TV's Back, Y'all

When it's cold enough at night to turn the furnace on it means I'm sitting on the couch with my laptop watching the return of my fave shows. Actually, that's a lie. My favorite shows are all on HBO, which I'm not allowed access to due to the affirmative action policies of the Canadian control boards requiring an ungodly amount of boring Canadian content to get approval. I remember being excited to finally get access to MTV when they added a bunch of new channels a few years ago. MTV Canada? Freakin' lame. So, I'm relegated to the newsgroups to get my fix. This summer one fabulous haX0r uploaded an HDTV quality DivX copy of Six Feet Under & Entourage just a few hours after the shows aired, giving me no choice but to do a happy dance while they downloaded. I should send that dude some cookies.

Now that Six Feet Under is finished & an appropriate amount of time has passed, I need to move on. I can't mourn the loss of the best developed characters on a TV show forever. Time to try & fill that empty void, but with what? Won't be the Comeback:

"HBO on Monday axed "The Comeback," a mockumentary comedy starring Lisa Kudrow as a has-been actress seeking to revive her career. The former "Friends" star also created the show with production partner Michael Patrick King. Its 13-episode run ended September 4. Said an HBO spokeswoman, "We've looked at our schedule, and given our future commitments, we felt we would not be able to give the show the support it needed."

Poor Lisa Kudrow. I watched several episodes & she did a great job, but the show was just painful to sit through. You knew the finale was going to show how the producers of her reality show butchered the real life footage & edited everything out of context to paint the storyline they wanted - which they did & was worth the wait. Lisa's (ironic?) perfomance of the aging actress struggling to remain relevant, trying to get back in the spotlight without ever admitting that she had left the spotlight was more sad than funny. Even with excellent acting, a cool concept of blending the reality camera footage with the real life action & an interesting theme, you still need characters you like. Valerie Cherish was based on someone like Shelley Long. Would anyone watch a Shelley Long reality show? I think not.

What else do we have in the line-up?

I thought Entourage was a fun show; too bad it's done for the season.
Weeds is funny & interesting, so will probably be cancelled soon.
I <3 Arrested Development & caught the season premiere last night. I hope more people start tuning in so that one doesn't get axed either. How can I live in a country where more people watch 7th Fucking Heaven (4.6 million viewers) than Arrested Development (5.4 million viewers)? It boggles the mind.
CSI is back this week, so my nerdy science geek crush on Grissom will be back in full force. I never got into NY, but I do watch Miami once in a while, if only to laugh at the ridiculous drama queen antics of David Caruso. Really...it must be in his contract to have every episode end with: cheesy line, put on the sunglasses, cool fade as he walks away. This is a good site for all things CSI.

Of course, I'm most excited about the return of America's Next Top Model, though without the acerbic commentary of Janice Dickinson it promises to be the most delusional "reality" show short of the Bachelor. (Do those catty bitches really think they can determine if a guy is right for them when they've never spent any time in a situation that is even remotely connected to real life? Does he show up late to pick you up? Only if the producer is running behind! *giggle* Does he call you from work to see how your day is going? I hope so! Does he spend every dime he makes & rack up his credit cards? Umm...I hope not. Can you spend an afternoon together running errands, going grocery shopping & cleaning up your house without killing each other? No idea. Is every Friday night reserved for beer & poker with the guys? Dunno. But I'm gonna git married!)

ANTM may deserve its own entry, complete with pics. :)