Episode 8, Too Little Blogging & Too Much TV?

The answer to the title question of this blog is "no." While you may be disappointed that I'm not blogging daily during premier week, I do have a valid excuse: I'm watching TV. And while there are a few things that rank above TV, blogging is not on my list. Here's a few snippets of what I've been checking out the past couple days:

Family Guy, Fox: Actually I only saw part of the episode...it was the King who watched the whole thing (on the secondary tivo, of course.) I'm not a big fan of Star Wars and while I like the raw, insensitive humor of the Family Guy, the 10 minutes I watched of the hour long season premier contained two jokes that went on for an eternity. First was the awkwardly long & silent scene joke: played in the Death Star elevator. Second was the annoyingly long fitting-a-large-sofa-through-a-small-door joke: have you ever had a sofa you couldn't maneuver through a door? It’s really not that funny.

Dancing with the Stars, ABC: I only watched the women dance so far (I'll try to watch the men before I turn-in tonight and play the elimination show before work tomorrow so I don't get spoiled!)...and wow, was I impressed by the Cheetah Girl, what-ever-her-name-is. That was a better Cha Cha Cha than I saw from some folks on So You Think You Can Dance this past summer! Other observations (partial credit to a co-worker who watched the premier Monday night sans-tivo): Jennie Garth-from 90210-impressed with the flexibility in that split and Marie Osmond covered up her lack of dancing talent with acting and charisma not seen since John Ratzenberger danced!

Beauty and the Geek, CW: In week one, this season's twist was introduced...one couple has a geeky girl and a beauty guy. This week the guy proved he had enough brains to support his nerdy lady when he won a debate over lowering the legal drinking age to 18 with "I've partied with a lot of cool 18 year-olds, dude." Nice. If you wonder if you can learn anything from watching a show like Beauty and the Geek, I can tell you I learned what a LARPer is. If you already know, you probably have a good chance of making it on the show.

Reaper, CW: Series premier was this week and while I love the premise, the pilot was a bit drawn out being that it was 60 minutes long. But it turns out having your soul sold to the devil by your parents isn't such a bad thing, and the devil isn't such a bad guy. Our hero, Sam, gets to catch souls that escaped from hell with a vacuum cleaner and return them to a drop point-at hell on earth-the DMV (of course!) And the devil helped Sam out for no reason at all (or maybe to gain his trust? Does the devil really need to gain trust?) by buying a bunch of stuff at the WorkBench where Sam is a floor salesman so he could win the spiral sliced ham...nice guy that devil, right?!

Journeyman, NBC: Series premier quickly took us viewers into the mystery our main character is experiencing in his life...he's traveling through time-but so far only his own adult lifetime. In his first flashback he runs into his old lover who is dead in present time...and then (if I understood it right) runs into her again on the next journey back, but its the future her, who should be dead, and who knows that he is traveling through time on some sort of mission. It seems to be set up with a complex puzzle to solve and I think I'll enjoy it. The bad news is I don't remember the main character’s name and the dead-potentially time traveling-lover's name is either Lydia or Olivia. The second set of bad news comes in the form of what's-his-name's Blackberry. It’s too reminiscent of the little hand-held Ziggy computer-thing that Dean Stockwell carried around in Quantum Leap.

Cane, CBS: Wow! First off, I didn't really pay attention to the cast. Not only do we have Jimmy Smits, but we also have Hector Elizondo and Nestor Carbonell in prominent roles! Before the first 5 minutes were over I was totally hooked! The entire cast (including the younger members) deliver convincing performances far exceeding any other show I've watched this fall. In case you missed the first episode: Hector gives controlling interest of the family's sugar/rum business to his adopted son, Jimmy, much to the dismay of Nestor-who's literally been sleeping with the enemy. Oh yes, this show will be good and it will be here for the long haul!

Law & Order: SVU, NBC: Here's an oldie, but a goodie. And Olivia is definitely the name of a character! I love the pacing of each episode...really an hour of SVU (much less without commercials) just flies by before you know it! Oh yeah, and Stabler's wife is pregnant...I guess they'll be staying together after all.

The Biggest Loser, NBC: Spoiler alert...they kicked off Jerry from the blue team...the oldest contestant ever and the one who lost more than 30 pounds in the first week. Since leaving the show he's lost about 90 pounds and looks great. Good for him!

Top Chef, Bravo: They sent the final four to Aspen and as a welcome gave them a hot air balloon ride. Here's my question: I've seen a few hot air balloon accidents on the news...would you like to float around in a wicker basket below a blasting jet of fire on a cold morning in the mountains? Me? Not so much.

On Thursday The Office, NBC, returns...set your tivos!!! (As if they aren't already...)

The Queen has spoken!