatening to pluck clean the very hirsute Morgan suggested an alternate nickname: Captain Shylock, anyone?

• So Chuck says his wayward dad was an engineer. Does that make it more or less likely that Papa Bartowski was really a spy?

• I am now convinced that there's some kind of contest in the "Chuck" writers room to see who can slip in the most obscure athlete name into their script. This week's contest entry: Guido Merkins, Jack's alias at the motel. Those of you attempting to establish a pattern based on the previous Guy LaFleur and Von Hayes references, get cracking with this new data.

• The end of "Chuck vs. the Cougars" made it clear that Sarah's real name is not Jenny Burton, which means Jack Burton isn't Jack Burton, and possibly not even Jack. Why's he still bothering to use that alias all these years later?

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Now, in addition to soliciting suggestions for the best-of list, it's time to also ask for your assistance in coming up with my other annual rankings. If you've been reading me a while, you know that I don't do a traditional worst-of list, but instead do a Festivus list, inspired by the old "Seinfeld" alterna-holiday where Frank Costanza would gather his loved ones together to explain how they had disappointed him in the past year.

In theory, people and shows on the list -- here's last year's -- have to be capable of disappointing me, which means I had to have expectations in the first place. So the "Knight Rider" remake wouldn't qualify, but season five of "House" would, for instance.

Who's going to be standing around your own alumnium pole this December 23rd? Click here to read the full post

'Tis the season for critics of every stripe to start pumping out their annual best and worst lists. (James Poniewozik is way ahead of the curve with his lists of the top 10 shows and top 10 episodes). The Star-Ledger usually runs my list very late in the month (last year's lists of best shows and best episodes were published Dec. 28, and I don't think we have a firm date for this year's yet), so that gives me extra time to ruminate, and to accept outside input.

Feel free to suggest either a series, or a special, or an episode of something. You may not be able to convince me to include, say, "Kath & Kim," but you might jog my memory on something that I had forgotten or overlooked. Click here to read the full post

Very brief spoilers for last night's penultimate "Dexter" season three episode coming right up...

I hate the Internet some days. Every comment on the blog gets e-mailed to me as soon as it's posted so that I know if there's something I need to respond to -- or, on occasion, if there's something I need to delete. Last night, I came home late from giving a friend a lift home, put on "Dexter," and, as the opening credits were playing, checked my e-mail... and found a comment just posted to last week's "Dexter" discussion that spoiled virtually everything in the episode, including Dexter using a garrote instead of a knife on Miguel. So thanks a lot, anonymous d-bag.

Because of that marvelous specimen, I don't have a lot to say about "I Had a Dream," but I do feel like I would have been disappointed in the episode even if I didn't know what was coming. Having Dexter kill Prado with an episode to go was a surprise in its timing, but predictable in the larger scheme of things. We all assumed that Dex would eventually get Miguel on a table, and he did, with minimal difficulty. I would have liked the final showdown between these two men who were briefly kindred spirits to have been more complicated from an emotional and logistical standpoint. Dexter got to taunt Miguel about killing Oscar (and I guess we'll never find out exactly why Oscar was in Freebo's house), but the whole thing played out as you'd expect if you've watched this show for three seasons. Given their former close friendship, and Miguel's standing in the community, and whatever serial killer skills Miguel picked up from Dexter, I was hoping for something more.

Now, Dexter doesn't know that Miguel put the Skinner on his tail, but the Skinner was always a sideshow to the season's main story, and that's done in a fairly perfunctory fashion. (To be fair, it might have seemed brilliant and shocking if I'd been unspoiled, but I don't think so.)

Jennifer Carpenter gets beat up a lot here and on various message boards, but I thought she did a very nice job with Deb trying to deal with the news about Harry. And the scene where Anton talked about what it felt like to be the Skinner's captive gave us a different perspective on what it must be like to be the poor bastard trapped under Saran Wrap by Dexter. But I'm still waiting for the show to remember the business about Quinn being a dirty cop.

As always -- and especially after this recent incident -- I should remind you about the spoiler policy around here, which is no spoilers about upcoming episodes before they're written about by me. No talking about anything in the previews, anything you've read or heard elsewhere, about psychic visions you had, etc.

