Shh, My Show Is On!

"I just want to ask you, do you watch The Office, 30 Rock, Samantha Who?, Grey's Anatomy, and/or Lost? Because I do, and I've kinda already set the DVR for them." This was said to me by my roommate who volunteers her weekday evening hours at a Co-op playhouse. Basically, what she wanted to know was, should she delete the shows after she watches them, or should she keep them for me? Also, to warn me that The Office and 30 Rock, and Grey's Anatomy go on at the same time and I won't be able to watch a third channel (like America's Next Top Model or Project Runway -- AGH!) at the same time. (Curse you cable programmers!) I told her I watched all of them, but wasn't committed to any but Lost. (Lost? I love you. And I forgive you Season 3. It is forgotten. Let us speak no more of it.) Yes, friends, it's that time of the year again when we all put on our jammies at 8 o'clock and hunker down in front of the boob tube regardless whether we're watching the show live or twenty minutes later so we can fast forward through the commercials. What will I be watching this fall? So glad you asked.

I love Mad Men! And if you're not watching it, you can go out and rent all of Season 1 and watch them back-to-back in one weekend. I should know, because I've done it. It's now Season 2 and the year is 1962 and if you know anything about your history, you know that Vatican II started in 1962 (totally revamping Catholicism, and main character Peggy is a Catholic - -and Colin Hanks is her creepy priest!) and The Feminine Mystique was published in 1963 (burn, baby, burn those bras!) and The Pill became a generic drug giving millions of women access to it. Also in 1963, the Civil Rights Movement gets going with MLK's letter from a Birmingham jail, that fire hose thing that happened in Alabama, Medgar Evers getting shot, and the March on D.C. (Secondary character Paul is dating an African-American girl.) Unlike that cancelled show American Dreams, it doesn't put the main characters into the maelstrom, instead it just allows history to sort of brush against these people's lives. It's so smart! Sigh, Matthew Weiner, I adore you. (DON'T screw it up.)

America's Next Top Model is on right now (don't you judge me), and Project Runway is almost over (go Korto!). I'm looking forward to Pushing Daisies coming back and 30 Rock, of course. I have no clue when Friday Night Lights is coming on, but I'll be waiting. I am wondering what's going to happen on Dirty, Sexy, Money (very happy that they've decided to make Juliette a secondary character. She's totally the Shannon of the Darling family), though I'm not thoroughly committed. Same goes for Ugly Betty. I'm completely done with Heroes. As for Grey's Anatomy, after two seasons of not watching I'm almost ready to give it another go just because Kevin McKidd has been cast, and I wuv him. I'll check in with Brothers & Sisters, but after the Rebecca Reveal last season, I don't know if I'm going to stick with it.

New shows are just starting. Fox was smart to get Fringe out the door, and so far I've watched both episodes and it feels a bit like Lost from the Dharma Initiative's point of view. But, whatever. I'll give it a couple more episodes (though I'm not really buying Joshua Jackson as a womanizing dick). At work, I'm TiVo'ing TrueBlood as its on HBO and we don't have premium cable at home. The show is based on a series of books that Penguin publishes written by Charlaine Harris, so I was curious. So far it's OK. I'm not really believing Anna Paquin as optimistic Sookie, however, and something is going to have to be done about that. I'll give The Mentalist a shot, but it looks like Medium but with a faker (which would be Psych, wouldn't it? Just because the USA network kinda sucks doesn't mean that you can go and rip them off). I am skipping the new 90210 as well as the new Knight Rider. I barely watched the originals so the nostalgia factor isn't working on me. I'm slightly curious to see if Kath & Kim is going to be as awful as it looks. The Ex-List looks fun, -- reminds me of Marian Keyes's Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married -- but I don't see how they're going to sustain it without the heroine looking like a total slut. I'll totally pass on Gary Unmarried and Crusoe. However, I will check into 11th Hour and Life on Mars, but I'm not hopeful.

And that, my friends, is the plan for this season. Feel free to Comment with your commiserations on Lost's delayed start date, argue for 90210 (I know you want to), and admit that your heartbroken that Blayne was tossed off of Project Runway. Because whether you're voting for Obama or McCain, nothing can bring us together like a good season of television!