Show Debuts - September 26-October 2

After last week when shows were debuting either for the season or for the first time ever, things have settled down. But no quite to normal. We have eight shows starting their seasons this week, with four of those being series debuts. And as yet there’ve been no public rumblings of shows being cancelled. Compared with the last few seasons that’s a surprise. When will the shoes -  and shows – start to drop?

Monday, September 26th

8-10 p.m. Series Debut of Terra Nova on FOX
8-9 p.m. Season Debut of Gossip Girl on The CW
9-10 p.m. Series Debut of Hart Of Dixie on The CW
9:30-10 p.m. Season Debut of Mike & Molly

Wednesday, September 28th

8:30-9 p.m. Series Debut of Suburgatory on ABC
9:30-10 p.m. Season Debut of Happy Endings on ABC

Thursday, September 29th

8:30-9 p.m. Series Debut of How To Be A Gentleman on CBS
10-11 p.m. Season Debut of Private Practice on ABC

New Series Synopses

Terra Nova is the long anticipated (since it was supposed to preview in May, much longer anticipated than was hoped) new series from Steven Spielberg. In the not too distant future the Earth is nearly uninhabitable, used up by people. A potential new start exists thanks to a scientific discovery that apparently opens a portal into Earth’s past, allowing a colony to set up in the age of the dinosaurs – Terra Nova. But all is not perfect in paradise.

Hart Of Dixie from The CW is a drama about a young woman doctor who, when she doesn’t get the surgical residency she was counting on is forced to take an offer that she would have normally rejected – to work in a General Practice in a small town in Alabama. Trouble is that the man who offered her the job has died…and left his half of the practice to her, but she’s not exactly popular with her new partner, and not particularly popular in her new “fish out of water” role.

Suburgatory is a comedy from ABC. When a single father finds condoms in his 16 year-old daughter’s room he decides to move from the city to the suburbs to find a better life. What they find is a place that seems too perfect, and a different sort of problems from those in the city.

In the new CBS comedy How To Be A Gentleman, the writer of an advice column in an Esquire like men’s magazine finds himself facing the prospect of being fired when the magazine is sold to a new publisher who wants it to become “younger and hipper.” To save his job he has to make his column more”modern and sexy” which means becoming friends with a personal trainer who used to beat him up in school.

Show Debuts - September 12-18

The summer is finally over. For most of us Labour (Labor) Day marks the end of summer and the beginning of Fall – although based on the weather around here last week you couldn’t tell; we had the hottest days of the year last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. For TV the beginning of the Fall season is supposed to be right after the Emmy Awards on Spetember 18th. However, some shows will be debuting from four of the five US networks. The only one not to debut new shows is FOX (although ABC’s debut is a bit of a cheat; 20/20).

So here is what’s coming this week (all times are Eastern):

Tuesday, September 13th

8-9 p.m.: Season Debut of 90210 on The CW
9-10 p.m.: Series Debut of Ringers on The CW
10-11 p.m.: Season Debut of Parenthood on NBC

Wednesday, September 14th

8-9:30 p.m.: Season Debut of Survivor on CBS (originally scheduled for one hour but extended to 90 minutes)
8-9 p.m.: Series Debut of H8R on The CW
9-10 p.m.: Season Debut of America’s Next Top Model on The CW
10-10:30 p.m.: Series Debut of Up All Night on NBC
10:30-11 p.m.: Series Debut of Free Agents on NBC

Thursday, September 15th

8-9 p.m.: Season Debut of The Vampire Diaries on The CW
9-10 p.m.: Series Debut of The Secret Circle on The CW

Friday, September 16th

10-11 p.m.: Season Debut of 20/20 on ABC

New series synopses:

Ringers is the much anticipated return of Sarah Michelle Gellar to network TV. She plays estranged twin sisters, Bridget and Siobhan. Bridget a recovering addict who is a key witness in a murder trial goes to visit her estranged twin sister Siobhan. Siobhan is married and wealthy, but her perfect life isn’t perfect, as Bridget discovers when she assumes her sister’s identity after Siobhan apparently dies at sea.

H8R is a new reality series from The CW hosted by Mario Lopez in which celebrities confront their biggest haters and try to make them realize that their animosity is misguided. featured celebrities include Snooki, Kim Kardashian and Jake Pavelka, while others booked for the series include Kat Von D, Eva Longoria, and Barry Bonds.

Up All Night from NBC stars Christina Applegate and Will Arnett in a comedy about a couple trying to cope with parenthood in the modern world. In this case that means a career woman mom with a vulnerable and needy boss played my Maya Rudolph, and a stay at home dad.

Free Agents is NBC’s remake of a British comedy. This version stars Hank Azaria as Alex, a newly divorced man and Kathryn Hahn as a woman whose fiance recently died. They have a drunken one night stand and the series deals with the awkwardness between the two of them which is magnified since they work together at an advertising agency run by Stephen (played by Anthony Stewart Head, the only hold-over from the original British cast).

The Secret Circle follows The Vampire Diaries on The CW, which is only fitting since both are based on the novels of L.J. Smith. The story focuses on Cassie Blake, who moves to live with her grandmother in Chance Harbor Washington. There she discovers that not only is she the latest in a long line of witches, but she’s the last member needed to complete a coven of teenaged witches known as “The Secret Circle.”

Series Debuts – Week of September 7

Even though the "official" start of the 2009-10 season is two weeks away the first of the new fall shows are debuting this week. Well sort of, given that Glee aired its pilot back in May and FOX has been re-airing it at least twice in the last week or two, and ABC has been running The Shark Tank on Sundays since the middle of August, but in the latter case the show seems to be more of a placeholder for ABC's revival of the science fiction cult favourite V. With that in mind we really do have several shows starting this week, mostly from The CW a network which, in terms of getting people to watch their shows, needs every advantage they can get.

Here are this week's new shows:

Tuesday September 8^th

• 90210 The CW – The revival of Aaron Spelling's FOX "classic" returns for its second year. I watched the pilot for the first season and found it to be less than I expected... or hoped for. I gather that the stories got a bit more adult than they had been in the first few episodes but it was never a high priority on my "to watch list." It won't be again this season.
  
• Melrose Place The CW – Having had a certain amount of success in reviving one of Aaron Spelling's FOX hits, The CW has gone back to that well again by reviving Melrose Place. This version of Melrose Place follows much the same path that 90210 did by bringing on a mix of new and old characters – notably Laura Leighton reviving (literally) her character of Sydney Andrews (who had apparently been the end of the fifth season of the original) and Thomas Calabro in his role of Dr. Michael Manicni. Other cast member from the original expected to appear on the show in later episodes are Daphne Zuniga and Josie Bissett. Still the focus will be on the younger cast members, notably Katie Cassidy, Shaun Sipos and Ashley Simpson-Wentz. From the description of early episodes it sounds just as "soapy" (in a good way) as the original. Still, while I'll probably look at the pilot, I doubt that it will be a permanent part of my viewing diet.
  

Wednesday September 9^th

• America's Next Top Model The CW – The CW's big reality-competition hit. Actually it may be the networks biggest hit of any genre, drawing an average of 4.35 million viewers last season. It's a two hour episode this week, cutting back to its usual one hour next week with the debut of new series The Beautiful Life. I've never watched an episode of any national version of Top Model (and there are a lot of them) but we can expect the usual mix of catty diva-ish bitchy behaviour that gathering a covey of models together inevitably produces.
  

Thursday September 10^th

• Vampire Diaries The CW – When you think about it this show is a perfect fit for The CW. The current "Vampire Chic" trend exemplified by the HBO series Tru Blood and the Twilight movie franchise is a perfect fit for The CW's target young female target demographic. Like Gossip Girl the series is based on a popular "Young Adult" book series targeted at teenage girls which actually predates the Twilight series of novels. The CW is putting a lot of stock into the series by moving long-time Thursday favourite Smallville out of the first hour time slot to create a "supernatural" night by pairing the series with the more male oriented Supernatural. Descriptions of the show seem to have elements of Twilight/Tru Blood mingled with a slightly sinister Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls with maybe a touch of Buffy The Vampire Slayer added for flavouring. While The CW has been giving a lot of promotion to Melrose Place, this could be the most interesting of the network's new series.
  
• Supernatural The CW – One of only two male-oriented series on The CW – the other is former Thursday series Smallville, this is the series fifth season and there are rumours that it is the final one (although the Jensen Ackles and Jared Padelecki are under contract for a sixth season). It's another season of the Winchester Brothers (along with this Blog's favourite character actor Jim Beaver) battling demonic forces. It's not a show that I watch but I do understand the mass appeal.
  

Saturday September 12^th

• Cops Fox
  
• America's Most Wanted Fox – I'm lumping these two together. The doyens of the Reality genre, these two shows will probably outlast us all.

Okay You Whedonistas!

Tonight!

FOX!

Second hour of primetime!

Dollhouse!

Be there!

(This message is brought to you by the part of me that is an undiluted Joss Whedon fanboy. This will of course have as little bearing as I can possibly manage when it comes time for me to write a review of the show, but just so you know, there may be some leakage. I can't be totally dispassionate about everything.)

Reflections On The Midseason - FOX

(I had intended to get this series of reflections out quickly. Unfortunately I've been feeling really really tire over the past little while. So tired in fact that I've been literally taking naps before going to bed. Anyway I may not get another instalment of this series out until the new year.)

With all five of the American broadcast networks having announced their midseason schedules I thought it was a pretty good opportunity to look at the shows that are been replaced and the shows that replacing them and at the general successes and failures of the networks.