What did the non-spoiled among you think of the episode? Click here to read the full post

I shared most of my thoughts about the "Leverage" pilot in Friday's column, but feel free to share your own thoughts here. Click here to read the full post

Honestly, I don't know what to say about "Grey's Anatomy" anymore, except that it's gone past the point of annoying me. I'm now actually offended half the time. Memo to Shonda Rhimes: Mary McDonnell is playing someone with Asperger's. She is not playing a Vulcan. The L'il Gray/McSteamy scene at the end was disturbing, the "Seven Year Itch" homage with Yang doesn't work if she's wearing pants,

And as for the Izzie/Denny stuff... sigh. Ausiello has a big spoiler out there that we're not going to discuss here, but no matter where this story's going, it makes me feel stupider every time I watch it.

If it wasn't for the continued excellence of the guest star stories, I'd be a cloud of dust. What does everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Spoilers for last night's "The Office" coming up just as soon as I get a new Urklenomic chair...

"Motherf..." -Michael Scott

Has there ever been a funnier "Office" edit than the abrupt one from Michael swearing to Michael in the fur coat at the end of this episode? Just the perfect finishing touch for a terrific episode.

I always love "Office" stories that are largely about the minutiae of daily office life, like the war over the thermostat, or Kevin bringing the Five Families together to resolve the parking lot issue, or Stanley's overwhelming joy on Pretzel Day. The budget surplus was right in that wheelhouse, and provided opportunity for some human-scale Michael foolishness, as well as a wonderful look at what happens when Jim and Pam are on opposite sides of an issue.

We've seen Pam be ruthless before in getting what she wants (see her and Karen teaming up on the Committee to Plan Parties), but Jim is usually either on her side or an innocent, amused bystander. This was the first time in a while (if ever) where they were at odds on something like this, and it was hilarious to see them breaking out the big guns: Jim by buddying up to Michael, Pam by slapping on some lipstick and going all flirty about Michael's butt. It was nasty, it was disgusting, and it was brilliant.

Also wonderful were the demonstrations of just how badly the office needed replacements for both the copier and the chair. Michael gradually sinking while trying to give his inspirational speech to the troops was a particularly nice touch.

On the downside, I think I'm about ready for the Dwight/Andy/Angela triangle to end, even though it's clear from the developments here that it's not gonna. Outside of Andy randomly stepping in manure in the kitchen, I spent most of that subplot feeling uncomfortable.

Some other thoughts:

• Now, was Hank the security guard taking his sweet time because it was a tough choice, or because the Dunder-Mifflin office is so much warmer than his usual digs?

• The drop down from Oscar's 8-year-old explanation to the 5-year-old explanation was a good twist on an old joke.

• I grew up right near a Burlington Coat Factory store, and Michael is absolutely right when he says 600ドル in there would make you like a king. In fact, given the sad state of the economy and my need for some new shirts, I think I need to figure out where the closest Burlington is to me.

• What was grosser: Andy in the dung, or Michael pouring sugar into his soda can?

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

In today's column, I review TNT's "Leverage," a fun little caper show with some room for improvement. As I've seen the first four episodes (one airs this Sunday, then the show airs Tuesdays at 10), I'll probably work it into the rotation in some form at least through the end of the month. Click here to read the full post

Spoilers for tonight's "30 Rock" coming up just as soon as I buy your mulch...

"I want to go to there." -Liz Lemon

There hasn't been a new "30 Rock" episode in a couple of weeks, but there also hasn't been a lack of reading material about its star, Tina Fey. Maureen Dowd profiled her in Vanity Fair, Sarah Hepola at Salon pondered all the Fey cheesecake shots that accompanied Dowd's story, blogs started digging up photos of the pre-glam, pre-fame Fey, and Nancy Franklin even suggested that "30 Rock" succeeds in spite of Fey's performance, rather than because of it.

Though it certainly wasn't intended that way, "Reunion" comes along just in time to serve as a running commentary on all the Fey analysis. It features flashbacks to her as an ugly duckling, has Jack discuss how she's transformed into "a vaguely ethnic swan," shows Liz to be so ruthless that she deserves the "Herman the German" nickname Colin Quinn gave to Fey, and makes it clear that the show's two Emmy winners for acting are just as deserving, and just as funny.

With all the high-profile guest stars out of the way for now (see the bullet points for notes on a few of Liz's old classmates), we got to bask in a half-hour of concentrated Liz-and-Jack time, as each tried and eventually failed to reinvent themselves at Liz's high school reunion. The idea that Liz the geek with bad hair was unwittingly the nastiest girl in school was an unexpected and brilliant twist -- never seen that one in a high school reunion story, have you? -- and Jack's decision to embrace his inner Larry Braverman gave Baldwin a chance to play a delightfully goofy strain of those occasional glimpses we get of a happy Jack.

