Have you survived the oversaturation of billboards, magazine pop-outs, and internet pop-ups otherwise known as ads for the new fall TV schedule!? With my TiVo, I don't even know when the new shows are on anymore, but I have been scheduling the season pass manager carefully to make sure I don't miss a minute. After the first two weeks of premieres I've awarded the highlights.

Most Anticipated guilty pleasure: Nip/Tuck
The first three episodes already have the set-up for the beautiful gone ugly paradox I love to see unfold. Christian's up to his old tricks and the whole he could be totally gay thing is wonderful - When I was watching reruns I kept wondering why the two Docs didn't make out with each other. And they've got the best guest stars I've seen on TV lately - Peter Dinklage (Station Agent) as the wetnurse to Julia's baby and Mario Lopez as a younger, vainer fellow plastic surgeon - y'all might recognize Lopez is A.C. Slater (!)

Project Runway Replacement (aka the only reality TV worth watching): America's Next Top Model
Thank goodness Tyra is back so I can stop wondering what the water cooler gossip will be about once Heidi Aufs the last Auf Wiedersehen. But doesn't it feel like Tyra is just one season away from pulling a DUI on PCH moment? The megalomania she learned from Oprah isn't that attractive. Though I will watch to see what happens long after those hopeful twin models self-destruct.

Highest Expectations: Studio 60
West Wing - but for Hollywood! What could be a better behind the scenes melodrama, besides the white house, than a high-profile TV network? If they can keep the snarky dialogue sparse and the funny one-liners plentiful it will be absolutely, utterly, enjoyable. Second episode was funnier than the pilot but watch out for creator Aaron Sorkin's soapbox he likes to pedestal any given character at will. Sorkin may not have had a political background but still got politics preachy on West Wing. The man does know show business - careful! I appreciate that Studio 60 is fictionally set in the old Palladium on Sunset Blvd (not the strip by any means, but the home of many variety shows).

Curious as a carcrash: The Class & How I Met Your Mother
I don't want to get sucked in to the Friends wannabes but like a carcrash, I can't not slow down to look. Horrible? Maybe. But the kids are so pretty and the sets so shiny. How I Met Your Mother has the trifecta of crushes from popular shows of the past (Doogie Howser, Freaks & Geeks, Buffy). The Class has crushes in training and it's amazing how effective that will they or won't they story works even after all these seasons.

Surprise, you got my attention: Heroes
To say the least, I was suspicious about an hour long drama from NBC that plays like a comic book, full of superhero origin stories, but not actually based on any existing comic book. There's enough characters in the Marvel universe to keep TV writers employed for the next millennium. But there's an intriguing dark side - heroin use, pornography, mysterious serious acts of violence - all in the pilot! Dubious as I was about a Smallville meets Lost pitch, it's the best editing I've seen this year. There's flying and time-traveling without that cheesy wormhole or halo effect that's everywhere. Can they keep it up past the pilot or will test audiences yearn for the visual fx? Time will tell.

Labels: reviews, television