Cancelled: Do Not Disturb, 'Til Death (on hiatus)

Planned Hiatus: Prison Break, Don't Forget The Lyrics, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

Episodes Ordered:
Fringe (full 22 episode order), Prison Break (2 episodes)

Moved:
House, Bones, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Returning:
24, American Idol, Hell's Kitchen, Hole In The Wall

New Shows: Lie To Me, Dollhouse,

Lie To Me sounds a lot like The Mentalist, at least based on the description in Wikipedia: "Main character Dr. Cal Lightman (played by Tim Roth) detects deception by observing body language, and uses this talent to assist law enforcement with the help of his group of researchers and psychologists." No doubt this won't be as clear cut a copy as this makes it sound. Still it sounds like a "safe" series, and its location in the time slot following the Wednesday episode of American Idol should make it fairly safe. Debuts January 21, 2009.

Dollhouse is the latest series that Joss Whedon is doing for FOX. Debuts February 13, 2009. The series focuses on a service that provides people – known as "Dolls" who can be given any personality you like and do any job that you want. Once they finish their jobs their minds are wiped and they're sent to a dormitory/lab known as "The Dollhouse." The series focuses on one "Doll" played by Eliza Dushku who is beginning to overcome the mindwipes and is developing self-awareness. Debuts February 13, 2009

Commentary: FOX has what might be described as the most schizophrenic (in popular if totally incorrect definition of the term – split personality) of all the networks. While most networks might debut new series at the midseason break, most tend to try to keep a consistent schedule from the end of September to the end of May. And when it comes to a very successful reality format, the networks try to get at least two cycles in during that period. Most importantly most networks don't break the rule that says that you don't play musical chairs with a show's time slot when the show is performing successfully. Not FOX. I swear that somewhere in the headquarters at FOX an executive once said, "Rules? We don't need no steenkeeng rules!"

I mean take a look at the shows that they're moving around the schedule. In its last original episode (December 9^th) House finished second in total viewers (13.90 million) and first in the 18-49 demographic (5.6/15). In its last original episode (November 26^th), Bones finished first in both total households and the demographic (9.43 million, 2.5/8). The only weak show of the three that are being moved around is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which was fourth in its time slot in total viewers and in the demographic (5.3 million, 1.9). The two game shows that are going on a "planned hiatus" (the only term that I can think of that fits what FOX is doing), Don't Forget The Lyrics and Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? are both doing relatively well in the ratings considering that they're on Friday nights after all, finishing second in total households in their most recent airings and in the demographic (the latter numbers – 1.3/4 for Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? and 1.4/5 for Don't Forget The Lyrics – look weak in comparison to most nights but are strong for a Friday). Conventional wisdom, the "rules" if you will, says that you keep these shows in the line-up. In other words, don't mess with success.

And then there's 24 and American Idol. I mean let's face it, what network decides to bring back a full 24 hour season of a proven hit series in February. Well okay there's ABC and Lost but that only happened after a ratings scare in the third season, but this will be the fourth season of 24 to debut in January. The aim is to run the entire series without interruption. As for American Idol, Fox treats it differently from just about any other successful returning reality series by airing only one cycle of the show per year. And, the network has been doing that since the very beginning. By comparison CBS will have aired 18 cycles of Survivor in about the same amount of time that FOX aired eight cycles of American Idol. While there is probably a sound logistical explanation for this in terms of organizing venues for auditions and just attracting talent, there is something to be said for this approach in terms of keeping the concept relatively fresh and not wearing out its welcome. While the show no longer absolutely dominates the timeslots that it airs in the way it did when it first showed up when it effectively killed The West Wing and so scared CBS that they pushed the third season of The Amazing Race into the summer, the show still regularly wins its time slot handily. What the situation would be if they followed accepted wisdom and ran the show twice a year is certainly something to ponder.

The most recent example of FOX breaking the rules is their experiment with "remote free TV." In a world where networks seem determined to cram as many commercials into an hour as the law will allow, FOX has tried an experiment with fewer commercials per hour in two of their shows, Fringe and the upcoming Dollhouse. Costs are made up by charging a premium rate for the commercials that are broadcast, but presenting them in such a way – 60 and 90 second breaks in most cases – that people are less tempted to either fast forward through the commercials or use them as an opportunity to channel surf. I suppose the jury is still out on "remote free TV;" Fringe at least seems to be successful in terms of getting eyeballs in front of the set – 8.69 million viewers in its most recent original episode (3^rd in timeslot against The Mentalist and the finale of the latest cycle of Biggest Loser) and a 3.7/9 in the 18-49 demographic. To be sure it lost viewers out of House (leading Marc Berman to describe it as "overrated") but given the nature of the series it's still a good performance as what is essentially a quirky science fiction show with light dash of police procedural. And while I don't believe that the "remote free TV" concept is a primary reason – or even a secondary – reason for what success the show has had, it is a comforting stand down from the incessant expansion of commercial time into actual story (not to mention time for an actual theme song). It's something that people always say they want but is it something that they'll actually support now that they get it.

FOX has had a promising but less than stellar first half of the season. The loss of the two Wednesday sitcoms left the network without a live action comedy half hour. In truth it sometimes seems as if the people producing comedies for FOX are reaching for the lowest common denominator in their shows at a time when other networks are aiming a little higher in terms of concept and quality of humour (the return of According To Jim notwithstanding). A show like Do Not Disturb had the potential to be so much better if the producers had gone with a different approach to the situation and to the humour. But that, it seems, isn't the "FOX way."

This was the visible problem. The less obvious problem was the ratings of some of their other shows. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Prison Break were consistently fourth in their time slots at between 5.5 million and 6 million viewers and weakness in the 18-49 demographic. And yet these two shows represent one aspect that seems to be new to FOX either since the Writers Strike or since the arrival of Kevin Reilly as head of programming at the network; an attitude of patience and allowing a show time to either find its audience or prove that it is a failure. In the case of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in particular, the show will be getting a full second season even if it is relocated to Friday night. Another problem that FOX doesn't talk too much about is the situation on Thursday nights. The original plan appears to have been to run the Japanese style game show Hole In The Wall in the first hour to be followed with an episode of the Gordon Ramsay series Kitchen Nightmares. However Hole In The Wall turned into a hole in the ratings and was quickly ushered out of the time slot to be replaced by a second repeat episode of Kitchen Nightmares. And yet Hole In The Wall will return to the FOX line-up once the NFL season ends.

So what are FOX's prospects for the remainder of the season? The combination of House and 24 should be very strong for FOX on Monday nights which would seem to be turning into a very competitive night (not for me though, what with bowling and all). The network may well penetrate the top three with this combination, although I'm prepared to argue that another cycle of ABC's Dancing With The Stars combined with the CBS comedies will keep the shows from making it into the top two. And even though it's been flagging I wouldn't expect American Idol to fall out of the top two on Tuesday night and I'd be so bold (and wise – when I predict something I like to know it's a sure thing before I predict it) as to suggest that American Idol will have no trouble winning the Wednesday first hour and give a good boost for Lie To Me, unfortunately probably to third place where it will knock out my beloved Life.
Bones should do well in the first hour of Thursday, at least until the new season of Survivor cuts in, but I doubt it will help Hell's Kitchen too much. As for Hole In The Wall coming in to replace the Football overrun opposite 60 Minutes and America's Funniest Home Videos...or even the CW's reruns of Jericho it has to be the most absurd thing I've heard of in a while. It's only going to last as long as it takes someone to actually see ratings for it.

That leaves us with Friday night and the much anticipated Dollhouse. For a die hard "Whedon-ista" like me this whole business of Joss taking another show to Fox is worrisome and to have that show wind up in the so-called "Friday Night death slot" makes it even worse. I'm sure that there are people out there right now getting ready to send dolls (or maybe doll heads) to the Fox offices to protest the cancellation of the show even though it hasn't aired yet. Visions of Firefly dance in our heads, and taken in the context of what happened to Firefly that is not a good thing. The show's lead-in, the less than spectacular performing Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, doesn't exactly fill us with confidence either. And yet I'm going to present a couple of reasons why I expect the show to do "well enough" to survive. By "well enough" I mean probably a second place finish in the ratings. The first of these reasons is that Joss feels confident with the current management at FOX – Whedon has said something to the effect that "these guys" aren't the same ones that interfered with and then cancelled Firefly (I just wish I could find the exact quote). By these guys Whedon was primarily referring to Kevin Reilly. And when you remember that Reilly is the guy who carried Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip for a full season, renewed Friday Night Lights for its second season despite the ratings, and stood up for 30 Rock, Whedon's confidence starts to make sense. As for putting the show in the "Friday night death slot" I'm going to suggest a look at the competition. CBS has Flashpoint which was a big success during the summer and will probably win the time slot, but what are ABC and NBC putting on in the second hour of Friday? Well, from ABC we get Supernanny which does badly in both the ratings and the demographics. As for NBC, they'll be running thirteen episodes of Friday Night Lights. As much as I love the show I can't see this doing well, given its performance last season and the fact that the thirteen episodes have already been available on the satellite service DirectTV (and not done very well). The net result is, I suspect (or at least hope), a second place performance for Dollhouse, always assuming of course that the show is at least halfway decent. Unless the show is really really bad, I don't think that we'll see the sort of quick cancellation that has made FOX infamous

While I don't think that FOX will perform as well as CBS for the remainder of the season, the network does have a stable and successful line-up on most nights that should see the network doing very well indeed.

Reflections On The Midseason - CBS

With all five of the American broadcast networks having announced their midseason schedules I thought it was a pretty good opportunity to look at the shows that are been replaced and the shows that replacing them and at the general successes and failures of the networks. And I decided that I might as well start with CBS.

