One of my new, unfortunate hobbies is watching television. First off, I now officially own a television. Sorta. Last year for New Year’s Even, I asked my brother to bring a television so we could watch the ball drop. We never got the TV to work, and we never watched the ball drop, but the TV never left my house. For the longest time it was in the closet of my guest bedroom, but I pulled it out to watch games 3 and 4 of the World Series. Go Sox. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite put it away, and I ended up watching television last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Then I discovered that you can watch ALL major network shows online, for free, whenever you want.  So after getting sorta interested in a handful of shows, I went back and watched another 4 or 5 episodes online.  Here’s a quick review of the shows I may or may not be following (hopefully not, I don’t want watching TV getting in the way of my reading schedule).  In order, more or less, of when they come on.

Chuck (Monday, 7pm, NBC)-  This is, I believe, one of the many vaguely Office-inspired nerd-as-hero shows that’s on the air this season.  Yep, nerds are cool again.  The first episode of this show was pretty fun, and the characters are all pretty likable, except for the super geeky sidekick, who makes me cringe in nearly every scene.  Honestly, the more I think about it, I can’t come up with any reason why I think its particularly good.  It’s just kinda funny.

Heroes (Monday, 8pm, NBC)- Second season.  I like this show for two reasons.  One, because my father likes it.  He’s not a super tv geek, so his being interested in a show enough to actually make plans to watch it told me it must be interesting.   Two, it’s cool how there’s not always a clear good guy/bad guy set-up.  I’ve only seen a handful of episodes, but I think there are way more shades of gray than you usually find in television.

Journeyman (Monday, 9pm, NBC)- Actually, this show is also kind of annoying.  Nearly all the characters are annoying, and the relationship between the main character, his ex-fiance, his current wife, and his brother  (who used to date his wife) is off-putting.  It’s like a weird version of Quantum Leap, except with no Scott Bakula.  That’s a big, big problem.  Also, Scott Bakula has excellent taste in refrigerators.  Ask me why.

Pushing Daisies (Wednesday, I don’t know, I’m not sure, maybe ABC?  Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s ABC.)  Awesome.  Super cool, over the top sets, interesting characters, interesting plot.  Light-hearted, sweet dead people, and…  it’s awesome.  Again, no solid reason why, but it’s cool.  It’s just so fun to watch, there’s so much going on visually.  Also, there was a scene last week or the week before where two of the characters are singing “Birdhouse in Your Soul”, which is a good sign.  And the lead actress is very, very far from being the least beautiful woman ever.

Life (Wednesday, I don’t know, NBC)- This show actually kinda sucks.  The main character is a cop who just got out of jail after being set up by other cops, and now he’s trying to figure out who framed him, all the while trying to solve crimes with a very weak Zen-theme to his crime fighting  The first episode made a big deal of his Zen-ness, but they kinda forget about it.  The main character is funny, and pretty likeable, but he’s a weird cross between Monk and the dude from Law & Order: Criminal Intent.  There’s too much going on, and not enough of it is good.  I get the feeling they’re focus-grouping every episode and then reworking the next week’s show all the time, so you get all sorts of themes pop up and then disappear, only to reappear in a different way.  Also, his partner is an ex-alcoholic/sexoholic/drug-user, his old partner looked like Bernard Kerik, and his money-manager is an ex-white collar criminal.  Too much going on.

So far, the best thing about this is what I believe was an allusion to  Infinite Jest.  For those who haven’t read Infinite Jest, good for you, just know that it talks a lot about AA and alcoholics/drug-users.  There’s a fairly important scene in the book where members of a halfway home for recovering alcoholics have to go outside to move their cars for alternate side parking.  When all the residents are outside, some crazy stuff happens and the book moves along.  Anyhow, in the last episode of Life, the characters are at an AA meeting, and in the background the head of the AA chapter can be heard saying “Remember, next week there’s alternate side parking,” but only barely audible.  Maybe I’m crazy, but I think there’s no reason to have this off-camera character say this other than a tiny little nod to IJ.  Of course, I saw a guy with blue face paint in Studio 60 and I thought it was an allusion to Tobias in Arrested Development.

Final TV Note: In this week’s ER, which I also watched because I ALWAYS watch tv on Thursdays, Ann Veal from AD was featured, as well as Mary Tate from Studio 60.   Well, not really Anne and Mary, but the actresses who played them.  Television.  Man.