Fall Premiere Season Begins

Considering that about 90% of the TV shows I watched last year have been canceled (in other words, all of them except Bones and 24), I'm really hoping for some good shows this year. I was pleasantly entertained this summer with Psych, Damages, Mad Men, and Burn Notice, but they're all wrapping up their seasons now. So, Fall TV Season, what do you have to offer me?

So far, not much. Last night I watched the premieres of Back To You and Gossip Girl, and was sadly unimpressed with both. Back To You is... well, I think the best phrase to use is "a tired sitcom." A lot of TV critics like to say that the era of sitcoms is over, which I don't think is true. How I Met Your Mother and The Office, for example, are great and original and funny. But for the most part, yeah... sitcoms seem to be directed at people my parents' age, recycling the same characters and jokes from funnier (and, at the time, more original) sitcoms of the '90s. And that pretty much sums up Back To You. I'll probably give it another episode or two, at least until something better premieres in that time slot (8pm Wednesdays), but I have scant hope that this will become a "must see."

In the same vein, Gossip Girl seems exactly like every other show in its genre - the soapy CW teen drama. I've never been interested in shows like The OC or One Tree Hill, and I admit, I wouldn't have watched this at all, if it weren't for the Kristen Bell voiceovers, but it was still a disappointment that she went from Veronica Mars to this. I'm actually pretty skeptical of the premise, that there are blogs dedicated to the lives of high school kids. I mean, do people really care? No one blogged about me in high school. But apparently, if you're rich and live in New York and go to a preppy private school, this really does happen. Don't know how long I can stick with this show. I guess that means I'll just have to watch Heroes to get my VM fix.

Speaking of which, Quentin Tarantino doesn't watch Heroes, either. See? I'm not the only one. DVD update: Heroes is next on my queue, but is listed as a "short wait" (along with Bones season 2 and The Office season 3), so I may be watching Brothers and Sisters next.

Good news for Psych fans - it's been renewed for a third season, starting in summer 2008. This is in addition to the second half of season 2, which is supposed to air in the spring. There's been some confusion on that, especially since USA was calling last week's episode the "season finale," but I'm pretty sure there are still 7 more episodes to air in the second season after the break.

Also, an update on the new season of 24, which will also start in the spring. I'd already heard the news about no more CTU, the show moving to Washington, DC, and Jack being on trial, but now more excitement - Tony Almeida's not dead! Ordinarily, I'd say it's cheesy to bring a character back from the presumed-to-be-dead, but honestly, there's such a dearth of good characters on 24 (because they killed them all) that I'm happy to have Tony back. Also, I sort of suspected that this would happen, since he didn't get the "silent clock" that marks most main characters' deaths, despite him apparently dying on screen.