Cancelled: The Ex-List

Episodes Ordered: Eleventh Hour (18 episodes), The Mentalist, Gary Unmarried, Worst Week (16 episodes)

New Shows: Flashpoint (Friday, second hour), Harper's Island (Thursday, third hour once the run of Eleventh Hour concludes), Game Show In My Head (Saturday first hour).

Flashpoint isn't really a new show. This is the second season of the Canadian made police series that debuted this past summer, and did very well in the ratings. The show stars Enrico Colantoni, Hugh Dillon, Amy Jo Johnson, David Paetkau and deals with the situations faced by the "Strategic Response Unit" of a major – if unnamed – Canadian city, presumed to be Toronto. Returns January 9, 2009 (replacing The Ex-List).

Game Show In My Head is a hidden camera game show from Ashton Kutcher, hosted by Joe Rogan. Contestants perform five stunts for the public for $5,000 each, before a bonus round in which they can double their money up to $50,000. Based on the Saturday time slot and the decision to show episodes back to back, it's likely that this show is being burned off. Starts January 3, 2009.

Harper's Island is described as a 13 episode "mystery event" (the sort of thing that back in the day we used to call a mini-series) dealing with a series of murders of people attending a "destination wedding" on an isolated island off the coast of Seattle. The show is described as "Scream meets 10 Little Indians" and stars Harry Hamlin, Adam Campbell, Elaine Cassidy, Katie Cassidy, Richard Burgi and Jim Beaver (who is well known to those of us who hung out at the rec.movies.past-films newsgroup). Debuts April 9, 2009.

Commentary: If I were CBS President Les Moonves I'd have a huge grin plastered on my face and only part of it would be because I'd be sleeping with Connie Chung Julie Chen. Of course I'm not Les Moonves (and not sleeping with Connie Chung Julie Chen dammit), but I think you get my point. While CBS's line-up is hardly flashy or innovative, the facts speak for themselves. Of five new series that debuted in September for CBS only one has been cancelled is The Ex-List which lost between 30% and 40% of Ghost Whisperer. Even at that it finished second in its time slot in its third and final outing, and would probably have won the time slot had it stayed there. And yet what happened on Friday nights once The Ex-List was removed from the line-up is illustrative of the strength of the CBS line-up. The final episode of The Ex-List had an audience of 5.33 million viewers and a rating in the 18-49 demographic of 1.5/5. In the weeks that followed CBS aired two repeats of NCIS (11.21 million, 2.3/8 in the demographic in the first week; 11.26 million, 2.4/7 in the second week), a Price Is Right: Salute To The Troops special (7.31 million, 1.7/5), a repeat of The Mentalist (11.62 million, 2.4/7), a second – repeat – episode of Ghost Whisperer (5.97 million, 1.5/4), and a repeat of Numb3rs (8.45 million 1.9/6). What this seems to illustrate is that CBS has a line-up of dramas that can readily be repeated and can draw an audience when they're being repeated. I think it can be argued that having a show on in the same place every week, regardless of whether the episodes are new or repeats, is a way to build win fan loyalty. If nothing else, in this rocky economy it is one way of keeping costs at an acceptable level. Instead of creating new shows (that almost inevitably fail) to fill hiatuses in the long dark periods between sweeps periods, it has to be cheaper to run repeats, and if those episodes come from a previous year or two and thus aren't fresh in people's memory, well so much the better.

Moonves isn't doing badly in the comedy business either. Of the four half hour comedies on Monday night, about the only weak spot – and in this case weak is relative – is Worst Week. Worst Week manages to pull 10.6 million viewers (first place) and a rating of 3.5/8 in the 18-49 demographic this past Monday against the first half of the Boston Legal finale, Heroes (which barely won the demographic), Privileged and Prison Break. In just about every other time slot and by any other network that would be regarded as a strong performance, but Worst Week follows Two And A Half Men (15.65 million viewers, 5.2/13 in the demographic) meaning that Worst Week is losing about a third of the earlier show's audience. But while most networks seem to have trouble carving out one night with comedies – or even one successful comedy – CBS has made a bridgehead on a second night with the Wednesday night combo of the veteran New Adventures Of Old Christine and rookie Gary Unmarried. They aren't winning the night but they are pulling solid second place ratings against the time slot winner, FOX's Bones (and this is in spite of me panning Gary Unmarried – so much for the "power" of internet critics!). Net result is the cancellation of ABC's Pushing Daisies and a cut in the order for Knight Rider from twenty-two to seventeen episodes.

And as far as Reality shows go, sure they've had more than their share of summer misfires over the past few seasons, but they've still got Survivor and The Amazing Race performing well, an d in the case of the latter likely to perform better once NBC's Sunday Night Football is out of the way.

Of course Moonves has worries – probably. There has to be some concern about how the audience will react to William Petersen's imminent departure from CSI and there has to be some concern over audience erosion from established shows. Indeed there has to be some concern over what will replace some of the established shows. CSI is in its ninth season, Without A Trace is in its seventh season, as is CSI: Miami. NCIS and Cold Case have both been on for six seasons. Relatively speaking Criminal Minds is something of a "baby" on CBS, having only been on for four seasons. Inevitably, and more likely sooner rather than later for some of these shows, an end will come – not necessarily because of bad ratings but because the "important" people on the show decide it is time to move on, or because someone at the network decides that it isn't cost effective for them to keep the show on the air even though it's not only holding its own in the ratings but may even be winning its time slot. The question of whether or not to be innovative, or indeed whether or not the network can afford to take the risk of being innovative. Or whether, as Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune said on Aaron Barnhart's TV Barn podcast, "In response to all the crisises that we were just talking about... [indistinct] they're just going to batten down the hatch and make nine different Mentalists." Does CBS replace a CSI (for example) with an innovative show that pushes the envelope a bit or does the network stick with what has made them a success. Of course that's for the future. For right now of all the networks, CBS is sitting prettiest.

True Recall Or Total Lies

(This review was delayed by that pesky Canadian election, which managed to irritate the crap out of me because of the way the candidate I supported lost. Someday maybe I'll tell you about it.)

When I first heard of the concept for My Own Worst Enemy my immediate thought was that it sounded like the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie True Lies. In that movie Arnold plays a married computer consultant with a wife and kid and a best friend (played by Tom Arnold) who in reality is a super-spy who goes around romancing Tia Carrere. As publicity for the show increased and we found out more about the premise we learned that the lead character had two very distinct personalities that didn't know about each other. The concept at least started to seem more innovative. Having seen the first episode I am led to a slightly (but only slightly) less interesting conclusion, namely that My Own Worst Enemy is like a mash-up of True Lies with another Schwarzenegger movie, Total Recall, in which he plays a man who believes himself to be one thing only to discover that who he thought he was has been artificially imposed over his real personality (of course that could also be untrue and his adventures are part of a futuristic computer vacation program).

The first time we encounter Edward Albright is on a video recording in which he warns someone to call his wife and tell her that he can't make the kids' soccer game. It's the one way he can save his own life. Immediately we are taken forty-eight hours into the past. The location is Paris and Edward is talking to someone we can't see before he meets with a young woman. He very quickly seduces her and after they have sex the talk turns to someone named Uzi Kafelnikov who, as Edward puts it, has taken something that doesn't belong to him. As the woman goes to the bathroom, we see her loading a silenced pistol. As she goes into the bedroom she fires into a man shaped bump on the bed. She thinks it's Edward but that's the last thought she has as Edward puts a bullet through her brain. Back in Los Angeles Edward meets with a woman named Mavis. Mavis is Edward's boss and she's not happy that he killed the woman in Paris – he was supposed to interrogate her and get information about Uzi. As he leaves Edward comments on the nice suit that he's wearing and mentions that "he buys off the rack," speaking in the third person. After his meeting with Mavis Edward goes to meet with a "tech geek" who gives him detailed memories about a business trip to Akron and puts Edward "to sleep."

The next thing we see is Edward getting out of an elevator. He looks subtly different and answers to the name of Henry Spivey. Henry is a senior consultant for a company called A.J. Sun which consults in the financial and investment areas. Henry is happily married, has two kids, a dog and a minivan. He is also dreading a meeting with the company psychiatrist, something that he talks about with his friend Tom. Henry has had a strange dream, which in itself is unusual because Henry doesn't dream. In his dream he was in a hotel in Paris with a woman who called him Edward. Most puzzling of all is that he has a matchbook from the hotel that he was at in his dream, the Hotel Lyonnais in Paris...and Henry's never been to Paris.

After that things start coming apart. As Henry is reading a book, Edward suddenly emerges. Worse, Henry emerges as Edward is on a mission in Russia to do surveillance on, and possibly assassinate Uzi. Henry fires the sniper rifle that Edward is equipped with, giving away his position. Uzi's men shoot Henry, although fortunately Edward was wearing a bullet-proof vest, and Uzi proceeds to torture Henry to get information (though of course he thinks he's torturing Edward – to say this gets confusing is an understatement). Suddenly a rescue is staged by an agent in a mask who gets Henry out of the building and also manages to grab the briefcase that Uzi had taken. Safely away from Uzi and his men the hooded agent reveals himself to be Henry's friend from A.J. Sun, Tom. Except Tom insists that his name is Raymond!

