Fall TV Preview: Day Three 2006

What's up with Tuesday TV?

Psyched about this season’s new shows? Looking forward to your old favorites coming back? Don’t know what to watch? Pull up a chair and I’ll tell ya.

Last time, I took a look at Monday night’s broadcast lineup, the highlight of which was Heroes (from the new class) and Prison Break (now in its sophmore year). This time, it’s all about Tuesday.


Tuesday’s New Shows: What’s Hot?
Smith (CBS, 10 pm) stars Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, and, most importantly, Shohreh Aghdashloo (24’s sleeper-cell mom from Season 4). Love her! The show follows the adventures of Liotta, who seems to be a working-class suburban husband, but who really lives a secret life as a thief. Liotta pulls off big-time heists with a team of crooks, led by the awesomely fierce Aghdashloo. It’s sort of like Mission: Impossible (the TV show, kids, not the Tom Cruise movies), with bad guys.

The show is created by John Wells, executive producer of the formerly-addictive ER and co-creator of the unfortunately-cancelled Third Watch. The guy is really good with character-driven ensemble pieces, so this could be a winner, if given time to find an audience.


Tuesday’s New Shows: What’s Not?
Friday Night Lights (NBC, 8 pm). This series is based on the movie of the same name, and stars Kyle Chandler (King Kong, Early Edition) as the coach of of the Dillion Panthers, a high school…oh, crap, who am I kidding. It’s an hour long drama about football. Yuck! Pass, pass, and pass!


Tuesday’s Old Shows: What’s the Deal?
Gilmore Girls (The CW, 8 pm). Until this past spring, the very idea of me watching this show was out of the question. Short of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, I couldn’t imagine there was a gayer hour on TV. Then, a friend of mine convinced me to try it. The dialogue is great, she said. The show is rich with characterization, she said. Humor abounds, she said. So I started watching the syndicated reruns, from episode 1. Within a week, I was hooked. Within a month, I wanted to live in the town of Stars Hollow even more than I wanted to live in Sunnydale -- and Sunnydale has vampires!

This seventh (and possibly final) season unfortunately picks up without the show’s brilliant creator and head writer at the helm. Fortunately, word on the street is that the series won’t lose any of its pop culture-infused snappy banter and general hilarity. If you’re leary of primetime soaps, that’s not really what this show is about (although I won't lie -- there are serialized elements at play) Nor is it a namby-pamby, touchy-feely refugee from the Lifetime Network. Gilmore Girls is, at its heart, a comedy that successfully doles out dramatic elements when needed. It’s hopelessly addictive, highly underrated, and a classic-in-the-making. Watch it while you can!

Veronica Mars (The CW, 9 pm). I’m going to give you my honest opinion here: I don’t like this show. But people love it. People who watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the aforementioned Gilmore Girls swear by it.  And from what I’ve seen, objectively, it’s not bad. The season-long mysteries are interesting, engrossing, with entertaining twists and turns along the way. Veronica, a modern day Nancy Drew, is cute, spunky, and fearless. (I find her mildly annoying, and the rest of the cast even more so, which is what keeps me away.) This year, Veronica starts college (how she graduated high school with the time she spends busy-bodying, I’ll never know), and she’ll be solving three somewhat related mysteries. The CW has ordered series creator Rob Thomas to make the show accessible, so if you’re a mystery fan, and don’t mind perky blonde teenagers butting into everyone’s business, be sure to tune in.

House (Fox, 9pm). If you’ve never seen House, here’s a synopsis of every episode: Pre-credits, someone gets sick and falls down. Acts 1 through 3, Patient has a rare and mysterious ailment. House and his team of geniuses misdiagnose said patient, usually making matters worse. House is cranky and pops pain pills. His boss reprimands him for taking crazy risks (despite two season’s worth of miracle cures). Act 4, House miraculously cures the patient. See? He told you so. The end. On casual viewing, this is a fun show. Great performances and solid scripts, all around. But watch it every week, and the formula gets tired -- fast. Worth an occasional gander, but not must-see TV.

Boston Legal (ABC, 10 pm) has drifted too far away from its Practice-originated courtroom drama, and instead has become a quirky farce that often irritates more than it engages. Too good to ignore, but not good enough to enthusiastically recommend.

Dancing With the Stars (ABC, 8 pm). There’s just one thing that prevents me from recommending this show: the contestants are allowed to live in the end. And that just sucks.

Up next: Primetime Wednesday!