Plus, we got two hysterical variations on Liz Lemon running gags: her tendency to binge on bad food (the private jet had popcorn!) and to blurt out embarrassing confessions ("I saw my grandparents making love once and I didn't leave right away!!!" is one of the funniest things Fey has ever uttered).

God, I love this show, and an episode like "Reunion" was a good reminder of why.

Some other thoughts on "Reunion":

• The Tracy/Kenneth/Jenna subplot didn't really work, and is now the second time in a couple of weeks where Jenna's solution to a problem with a co-worker is to dress up as him. Will we see her in a bald cap next week after she has an argument with Pete? Come to think of it, if you throw in the Twofer/Frank dispute from last season, there's an awful lot of role-reversed dress-up going on backstage at "TGS."

• Until I saw the credits, I had absolutely no idea that Kelsey was played by Robyn Lively, co-star of such semi-classic '80s flicks as "Wildcats," "Teen Witch" and "The Karate Kid, Part III." Last time I saw her, she still had red hair and was starring on early WB soap "Savannah."

• Much more recognizable: Janel Moloney as Larry Braverman's baby mama. Always good to see Donnatella Moss working.

• One of the episode's better runners was the hotel desk clerk trying to warn Jack about all the bad parts of town (telling him not to follow the detour sign because "It's a trap"), but I don't understand how you could have a wet bar in a dry county. Surely there was an easier and still in-character way to get Jack to attend the reunion, no?

• And yet another running joke that never gets old: the childlike, or possibly animal-like, behavior of Kathy Geiss, who needs the sound of jingling keys to look at the photographer's camera. With Don Geiss awake and basking in his beam of light, I hope this isn't the last we've seen of Kathy.

• Between this episode and the "Office" episode where Meredith was having sex in exchange for steak certificates, exactly how much money do you think a certain Aussie steakhouse chain has paid to NBC for product integration? And is their commercial message supposed to be "Our steak will make smart women make foolish choices"?

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Spoilers for last night's "Life" coming up just as soon as I enjoy some days-old deer stew...

Time for a new ad campaign: "Life: The year's funniest police procedural!"

This show has always had a comic side, thanks to its leading man (and now thanks to Donal Logue), but the last couple of episodes have been especially, almost refreshingly silly, highlighted by the mistaken identity business with Tidwell's call to the hotel, and then the awkward dinner where Ted tried to serve Indian (as in South Asian) food to an Indian (as in Native American) person, who then had to witness various bits of Crews family strife.

And yet, none of the laugh moments in any way undermined the show's usual Zen cool, whether it was Crews and William Atherton(*) chatting on his swank rooftop lounge or Crews staring down a gang of angry locals in the middle of the desert.

(*) I should have started this last week, but I make a vow that from now until whenever Atherton's guest stint on this show is done, I will include one random exchange from an Atherton '80s movie in my "Life" reviews. This week, courtesy of the underappreciated "Real Genius," with Atherton as Prof. Hathaway and Tom Swerdlow as Bodie:

Bodie: He said he didn't feel like it. And I said, "You'd better!" And he said, "Or what?" And I said, "Or else you're gonna be in trouble." And he said, "Jam it."
Professor Hathaway: That's a wonderful story, Bodie. I noticed you've stopped stuttering.
Bodie: I've been giving myself shock treatments.
Professor Hathaway: Up the voltage.

I do have to keep reminding myself that the Tidwell/Reese scenes (like the one pictured above) aren't supposed to be Tidwell fantasies, but that subplot has become worth it if solely for Crews' reaction to it, like him ferreting out Reese's "indulgence" using nothing but the powers of the taxi cab.

We have two more episodes until the show goes on a Christmas-through-January hiatus, but after worrying about much of the season, the last few episodes have been very satisfying.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

There are TV shows that get my full attention, and then there are shows I put on as background noise while I'm doing five other things. More often than not, "Law & Order" falls into the latter category, but as I put the latest episode on this morning to keep me occupied while I did some TV critic scut work, I found myself getting more and more drawn into it. Don't know how many fans of the mothership we have around these parts, but some thoughts coming up just as soon as I order the turkey chili...

Scheduling issues prevented me from writing a column about the season premiere, but I've now seen at least four or five of this season's episodes and have to say that I really like the current cast. Linus Roache provides a nice change of pace from Sam Waterston while still providing Waterston plenty of opportunities for righteous indignation, Alana De La Garza may be the most likable token hottie ADA since Jill Hennessy, and Jeremy Sisto and Anthony Anderson have developed nice chemistry as the cops. It's a good group.