Needless to say Henry is confused (more so than we are but then we're seeing a lot more than he is). Raymond takes Henry to meet with Mavis who explains things in great detail to him. Henry has only existed for 19 years while Edward is the real personality, someone who submitted to the technique to create an alternate personality of his own free will. The problem is that something is breaking down the barriers. Taking Henry to Edward's living quarters, Mavis tells him they'll get to the bottom of things. Exploring, Henry discovers not only Edward's large supply of champagne (a bottle of which he proceeds to drink) but also a hidden room containing Edward's personal effects including press clippings from when he was a high school football star, his parent's obituary, and his Medal of Honor. He also finds Edward's car keys and taking Edward's Camaro drives home, only to have Edward take over part way through the trip. Mavis contacts Edward and tells him that Henry is going to be "erased." Edward decides to take the opportunity to find out what Henry's life is like and arriving at home makes very passionate love to Henry's wife. During the night Henry takes over and finds a message written on his hand telling him not to drive Edward's car again. He also has a very appreciative wife. When Henry rides up to the office in the elevator he asks Tom some questions about tom's personal life and in return Tom asks about his life. Henry mentions that his parents died in a fire, but it was Edward's parents who died in the fire not Henry's, and it wasn't Tom in elevator, it was Raymond. Raymond, Mavis and the computer geek take Henry into a white room where, we're led to believe that either Henry's or Edward's memories were destroyed.

Apparently it was Edward who was erased because we see Henry arriving at home and checking his mail. His wife called to remind him about the soccer game but suddenly he's attacked by Uzi and one of his goons Henry is taped up with duct tape and tortured by Uzi's goon. Henry manages to persuade Uzi that he has a split personality but that he knows how to get where Edward hid the case with the items that Uzi had stolen thanks to a GPS that Edward left in Henry's car. This took them out into the desert. Henry digs a big hole – nearly grave sized in fact – and at the bottom finds a crate with a brief case in it. It's pretty clear that the hole would be Henry's grave but when Uzi makes it clear that his wife and children will also be killed, Henry activates something on the GPS and ducks into the whole. The case explodes killing Uzi and his henchman but leaving Henry alive. The DVD from Edward explained that he had hidden a fake case in the desert and that the GPS has "an interesting" feature. The last scene features Edward, waiting for a meeting with Mavis watching a DVD made by Henry.

In spite of the fact that My Own Worst Enemy boasts a strong cast that includes Alfre Woodard as Mavis, Mike O'Malley as Tom/Raymond, and Madchen Amick as Henry's sexy wife Angie, the truth is that the series rises or falls on Christian Slater's ability to play Henry and Edward. It is crucial for us as an audience to get the sense that while the man is the same there is a distinct difference in the two personalities. Henry and Edward are not multiple personalities in the true sense of the word. Rather they are closer to two sides of the same person both allowed to have equal control. Henry is responsible, monogamous, peaceful and in the end not adventurous. Edward is a rule breaker, promiscuous, violent, and a thoroughgoing risk taker. Most people have both aspects within them but with one or the other having control, usually the responsible one, although those other aspects come out on occasion. Henry and Edward are split artificially, the perfect cover for a spy and assassin but also the perfect way to have the violent rule breaker under control and only available as needed. In a way Edward is a prisoner to be let out only when needed, with Henry as his prison. It's apparently not an accident that Slater's two characters are named Henry and Edward, the same names as Dr. Henry Jekyll and Mr. Edward Hyde. What I think is interesting is that it is the "Hyde" side of Henry and Edward that is the original man – the athlete, linguist, and war hero as well as the violent risk taker and rule breaker – while it is the "Jekyll" side – the responsible family man – who is the construct.

There were some nits to pick with the writing of the first episode mostly related to the timeline that has been imposed on Edward and Henry. We're told at the start of the episode that forty-eight hours have past between the events in Paris and Henry watching Edward's DVD. And yet we're also supposed to believe that in those two days Edward/Henry flew from Paris to Los Angeles spent one night at home (as Henry), flew (as Edward) from Los Angeles to Moscow, set up a position where he could observe and possibly assassinate Uzi, been captured (as Henry) and tortured, then rescued by Raymond, flew from Moscow back to Los Angeles, met with Mavis, had sex with Angie (as Edward pretending to be Henry) then (as Henry) been caught by Raymond and Mavis and apparently treated. Oh yes, and set up the equipment to save Henry from Uzi and made the DVD. That time scale is rather difficult to accept as you can imagine. Indeed the whole premise, if looked at from a point of view that demands realism in TV shows is rather difficult to accept. However there is such a thing as willing suspension of disbelief. In this case, while the physics of Edward/Henry's transportation situation (as described) are at Santa Claus or Superman levels – and Edward wears neither a red suit nor a red cape – the idea that a shadowy portion of the intelligence "alphabet soup" might concoct a plan where they deliberately split personalities and store dangerous agents inside ordinary people is a believable enough premise to serve as a jumping off point for a series. If nothing else it feeds into our present fear, distrust, and dislike of intelligence agencies.

Reaction to My Own Worst Enemy has been mixed. Some people have been drawn into it and others have at the very least been disappointed by the show. I fall into the former group. Even though, as the title of this post suggests, I remain unconvinced about the originality of the concept I have to say that I found the execution of the concept to be intriguing enough to get me back on a regular basis for as long as the show hangs around. One thing I will say, as usual, is that the true measure of the show won't be found in the first episode – where the concept is set up – but in how well the writers make use of the dual nature of Edward and Henry in future episodes. You have to hope that every episode doesn't involve Henry popping up to screw up one of Edward's missions, or Edward pulling off some superspy trick to save Henry's life and protect his family from a bad guy who has discovered their secret. If they can avoid that, if they can keep the ideas relatively fresh and relatively innovative this could be an interesting show to follow. One thing's for sure, of the three new series released by NBC so far this fall, it's the best of the lot ... not that that's saying much.

Series Premieres And Season Debuts – Week of October 13-19, 2008

I think this is the last of these that I'll do, as the networks have really rolled out the last of their shows and only a few stragglers remain. In fact I nearly forgot to do this one! So without any further ado, let's get going.

Monday

ABC brings back Samantha Who? Their one successful sitcom from last year, featuring the beautiful Christina Applegate and the beautiful Jean Smart.

NBC has the series debut of My Own Worst Enemy starring Christian Slater as a man who lives part of his life as a married consultant for companies and part of his time as an international spy and assassin. Sounds like the Schwarzenegger move True Lies but the hook here is that rather than playing a role, Slater's character actually has two personalities neither of which knows about the other. If nothing else the concept is intriguing.

Tuesday

ABC has the season premiere of their other legal series Eli Stone. Johnny Lee Miller stars in this series about a lawyer who has – or had – visions, which was enough of a hit last year to bring back in a new time slot.

Canadians (like me) have an election to watch.

Wednesday

Americans have a Presidential debate.

Friday

NBC has the two hour debut of Crusoe, a straight retelling of the story of Robinson Crusoe, starring Philip Winchester as Crusoe and Tongayi Chirisa as Friday. I am really dubious about how well this will work as a weekly series on a long term basis.

And with a couple of exceptions that's it for the Fall season.

Kath & Kim – Better Than Advertising For Aspirin Sales

I may not have mentioned this before, but I have three basic rules – so far at least – about reviewing TV shows: (1) Never review a show where you haven't seen an episode from start to finish – it's unfair to not see just how bad it really is before you talk about it; (2) Never review anything when you have a headache – it's hard to focus when every heart beat seems to bring a new pulse of pain; (3) Never give anything resembling a good review to a show that gives you a headache – the thing never turns out well in the end. That particular rule never fails to be accurate by the way. I have never gone into a show without a headache and gained a headache during it and found the show to be worthwhile. Ever.

On Friday night I watched a tape of two NBC comedies. The first was the premiere episode of Saturday Night Live's Thursday Weekend Update. It did not give me a headache. It wasn't very good, and I was hard pressed to find a laugh without Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, but it didn't give me a headache. Then I watched the other NBC comedy Kath & Kim and my head started to ache. As the half hour progressed, the pounding got worse. When that show ended it was time watch the latest episode of Life. It took a little bit but as if by magic the headache started to go away. The headache test doesn't fail.

I am not going to give an episode recap of the first episode of Kath & Kim. I have no desire to relive that memory, and it was a basic pilot episode designed to set up the characters. It was something about Kath Day, who is described by her daughter Kim as being a loser magnet, being exultant about her new romance with Phil who owns a mall sandwich shop. At the same time Kim has broken up with her husband of a few weeks (days? – with Kim it could be either), Craig because he wants her to "do things" like microwaving supper and asking him how his day was. Kim has decided to move home only to discover that Kath has turned her old room into a home gym. There are some problems about Kim's romance with Phil because he sees her eating a sandwich from another shop in the mall, but by this point my head was really throbbing and I didn't write down much more about the show.

Instead, let's try to find out what went wrong with this show. It's not the actors. Both Selma Blair, who plays Kim and Molly Shannon are talented actresses, although Blair seems to be known more for non-comedic roles while Shannon appeared on Saturday Night Live for a number of years and has made appearances in a number of sitcoms. Of the two supporting players the actor who plays Phil – John Michael Higgins – is by far the more experienced. He has appeared on a number of TV series including several episodes of Arrested Development as well as working on the Christopher Guest movie A Mighty Wind where he also arranged some of the music. Mikey Day, who plays Craig is primarily known for his work in improve comedy.

So if you can't legitimately blame the actors, where does the problem lie? Well the scripts aren't really that funny and the situations that the characters are placed in are, well they're pretty dumb, but the real fault goes deeper than that. There is nothing at all about any of the two main characters that is likable, and very little about the two males in the cast works either. Kim is so awful that the term "spoiled brat" doesn't really cover it. Her great ambition is to be a trophy wife and when Craig, who works for a Circuit City type store in the mall, doesn't cater to her every whim – presumably like her mother did – she left him. Kath is almost as self-centred, although her major problem is that she keeps falling in love and most of her romantic choices are wrong. She's not particularly bright and is easily distracted by whatever comes into her flighty little head. Neither woman is particularly happy about not getting her own way – the both have a tendency to sulk at the drop of a disappointment.

