Angela and I watch our fair share of television. Here are some comments about my favorite shows of the new season.

Lost

Still the best looking commercial on TV. I didnt get a stopwatch out but the Lost experience still feels like one long high-definition commercial with short breaks for content. It's worse than watching NFL football, and that is saying a lot. Still, I enjoy the story and will keep tuning in to see if it ever makes any sense. (I am still betting that they are all dead already and living in Purgatory...)

Jericho

Jericho is one of my favorite new shows this season, even though it gives me nightmares. On one level, I like the show for its nostalgia factor. Since we got a new boogieman in Osama, nuclear war, the boogieman I grew up with, is all but forgotten. The show works as a sci-fi story/adventure of survival reminiscent of Octavia Butler's disturbing books, like "Parable of the Sower". One could argue that the doomsday story also works as a global warming story - how will you survive when the world's coastal cities are lost underwater?

The one thing I dont like about the show is the music. Good stories should have music that matches teh mood and tone of the story. Jericho uses music as a big music video trying to sell the latest single. Angela likes the music but I think it detracts bigtime.

Battlestar Galactica

It has been a while since I saw a Battlestar episode because their seasons are short with big breaks. The two-hour season opener however had me on the edge of my seat once again. BS is still the best drama on TV, period. Forget the 1970's cylons and images of Lorne Greene - this show has tough writing about war, religion, the cycle of violence, ethics, terrorism and contemporary politics. The show is good because the scripts are gripping and the writing doesnt hold any of the traditional TV-show cliche endings.

My one and only complaint with the show is that there isn't enough of it but I will take what I can get.

I am also waiting for them to explore the idea of eternal life, digital style, more deeply. A topic that is covered in books like The Golden Age and others but not on TV. What would we be like if you couldn't die? If your memories were just transfered to a new, identical body?

Studio60

This show got a lot of positive buzz but it took me a few episodes to start enjoying it. It's a little too much like West Wing, a little too glitzy, and Mathew Perry is the Ben Affleck of TV but the story is entertaining if you forget all the TV stuff. This show is about working in corporate America. The struggle between truth and corporate profits, between and creativity and control.

My one complaint is casting. Amanda Peete - she is just too young and too good looking to be believable. Chandler is just Chandler.