Still, my TV-watching time is precious, and I usually cut standalone procedurals out of the mix as triage. I recorded last night's episode mainly to watch Katee Sackhoff, but even as her character (a violent woman with shades of Starbuck and The Other Bionic Woman, but not so much so that it was just Sackhoff going through the motions) was elbowed off-stage as the first act red herring, I found myself drawn into this weird story with the upstate cops, the judge straight out of "Doc Hollywood," Tom Everett Scott as the shady Eliot Spitzer-type governor, etc. It says something that almost 20 years into this franchise, it can still engage and surprise me from time to time, can still make me anxious to find out whodunit and whether McCoy and company can get a conviction.

And Jack's political career, along with the rivalry with the governor, provides an entertaining ongoing personal thread that doesn't really work against the show's core mission.

Don't know that the show's going back in the regular rotation, but I've enjoyed a lot of what I've seen lately, and wanted to make note of that.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

So, now that the other networks have shown their mid-season cards, NBC finally decided to unveil its plans past the initial January news that came out last week. You can read the press release here, and after the jump, bullet point-y analysis...

• "The Office" gets to air after the Super Bowl, which is what NBC basically said last April at their "in-front" scheduling announcement. The only difference is that it won't be paired with an "Office" spin-off, for two reasons: 1)Amy Poehler's pregnancy pushed back that show's start date, and 2)It's not a spin-off anymore. So we get an hour-long "Office" -- which, as you know, I've had issues with in the past.

• "ER" wraps up its run on March 12, and is replaced the following week by "Kings," the alternate-history drama starring Ian McShane, who doesn't appreciate people misunderstanding the show's premise.

• "Chuck" and "Heroes" are both back from their brief January siestas on February 2, "Chuck" with a post-Super Bowl 3-D episode, "Heroes" with the start of the new "volume" that everyone promises will be so much better than the current nonsense. "Life" is back from its own hibernation on February 4.

• "Medium" reclaims its old Monday at 10 timeslot, though "Heroes" isn't the lead-in it used to be.

• As if an hour a week of Donald Trump wasn't insufferable enough, "Celebrity Apprentice" is now expanding to two hours every single week. When you need to rely on a regularly-scheduled two-hour version of "The Apprentice," you've seriously fallen down on the job of coming up with viable programming for your network. Click here to read the full post

Spoilers for last night's "House" coming up just as soon as I find out if two single doctors can share the same office without driving each other crazy...

I am, I think, a fairly even-tempered viewer, not the sort who tries to take things on his favorite shows personally. I try to give new characters a chance, even if they're getting screen time at the expense of longtime regulars who I like.

Now, with that rational disclaimer out of the way... I HATE THIRTEEN! SHE'S SO BORING! WHY IS SHE ON MY SCREEN SO MUCH EVERY WEEK? SHE NEEDS TO JUST DIE ALREADY! WAH WAH WAH!!!!!!!

Seriously, folks, it's just staggering to me that the "House" writers continue to find Thirteen so fascinating, and so in need of getting her own storylines week after week after week after week.

This isn't even a case of me being annoyed that Cameron and Chase are so marginalized, as I never cared much about them when they were more prominent. Nor is it really that much out of frustration with how little, say, Kutner has been fleshed out, because they would need to give him a personality -- instead of a wacky C-plot that felt like something "St. Elsewhere" would have found trite by the end of its second season -- before I cared about him, too. I just don't find Thirteen that interesting, at least not remotely to the degree of the airtime she's been getting this season. And I have a feeling we're not even close to being done with All Thirteen, All the Time so long as she's enrolled in Foreman's clinical trial.

The Patient of the Week story was a good one, and I enjoyed watching House and Cuddy play out the classic pigtails-in-the-inkwell story using office furniture and space, but every time we cut away to Thirteen, my attention wandered away to go get a sandwich.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Spoilers for last night's "Fringe" coming up just as soon as I do a few magic tricks...

I never got around to reviewing last week's butterfly-and-frog extravaganza, which is a shame, because "Fringe" is on quite the little roll the last few episodes, isn't it? I actually watched it ahead of "House" last night, and in many ways have enjoyed it a lot more than "House" over this span.

("House" blogging to follow in a bit, so save all the Thirteen love or hatred until then.)

After dancing around the sci-fi stuff in the early episodes, we've now plunged deep into the skiffy waters with an hour featuring bank robbers who walk through walls and German master criminals who teleport out of the slammer (after first snapping his lawyer's neck and getting properly dressed in the poor bastard's clothes), not to mention the idea that Olivia has now bogarted a bunch of John Scott's memories. Given the show's premise, I think it's smart for the writers to more overtly embrace things that would have no business on, say, "Eleventh Hour."