I think a major part of the problem is that this is yet another imported series – this time from Australia – and this time around the American "creators" don't have any real understanding of the series that they're trying to recreate for the North American audience. The original Australian series was created by series stars Jane Turner and Gina Riley and was based on skits that the two had done for almost eight years on a number of comedy shows. These in turn were based on a number of Australian "fly on the wall" reality shows and were essentially a satire of aspects of those shows. As a result the characters were not only well understood by creators/actors, but they had a basis that viewers could identify with. On the American series the writers have no connection with the characters. All they have to base their version of the characters on is the Australian version of the series and they seem to have taken all the most prominent characteristics without any understanding of where those characteristics came from and don't have any concept of the redemptive qualities that these characters have (well maybe not Kim if I read the Wikipedia entry on her character correctly). That's certainly evident in the transition of the Kath character from the Australian series, who is described as, "a strong, successful mother who embodies the stereotypical housewife/mother personality. At times Kath is naive, and gullible to her daughter's antics, but is usually determined and strong in handling difficult situations." The character has none of those qualities in the American show.

Earlier this year I described Do Not Disturb by saying that it "doesn't suck as badly as I thought it would." Kath & Kim "doesn't suck as badly as I thought it would" either. It literally sucks worse than I thought it would. There were at least a few redeeming features to Do Not Disturb if only for a couple of the character who went slightly beyond the stereotype and because there were situations in the one episode I saw were sort of funny, even with the oppressive laugh-track that the network inserted. Not only am I unable to find anything really redeeming in the main characters, but I didn't find anything really funny in the situations that the characters were involved in. I don't even think a laugh track would work for this show.

Under normal circumstances I would say that I couldn't understand how this show managed to get as far as actually showing up on a TV network. Someone should have caught just how bad this show was during the pilot process and either revamped the show, or not picked up the pilot. But of course under the supervision of Ben Silverman, NBC decided that the pilot process was outmoded and too expensive, so the network decided to go with a system where only scripts were submitted. This is the first example of this new system in action, since Knight Rider had a backdoor pilot in the form of a TV movie. If Kath & Kim is an example of the fruits of Silverman's new regime the stockholders of NBC-Universal are going to yearn for the happier times of Kevin Reilly's tenure as head of NBC Entertainment. Reilly's shows may not have drawn any better ratings but even the worst was measurably better in quality than Kath & Kim.

We Aren’t In Kansas Anymore

Every so often you get surprised by a show. Usually it's a bad surprise. Maybe it's a show that you expected (hoped) would be great turned out to be a steaming pile of poo. Sometime a creator whose previous work you loved and respected disappoints you. Yeah I'm talking about you Aaron Sorkin – I like Studio 60 more and more the more I see of the shows that have come after it on NBC but it was no West Wing...or Sports Night...or The American President...or A Few Good Men. Occasionally though you get a show that you don't really expect much from and it hits a home run with you. That's how I feel about the new ABC version of Life On Mars.

There were a lot of indicators that Life On Mars was going to be a ticking time bomb. It was an adaptation of a British series, and how many of those make the transition well. For every The Office there's a couple of Couplings hiding in the weeds. The British series was definitely a quirky one that had a cult following in North America. Does Blackpool which became Viva Las Vegas ring some bells with you fine people? The Internet buzz on the show wasn't great. A lot of people posting in response to the original YouTube clips that ABC released were screaming at how awful the American version was when compared with the British series, and some of the professional critics that I respect had low feelings about the new series. Worst of all, the show went through a thorough recasting, with only the original lead actor being retained from the original pilot of the show – the one that the clips came from. Even the city changed, with production and location moving from Los Angeles to New York, "to allow producers to take advantage of recently enacted local and state tax credits for shows filmed in that state." Under most circumstances these factors would spell DOA even while the blood was still pumping through the victim.

You know what though? I think it works. Maybe it's because I've never seen the BBC version – it was on BBC Canada but I never managed to be free while it was on – but there was a moment when the show hooked me and I was drawn in. I'm pretty much convinced though that a big part of what makes it work for me is the recasting and moving the show from Los Angeles to New York. For once I think that a network decision actually did what these decisions are meant to do – make the show better. Of course I've only seen the pilot episode. Subsequent episodes might totally destroy the feeling that I have for the show, but after this episode they've got me.

We're first introduced to detective Sam Tyler and his partner Maya Daniels as they are racing to the home of a suspected serial killer. We quickly learn that Sam and Maya are involved with each other against departmental regulations, and that Sam is afraid of people finding out that they're together. They managed to capture the killer, Collin Raimes, who has been holding his victims for 30 hours before killing them. However, although they have considerable evidence against him, including a diary, the Raimes's lawyer is able to supply a security camera DVD from a casino in Atlantic City that seems to prove that the man was there shooting craps all night at the time the latest victim was taken. Maya continued to track Raimes on her own (against orders) after his release, until she disappears. All they find is a blood stained sweater she was wearing. It is only then that the detectives discover that Raimes had an identical twin brother and that he was the one that the security cameras recorded. It's as he is frantically trying to get to Raimes's apartment that Sam is hit by a speeding car, seemingly coming out of nowhere as David Bowie's song "Life on Mars" plays on his iPod.

It's at that point that the real story begins. Sam comes to, apparently to the sound of "Life on Mars" but we know before he does that something is radically different. Sam is now wearing a leather jacket and a different shirt and pair of pants than he was before. He very quickly is made aware of his surroundings by a beat cop who tells him that he can't park here. What's he's parked is an orange muscle car (to my untutored eyes a Plymouth Roadrunner). "Life on Mars" is playing off an eight track tape. The apartment building where the suspect lived hasn't been built yet. But most of all, standing tall proud and seemingly indestructible are the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

Not knowing what else to do, Sam makes his way to the precinct where he worked in 2008. The outside's the same, but the inside confuses Sam a lot. Still the people there seem to be expecting Sam, their new transfer. Still things are very disorienting for Sam, particularly the lack of a desk and computer for him (the other cops get a great kick out of him expecting a computer – like HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey?) but his actions rouse the precinct's Lieutenant, Gene Hunt. Hunt is not happy at being roused out of his sleep by the new guy and proceeds to give him a bit of a beating before turning him over to the lone woman in the squad, Policewoman Annie Norris, known as "No Nuts" to the men in the squad. Annie listens to his story about being from 2008 with more than a little incredulity, although without the ridicule that the others heap on him. There isn't much time for Sam to settle in. He's almost immediately thrust into a murder case that has similarities to the case he was working on in 2008. Still the slowness of the 1973 system works against him. Fingerprints take two weeks to process, and the cops in the precinct think that it's amazing what they can do these days. When Sam tries to get Annie to help in psychologically profiling the killer – she has a degree in psychology – the other cops regard it as gobbled-gook while Annie is mad at him for drawing attention to her because it subjects her to ridicule. When Sam hears The Who's "Baba O'Riley" from a record store (he gets to explain to Annie about CDs and MP3 players and how the sound is ... not as good as this, this being vinyl) he finds a key piece of evidence, artificial fibre used as sound-proofing for a listening booth in the record store. Another bit of evidence comes into focus when an investigation that Sam instigated when he mentions Collin Raimes's name leads to a complaint filed by a woman named Raimes against one of her neighbours. They bring the woman into the precinct but initially she seems more interested in the coffee and cookies than in helping the cops. Finally Gene persuades her to help by bringing in some pricey Italian pastries. It seems that Mrs. Raimes – who has twin grandsons – has a neighbour who played his stereo too loud. The cops hadn't done much about the complaint but what they had done seems to have helped because she doesn't hear his music anymore. With that bit of information Sam and Gene head for the apartment building. Gene kicks the door open – without a warrant, another change from 2008 – and they find the soundproof room where the man, Willie Kramer, is holding his most recent victim still alive. Chasing Willie to a cluttered storeroom Sam is ambushed by him and loses his gun. Willie holds the gun on Sam and says something about it being the "only way to get back." Sam is certain that Willie means that the only way for Sam to get out of whatever state he's in and back to his 21^st century life (and Maya) is for Willie to shoot him. Sam comes closer and closer to Willie until the muzzle of the gun is firmly in his chest, but Willie doesn't pull the trigger. Just then Gene and Ray Carling break into the store room and arrest Willie – and then after the cuffs are on him punch him at least once. They don't need to, they just want to.

Sam does not adjust well to his new world. At one point he says he wants to "follow the Yellow Brick Road" until it ends; to just keep going until the point where his mind can no longer produce the "reality" of the 1970s, which he believes might be a way for him to return to his real life. At various points during the episode Sam seems to be in contact with that real life. In the police squad room he hears the sounds of paramedics trying to revive him. In the apartment has been rented for him, and where "his" stuff has been unpacked by Annie, as he sits watching a late night science show, the professor on the TV suddenly stops talking about the sides of a triangle and starts talking about the status of the patient's mind, including how his mind may in fact be in some sort of alternate reality. Finally, as he is talking to the child version of Colin Raimes – a boy who idolized Willie Kramer because Willie wasn't afraid of anything – Sam hears the voice of Maya over the car radio, reassuring him that she is safe and asking him to come back to her. Sam had considered turning the gun on himself as his way to get back to Maya, but in talking to Colin about Willie and how fear is something that should be embraced because it protects us and keeps us alive he seems to decide that maybe he should stay in 1973 for a while. Perhaps it is knowing that Maya is safe presumably removes some of the urgency, particularly since he can't be entirely sure that his interpretation of what Willie said is correct. In this at least his own fear – fear that dying in this reality might just mean that he dies in his "real" reality – keeps him from trying to find out once his greater fear, that not taking the chance will mean that Maya is going to die, is removed from the equation.

The casting for this series seems absolutely spot on, with one or two possible exceptions. Even though some people have said that Harvey Keitel is too old to play Gene Hunt – presumably based on the age of the actor who played the character in the original British series – he's a perfect fit for the role of the boss who is both brutish and doesn't give a rat's ass for the rules. And yet he has moments where he's almost charming. He knows how to handle innocent people as seen by the way he treats Mrs. Raimes. We don't see too much of the other two main detectives in this episode – clean-cut and somewhat green Chris Skelton (Jonathon Murphy), and shaggy and dishevelled Ray Carling (Michael Imerioli) – except as they ridicule the ideas of their somewhat strange new squad member. The major female role of Annie "No Nuts" Norris is played by Gretchen Mol who manages to catch the look of an early 1970s conformist quite well. While Annie's clearly unwilling to accept what Sam is telling her about the future she at least seems more sympathetic to him than the men in the squad. Moreover Annie is trying very hard to make Sam accept that he is where he is and the reality of it. Annie is the portrait of the early 1970s woman; not an equal with men in her job but still accomplished and ready to be taken into that world, even if she isn't totally accepted by it. I have some worries about Jason O'Mara as Sam Tyler if only because so much of the structure of the show rests on him playing a man struggling to cope with a situation not of his own creation.

For me the big thing though was the setting. The moment that I mentioned that hooked me on this series was the scene where Sam looks up and sees the World Trade Center intact. It was the perfect way to not only set us in the time frame of the show but also to make Sam realise the absolute foreignness of his experience. I don't think it's something you could do with another location. What place in Los Angeles could serve as that sort of reference point for the character and for the viewer? I can't think of one. And it seems to me that New York in the early 1970s is the perfect place for this. The city was both cosmopolitan and somewhat faded in its glories. It was just a few years after the Stonewall Riots and faced ongoing racial tensions. It would only be a few years later that the headline in the New York Daily News would say "Ford to City: Drop Dead." Most of all the New York Police in this period were notorious for their methods, and were recovering from the after-effects of the Knapp Commission, which had not fully weeded out the department's bad apples. While the British version of Life On Mars used Manchester – Britain's third largest city – as its setting rather than London, it is difficult to imagine any other city where this series being set and certainly not Los Angeles.

My feelings about Life On Mars are somewhat conditional. As I've mentioned on more than one occasion, I'm not always happy reviewing a series based on the pilot episode if only because the pilot is frequently a standout episode that doesn't show you what the series will really be like. Character development and really solid writing are going to be key to the show's ongoing success. This is true of all TV shows of course but in this one it is particularly important. The series got off to a sound start but among the concerns has to be how long this concept can be sustained. The original British series only ran for 16 episodes after all, just slightly less than a basic order for most American dramas that don't get a "back nine." That's how far the British though the concept could be stretched. The worst thing that could happen to this show is for it to degenerate into a bog standard police procedural where the "gimmick" is that the show is set in 1973 rather than 2008. I think that's a real fear as the show goes on. At the same time it can't constantly emphasis Sam as a fish out of water. For me the essential aspect of this show is Sam's journey as he integrates himself into his "new world," probably to a point where he's unsure about going back to his reality when the opportunity presents itself. Still if the writers, producers and actors can maintain the standards of the pilot episode I think they've got something truly intriguing with this series. A strong, if somewhat provisional, recommendation from me.

Series Premieres And Season Debuts – Week of October 6-12, 2008

We're pretty much through with the bulk of the series premieres and virtually all of the season debuts. In fact, we're getting ratings results for a lot of the shows that don't necessarily look good for some shows. It's early yet, but apparently shows that didn't come back after the strike are looking at lower ratings than shows that did offer a few new episodes. Shows like Chuck, Heroes, Life, Dirty Sexy Money and Pushing Daisies seem to be having problems. Hopefully some of these shows – particularly the ones on NBC – will be given a chance to rebuild their audience. Chuck and Life in particular are light years ahead of most of the shows that NBC is offering under the Ben Silverman regime (please people, watch Life this Monday and Friday – I love that show).

Thursday

The only new shows are on Thursday night. CBS has the season premiere of the original (accept no substitutes – at least from Florida) CSI. The big focus will be on solving Warwick's murder, which will in turn lead to the eventual departure of Grissom. The premiere has a special appearance from Jorja Fox as Sarah Sidle.

CBS also has the series debut of Eleventh Hour based on the British series of the same name. The series stars Rufus Sewell as Dr. Jacob Hood, the FBI's leading scientific advisor who is called in to deal with events where science is being misused. Ashley Jenson plays his FBI bodyguard/assistant Rachel Young. The first episode deals with human cloning.

NBC has the series debut of Kath & Kim, the American adaptation of the Australian hit series, starring Molly Shannon as Kath Day, Selma Blair as her spoiled princess daughter Kim, who has recently split from her new husband Craig, played by Mikey Day. Kath's brand new fiancé Phil Knight is played by John Michael Higgins. In the first episode, Kath's romance with Phil is hampered by the arrival of Kim who has just walked out on Craig.

NBC also has the series debut of Saturday Night Live Thursday Weekend Update which is pretty much self-explanatory. Hopefully they can come up with a half hour that's as good as the Tina Fey as Sarah Palin cold opens on the Saturday Night Live mother ship... but I doubt it.

Finally ABC brings on the totally recast American version of the BBC series Life On Mars. The show has been totally recast and even relocated from the original pilot. The show being moved from Los Angeles to New York, while the only cast hold-over from the pilot is Jason O'Mara as Sam Tyler who has gone from 2008 to 1973 after a severe auto accident. Is he in a coma or really travelling through time? The rest of the cast includes Michael Imperioli, Gretchen Mol, Lisa Bonet, Jonathon Murphy and Harvey Keitel.

Series Premieres And Season Debuts– Week of September 29 – October 5, 2008

I'm working on that Amazing Race recap I wanted to do, but a couple of other things got into my way – okay, distracted me. Priority has to go to the update of Premieres and Debuts though. Fortunately we're mostly over heavy push of that from the networks. There's stuff that will dribble (I nearly typed "drivel" which in some cases isn't far from the truth) in over the next couple of weeks but we're pretty close to done with that right now. We've had our first show given the bum's rush, and I quite honestly can't imagine anyone outside of the cast and crew of Do Not Disturb who thinks that it should have gotten more time to establish an audience. Finally, as a shout out to my friend and blogging buddy Bill Crider, who is down to four over the air channels "thanks" to Hurricane Ike and the fine "Comcastic" folks at Comcast who 17 days after the storm still haven't restored his damned cable (and have Bill thinking of going over to AT&T). I don't know which is the biggest disaster.

Monday

NBC has the season debut of Chuck, the tongue in cheek spy dramedy. My brother loves this show so much that he had a marathon on Sunday evening of his DVD set. Volume set high and the only thing drowning it out was his laughter. Annoying as hell when you're trying to watch Mad Men or even Desperate Housewives.

NBC also has the season debut of Life, the Damian Lewis series about a cop who was wrongly convicted of a murder and after he was exonerated went back to the LAPD with a huge settlement check, a desire to find the people who set him up, and a Zen attitude which got him through twelve years in prison. Oh yeah and a near fetish-like appreciation for fresh fruit. The show moves to its permanent Friday time slot later this week. This was the best NBC show last season and beats just about everything that the network is promising for this season. Bill, if you're not watching this one already, check it out.

Wednesday

ABC has the season debut of Pushing Daisies, the extremely quirky series about a guy who can bring people back to life by touching them but if he touches them again they're dead and it's permanent. Naturally the love of his life is someone he touched.

ABC also has the season debut of Private Practice, the Shonda Rimes spin-off of Grey's Anatomy, featuring the beautiful Kate Walsh.

Finally ABC has the season debut of Dirty Sexy Money. The incredibly wealthy Darling family is back with new ways to make their lawyer crazy. A great cast headed by Donald Sutherland, Jill Clayburgh, and Billy (the relatively sane one) Baldwin.

Thursday

All of the networks – well except The CW have that new reality show The Vice Presidential Debate. I hear it might be cancelled after the first episode though.

Friday

CBS rolls out Ghost Whisperer with Jennifer Love Hewitt and her breasts. Truly an amazing network that can broadcast this and
The Mentalist even if it isn't on the same night. By the way Bill, if you haven't checked out The Mentalist (on Tuesday night) you might like it too.

CBS has the series premiere of The Ex-List which I gather is supposed to be some sort of romantic comedy-drama. Looks and sounds (from the concept only) absolutely dreadful.

Finally CBS has the season debut of Numb3rs. When last we left the Eppes Family and their assorted associates, Charlie had been stripped of his security clearance for emailing information on a project that the Department of Homeland Security initially considered to be helpful to terrorists but later decided wasn't. Net result – for the first episode at least – is that Charlie can't help Don anymore. The only thing on CBS I watch on Fridays.

ABC is returning with the season premiere of Wife Swap. Something else for me not to watch.

ABC also starts the new season of Supernanny. See above.

The CW has the season debut of their hit sitcom ("hit" being a relative term with The CW) Everybody Hates Chris.