The running subplot about Olivia having bits of John in her head (when she flashes back to John's memories, does she see herself there, or him?) has finally started giving Anna Torv something interesting to do. The scene last week where Olivia confessed to Charlie that this work could be literally making her crazy was Torv's best of the series, and the scene at the bar last night was the first time she displayed any personality trait other than "stoic and determined." (And am I the only one who spent much of that scene wondering whether Olivia was sharing things about herself or things she had taken from John?)

And the Walter/Peter relationship is really clicking now. I loved all of their scenes last night -- Peter trying to explain the concept of big box stores to Walter, Walter being delighted by Peter's magic, Peter figuring out ways to phrase questions so they'll penetrate Walter's usual mental fog -- and with or without Olivia, I'd be happy to watch a weekly installment of The Battling Bishops.

What did everybody else think? It's getting much better, right? Click here to read the full post

With all the other mid-season announcements being made over the last couple of weeks, I was wondering when the CW would get around to announcing a premiere date and timeslot for season two of "Reaper." Well, it's going to be back on Tuesday, March 17 at 9 p.m., after "90210." As James Hibberd notes, the original plan was to rotate "Reaper" in on Thursdays so that "Smallville" and "Supernatural" wouldn't have to air many repeats, but apparently that combo's working so well together (by CW standards) that they didn't want to disrupt it. Click here to read the full post

I just keep finding excuses to run photos of the Bobby Cannavale "Cupid" remake (trailer here, don't forget), in this case because it's one of several mid-season shows on ABC and CBS to get a timeslot today. You can read the ABC press release and its CBS counterpart, and I'll offer up some specifics and analysis after the jump...

• CBS's crime procedurals are holding up as well as anything on TV this season, so there are very few changes on their mid-season sked. "Eleventh Hour" got extended for five more episodes past the initial 13, then will give way for the serialized mystery show "Harper's Island," which they hope will do better in the post-"CSI" timeslot. With "The Ex-List" long dead, "Flashpoint" returns to the Friday timeslot where it did very well in the summer, and Ashton Kutcher's "Game Show in My Head" gets banished to Saturdays, no doubt because of the fast flop of Kutcher's ABC game show "Opportunity Knocks."

• Of the three new ABC dramas to get timeslots today -- "Cupid," "Castle" and "The Unusuals" -- only the latter seems to be placed in a position for easy success, as it will get to air after "Lost." "Cupid" goes Tuesdays at 10, with "Scrubs" and a comedy to be named later as its lead-in, while Nathan Fillion and "Castle" go Mondays at 10, against a certain carrot-topped individual who favors sunglasses and snappy one-liners.

• When ABC announced that they were remaking "Cupid," a show that had failed on the network a decade ago, I argued that the ABC of 2008 was a lot better-equipped to support the show than the ABC of 1998, because a timeslot after either "Desperate Housewives" or "Grey's Anatomy" would be much more hospitable than having to air on Saturday nights or against "Seinfeld" the way the original version did. So, of course, ABC goes and schedules it away from either sensible lead-in, on the same island where "Eli Stone" died a slow death this fall. I understand that ABC is trying to salvage "Private Practice" by pairing it with "Grey's," but couldn't the network have tried "Cupid" on Sundays at 10? "Brothers and Sisters" has to take one of those March/April breaks, doesn't it? Sigh...

(UPDATE: Of course, my scheduling math was off. "Cupid" will be on after the "Dancing with the Stars" results show. I still think getting a lead-in from another drama is more advantageous, but I can't complain about the show not having a huge audience watching ABC right before it comes on.) Click here to read the full post

Spoilers for last night's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" coming up just as soon as I pick up someone to weigh them...

Odd little episode, that one. Of the regulars, only John, Cameron and Riley had any screentime of note (if Sarah popped in briefly, I blanked on it), and we spent much of it on Cameron involved in, as Daniel from Television Without Pity put it, the "Terminator" equivalent of a "Cold Case" plot.

I was never bored. The production team has really mastered a way to create an unsettling mood that makes even random scenes at a high school party seem like trouble's coming, and Billy Lush (Trombley from "Generation Kill") played well off the typically excellent Summer Glau.

But at some point, I'd like to start getting at least a few answers about why all these Terminators are coming back in time, how many SkyNet and human factions there are, etc. The show has been consistently entertaining on an episode-by-episode basis for most of the season such that it's not an urgent need for answers. But at some point, I would like a sign that the writers know where this is all going -- even if the ratings probably won't be strong enough to get us there.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post