The CW also has the season debut of their football comedy The Game. I really have nothing to say about these two shows.

Sunday

FOX has the season debut of Seth MacFarlane's Family Guy, the show the PTC loves to hate from the man the PTC loves to hate.

FOX has the season debut of Seth MacFarlane's American Dad. The PTC hates this show only slightly less than they hate Family Guy.

FOX has the season debut of The Simpsons and King Of The Hill as well. I think I may have led you to believe that these started last week. I was, like Rick in Casablanca, misinformed.

The CW starts off their night with two episodes of the reality show 4Real. This series was actually created for MTV Canada and then sold to The CW for reasons that aren't at all clear to me. The show takes celebrities to different parts of the world and has them helping with aid projects. The first two episodes feature Cameron Diaz in the Peruvian Andes, and K'naan connecting with a local hero in the slums of Kibera, Kenya.

The CW rolls out their Media Rights Capital series. First we have two episodes of the Reality series In Harm's Way from the creator of Dirtiest Jobs. These episodes deal with Bull Riders and Coast Guard rescue swimmers looks almost interesting.

The CW next has the series debut of Valentine about a family of Olympian gods sent to Earth to help people find true love. No, really, that's what it's about.

Finally The CW gives us Easy Money, about a lovable if dysfunctional family of loan sharks.

Knight Rider – Disorganized Thoughts

This is not a review of the not-really-new NBC series Knight Rider. I don't know when – if ever – I will get around to writing a real review of this show but this isn't it. What it is, really, is a bunch of disorganized thoughts about a show that I missed the start of and really only half watched when I did turn it on. I believe I dozed off either before the show started or after it ended and trust me, I enjoyed the nap more than I did what I saw of the show. But hopefully this helps to explain why my thoughts on this matter are disorganized than they would be if I had been attentive and taking notes.

I did a full review of the made for TV movie revival of Knight Rider
back when it came out last February. Back then I heaped a ton of scorn on the show for basically being a dopey revival of a dopey show with a ton and a half of dopey plot holes and some characters intended to make it seem modern and well, hip. As I think you can tell I didn't like it, regarding it as a failed attempt to do a "next generation" remake of a well beloved but not particularly good show from the 1980s. The movie was intended to serve as a backdoor pilot for a revival of the show, and despite being pretty bad (as far as I was concerned) it was picked up by NBC's new president of entertainment Ben Silverman. Given some of the revelations about Silverman that are currently making the rounds, one wonders what he was using when he approved this. Say what you want about Kevin Reilly, he gave us Life, Friday Night Lights, and Studio 60, and not crap like this. Anyone who saw that movie knew it was bad no matter what the ratings said. But, as the saying goes, the worst was yet to come.

The original Knight Rider series was once described by its creator Glenn Larson as "The Lone Ranger with a car. Kind of a sci-fi thing, with the soul of a western." And at its very heart it was as much that as it was Brandon Tartikoff's joking idea "The Man With Six Words." Although Michael Knight operated within a cloak of authority in the form of the Foundation for Law And Government (FLAG – a very powerful acronym in Reagan's America) he was essentially a lone vigilante operating with the equivalent his transportation (Silver) and partner (Tonto) rolled into one in the form of the original KITT. To be sure there were supporting characters in the form of Devon and Bonnie, but in a very real sense he was alone. The same was largely true in the TV movie. It was Mike Traceur in place of his father (Michael Knight), Charles Graiman as his version of Devin, Charles's daughter Sarah as the analog of Bonnie, with the addition of an FBI agent named Carrie Revai and Michael's friend and mechanic Dylan Fass. Even though the movies team was larger than the team in the original series it was still a compact and secret operation with Michael usually been sent off on his own to right whatever wrong the revived FLAG had chosen for him.

In the series that has all changed. Now Michael has a support system that seems to rival Mission Control in Houston in terms of personnel and infrastructure. In fact there's even a secret base of operations, cleverly hidden beneath an aircraft hanger that reminds me of the old airship hangar at Moffat Field in San Francisco. The whole thing has been dubbed "the KITTcave" by producers. Also included in the "KITTcave" is what appears to be some sort of government oversight in the form of a bureaucrat who seems to be ordering everyone around – including Charles Graiman who "reactivated" the Foundation and was therefore presumably the boss of things. He's the typical "get it done and get it done now," "failure is not an option," I want to know everything even though wanting it makes me look like a total ass" stereotype of a government type. Obviously he's disliked by most of the group and treated with resigned disdain by Charles.

Ah, but there are more changes. Mike has been given a "secret past". It's so secret in fact that even he doesn't know what it is. He has no memory of a chunk of his life during which he was apparently romancing some woman in Lebanon even as he had proposed marriage to Sarah. What's more his records are so restricted that even KITT can't get to them. Whatever Mike was doing it made him a lot of enemies. In the mission that started the episode the bad guys are targeting Mike as much if not more than they're targeting the thing that Mike and Sarah are trying to recover. In fact they even have a missile that seems capable of tracking Mike himself. That missile is also capable of setting KITT on fire for an extended period of time. This allows for an extended period of seeing Deanna Russo (who plays Sarah) in her underwear (for the guys...and some women) and Jason Bruening with his shirt off (for the ladies...and some men). It's also so big that at the end of the episode Carrie Revai "kills" Mike in order to protect the project – Mike Traceur has become a liability and so is required to become the "new" Michael Knight.

Of course the car plays a big role in this series, as a source of product placement revenue if nothing else. The producers spare no effort to remind us that this is a Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang, by making sure that we see the Cobra logo as often as possible. In fact when KITT goes from street mode to "attack mode" (sprouting a couple of spoilers and a heavy duty air intake gadget, or maybe it's a hood mounted missile launcher) the Cobra logo becomes bigger and shinier. And when the car flies (yes, the car now has the ability to leave the ground under its own power) there's even a Cobra logo on the underbody of the car! However we don't see all that much of the car in actual action. Both of the extensive car chase sequences in the first episode feature a lot of projection shots from inside the car, and only limited scenes of the Cobra, or the Ford F-150 truck it transforms into (yes, it transforms, with moving panels and everything – Transformers was a success after all) driving on the roads. It may be my hazy memory but I think we saw a lot more of the old KITT from the original series from the outside.

As I have said, this is not intended as a review of the revived Knight Rider, but the result of the retooling of the original concept and even the TV movie is a mess. The show is pathetically weak on characterization of any sort let alone realistic characters. It's mainly about car chases and attractive people and why an actor of the quality of Bruce Davidson is mixed up with it is beyond me. But the roots of the problem go even deeper than the writing and the characterization to the mangling of core concept of the original series. Far from holding to Larson's original concept of "the Lone Ranger with a car" this version is closer to The Bionic Woman with a car. Michael and KITT are no longer free agents or part of a compact organization helping ordinary people, they are an extension of some government agency carrying out espionage missions and dealing with higher ups who demand results. They've gone away from the original soul of the show. I suppose that what they're trying to do is create something "relevant" to today's world but I think that if that's the intention they're taking the wrong approach even though I'm not sure there is a right approach. NBC-Universal seems to be engaged in an effort to replicate the success that they had with the revival of Battlestar Galactica by remaking or updating old shows which, not surprisingly, they have an interest. They failed – deservedly – last season with Bionic Woman, and if the made for TV movie and this first episode of Knight Rider are any indication they're going to fail – deservedly – with this. The root of this is a failure to understand why the revival of Battlestar Galactica works. It works because David Eick and Ronald Moore took the elements from the original 1978 and threw most of them out leaving just the bare bones on to which they grafted their vision. The original Battlestar Galactica never had the sense of fear and desperation that current series has. In the old series everyone seemed comfortable, and the enemy repeatedly proved easy to beat. Within the context of the science fiction setting, the revived Galactica has an almost realistic feel to it in the post 9-11 world. The problem is perhaps that Battlestar Galactica was a unique opportunity, as show with a great basic concept that never truly reached its full potential I suppose because Glenn Larson posited a utopian rather than a dystopian society to arise the destruction of humanity. Larson's humans were on the whole perfect rather than flawed creations. I'm not sure that you could make the same sort of magic happen with a show like Knight Rider. Perhaps an approach where Mike Traceur really was "the Lone Ranger with a car" could work; Mike and KITT alone, devoid of all outside aid except for access to Michael Knight's fortune to pay for gas and repairs (well after all, the Lone Ranger had his silver mine) working to live up to his father's and the now long gone FLAG organization's ideals by trying to help people in trouble. Would it work? Who knows? What I do know is that the current version of the series works even less well than the TV movie and that didn't work at all for me. Then again, I liked Studio 60.

No Medium Here

CBS has this knack. They put on these shows that are unlike series that the other networks would put on. They're shows that feature detective who have a quirky manner in solving crimes either because of who they are or how they go about solving crimes. And yet these people are not so quirky that their quirks become the story. In short they're not producing shows like Monk or Psych. But think of it; they took a show about Navy lawyers who solve crimes that was cast off after one season by NBC and made it such a success that it ran for a total of ten years. That was JAG. Then they put together a show about Navy investigators originally called Navy NCIS (which was of course redundant since the "N" in NCIS stands for "Naval"). Then there was that show about a math professor who solves crime for his FBI agent brother – Numb3rs. Arguably you can add the CSI franchise shows to this list. What do these shows have in common? Charming characters, well defined relationships, and solid but not spectacular writing. These shows are never going to win an Emmy and they're never going to get a lot of love – or indeed hate – from the critics. In fact I've seen people who do criticism online say that they don't know anyone who watches NCIS. And yet NCIS is in the top 20 in ratings, the CSI franchise are among the best rated shows on TV, and Numb3rs is absolutely solid on Friday nights. So obviously CBS is on to something. CBS's latest addition to this sort of show is The Mentalist starring Simon Baker. It's not genius, but all things considered it's pretty solid TV.

The lead character in The Mentalist is Patrick Jane. For years he pretended to be a psychic, able to use his supposed abilities to contact the dead and to work with the police. He was very successful at this, being a favourite on the TV talk show circuit. That was five years ago though, and things have changed for Patrick – a lot. What exactly that was is a major plot point that I want to reveal at the appropriate point, and indeed it might not be the full story. Jane is now working with the California Bureau of Investigations (which I was surprised to learn is a real organization). We first meet Patrick and the team that he works with as they arrive at a mansion. Posters showing a teenage girl are being pulled down and a teenage boy is being taken away in handcuffs. It's obvious that the girl was missing and her dead body has been found. The local police don't think that the CBI team needed to come out for this one. While the girl's parents – her father really – are giving a press conference thanking the police, Patrick goes into the kitchen of the house, making a sandwich for himself and making tea. The girl's mother comes in and Patrick sympathises with her, telling her that he knows what she's feeling. She says he can't possibly know but he rapidly gains her confidence by telling her things about herself that supposedly no one could possibly know. In fact it's all a matter of observing things in the kitchen. He also figures out that she has doubts about the arrest of the neighbour's kid for the murder. When the husband comes in Patrick accuses him of killing his daughter. He observed a strip of pictures in the kitchen of the father and the daughter that indicated to him that the father had been altogether too close – in a sexual way – to his daughter. The wife leaves the room and comes back with a gun and shoots her husband.

This is all in the first ten minutes or so, and I want to say something about this sequence. I found it interesting that clips from this sequence were used extensively in the advertising for the series, all of which might suggest that the story of this couple was the major storyline for the episode. This is a feeling that is intensified by the actors chosen for the roles of the husband and wife – Stephen Culp and Gail O'Grady. You wouldn't hire actors of this calibre for a brief role after all. Well remember what Hitchcock did with Janet Leigh in Psycho? Hire a big name actress and then kill her character early in the movie to set up the rest of the thing? That's exactly what the producers did with Culp and O'Grady. They set up the rest of the episode with the events that culminated with the mother killing the father. And in this case they gave us some insight about Patrick Jane including a hint about his experience that we're meant to dismiss until information about his past is revealed. It's a neat trick.

The actual case begins a few weeks later. In Palm Springs a professional golfer and his brother arrive home to find the bodies of a man, bludgeoned to death with a golf club and the golfer's wife killed in their bed. On the wall of the room is a smiley face drawn in blood. The team, minus Patrick but with a new young female member are called in. They're met at the crime scene by Patrick. He's had himself reinstated. In the house a local CBI agent explains how this killing is the work of a notorious serial killer named Red John. The young agent is positively gleeful about the prospect of seeing the work of Red John. Patrick immediately explains that this isn't the real work of Red John but of a copycat who doesn't know all the details that the police know. He's been working on the Red John case for five years, since before he revealed that he was not a psychic. The immediate thought is that the wife is having an affair with the man (a Doctor) who was killed but after a quick examination of the corpse Patrick declares that the man was Gay (the man's toe nails had been done with a clear lacquer). Sure enough the man's medical partner, Doctor Wagner, confirms that he was Gay. While the other investigators look at the golfer and his brother, Patrick and his boss visit the Wagner, who's a psychiatrist. The office is full of African art – the partners in the practice run a charity helping African kids. During this interview the Doctor reveals that his partner had given the woman a year's supply of birth control pills without prescription – her husband had a vasectomy – indicating that she was having an affair. There's some physical evidence found at the scene that points to the brother as the killer. He admits only to having an affair with his sister-in-law. The assumption is that the wife was the killer's primary target and the doctor was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

That night, after the team has had dinner, a letter is slipped under Patrick's door. It's allegedly from Red John, but Patrick knows this is not the killer's style. Patrick arranges to meet Wagner at his office supposedly to get a supply of sleeping pills. Patrick claims he doesn't sleep well. When asked by about the roots of his insomnia, we again flashback five years to an appearance that Patrick had made on a talk show. During that show he made a comment about Red John. When he returned to his expensive, lavishly decorated home where he lives with his wife and daughter he enters his bed room and sees... a smiley face drawn in blood. Of course Patrick doesn't tell the psychiatrist the truth about his family being killed by Red John. Instead he makes up a story about a brother who was killed in an accident as a child doing Patrick's chores. During this visit, Patrick plants the seed of an idea in the psychiatrist's mind, that his partner kept a diary and that it was hidden in the office. Once Patrick has gone the psychiatrist searches the office for the diary and finds nothing. However Patrick comes back to get his cell phone – he claims the door was unlocked but in fact he picked the Doctor's pocket to get his key card – and "finds" the partner's diary. To get it the Doctor pulls a gun. He killed his partner and the golfer's wife because his partner had found out that Wagner was embezzling money from their charity. His partner was the primary target while the golfer's wife was to distract attention. After bluffing Wagner into believing that he had taken the bullets from the gun, Patrick manages to get away and runs into one of the other CBI investigators as he is arriving at the office, who arrests Wagner. At the end of the episode, after Jane and the rest of the team wrap up their activities in Palm Springs, we see Patrick returning to the same home where he lived before. The building is now empty except for a mattress lying on the floor of one bedroom...under the smiley face drawn in blood.

The writing on this show is solid if not spectacular. The preliminary story (with Culp and O'Grady) is nicely set up to tell us what we need to know about Patrick Jane – he's observant and intelligent but at the same time has a charming arrogance about him. He can be compassionate to those who are deserving of compassion but can also be brusque to those who aren't deserving of it. His scene with the wife, in which he understands what she is going through becomes even more important when we learn about the tragedy in his own life; he really does understand what she is going through. In his scene with Culp's character, who I think he initially suspected when he saw the body language of the husband and wife at the press conference and which was confirmed in his mind by the photos in the kitchen, he comes right out and asks if he killed his daughter and then badgers right back when the man gets mad that very idea that's being suggested. The main story suffers a bit from doing stuff that most of us have seen before. Anyone who has watched enough TV mysteries would have been able to tell you that when two people are murdered in a way where one looks like the main target and the other seems like someone at the wrong place at the wrong time, you should always look to the enemies of the innocent bystander. And of course when the first suspect is arrested, he's never guilty. But of course this needs to happen at least in this episode because it is far less about the actual mystery than it is about establishing the character and at least part of the story of Patrick Jane.

A bigger problem than what I suppose you'd describe as the triteness of the initial mystery is the development of the other characters in the episode. With one exception we don't even know their names – at least not unless we don't check the show's IMDB page. No, instead you've got the female boss who is tough on Patrick but knows enough to give him his head, played by Robin Tunney (character name: Teresa Lisbon), the smart but unimpressed Asian guy played by Tim Yang (character: Kimball Cho), and the big, solid though sometimes easily befuddled white guy played by Owain Yeoman (character: Wayne Grigsby). He's the one who comes to Patrick's aid at the medical office. The one supporting character who isn't a cipher is the new young agent Grace Van Pelt. That's the character's name; she's played by Amanda Righetti. Grace is a "true believer" who at one point asks Patrick what the reaction of real psychics was to him before he came out as a fraud. He tells her that there are no real psychics, there is no afterlife just the here and now. She disagrees – she firmly believes that her sister is at least a little psychic, and more importantly she is a firm believer in "the Kingdom of God." This is of course an effort to flesh out our understanding of Patrick – that he's an atheist, probably as a result of his time pretending to be a psychic – but it is useful in giving us someone who is both more of an idealist and who holds an alternate, religious view, from Patrick's. Patrick Jane is much more of a profiler, in the style of the characters on Criminal Minds than he is Allison Dubois (from Medium), but then he quite clearly not claiming any mystical powers like Dubois does; quite the opposite in fact. This is very much Simon Baker's show. The man is eminently likable – almost charismatic – and is capable of holding our attention without the histrionic sort of performances that an actor like James Woods from last season's Shark has to resort to. He's very much the focus here, although for this series to work up to its potential I am convinced that they are going to have to build up the characterization of the supporting cast. They're never going to be the focus of the show but we need a stronger sense of who they are.

When this series was initially announced my first impression – and the first impression of a lot of people – was that this some sort of serious version of the USA network show Psych. It's not of course and not just because Patrick Jane isn't using powers of observation to pretend to be a psychic. He's "out" and I wouldn't be surprised if, in his off hours, he doesn't take on the sort of role that James Randi has adopted in exposing claims of psychic powers. I tend to see this show as sort of the "anti" Medium. I find Patrick Jane far more believable than either the real or the TV version of Allison Dubois. Jane rejects the notion of psychic abilities, ascribing what others saw as his "powers" to his abilities as an observer. This far more rationalistic approach more appealing, at least it is for me. As a character, Patrick Jane has a considerable amount of charm and charisma, a quality which is common in the lead characters of shows like JAG, NCIS and Numb3rs. And of course those shows took a while for the supporting characters to come into their own. As it stands the show depends on the charm of its leading character and the actor who plays him for much of its attraction to an audience. I think they need to beef up the mysteries a bit more and (as I keep on harping about) make the supporting characters stand out as something more than just foils for Simon Baker. If they can do that, give us better than ordinary stories and develop more the team while at the same time this is a show that should go on for a long time and be a strong component in a CBS Tuesday night that is suddenly looking quite strong. A nice quiet performer with – as other critics have said – considerable charm.