State of TV: Sundays (and Saturdays, Kind Of)

Is Sunday the end or the beginning of the TV week?

"Kidnapped" has been pretty much killed, and dumped onto Saturday nights at 9. I didn't think the show was the most riveting thing on TV, but I appreciated its attempt at story-centered drama. There are only so many procedurals one can take. Unfortunately, NBC didn't give it much of a chance. On the other hand, it's basically up against nothing, so maybe it'll end its life with some good numbers.

"The Simpsons" remains on Sunday nights, although baseball continues to push it off the air for most of October, and once again its annual Treehouse of Horror episode is going to have to air AFTER Halloween. Annoying!

Also at 8pm on Sunday is "The Amazing Race" which has been pretty good this season, especially compared to that awful family edition. I include it in my weekly Reality Locals recaps, so I don't think I have much more to say about it here.

At 9 "Desperate Housewives" continues its attempts to dig itself out of the hole of suck it fell into last season. I wasn't a big fan of the show from the beginning--I thought its attempts at satire were pretty weak, and didn't buy it as a fluffy soap either. But last season was even worse. So why do I keep watching? Good question. And the answer is, I have no idea. The only character I've ever enjoyed has been Bree, but this season they have again paired her with a psychopathic boyfriend (now husband), and she just never seemed like such a dumb character that she wouldn't learn from her mistakes. Felicity Huffman's character seems to be many fans' favorite, but I've always found her portrayal of Lynette to be lacking in any real subtlety. Like the rest of the show, it's just a little cartoonish for its own good. I wish there was something else at 9pm on Sundays I thought was worth watching.

Which brings us to 10pm and "Brothers and Sisters" the show whose biggest claims-to-fame are Marti Noxon quit after a few months of production, and Calista Flockhart chose it to make her triumphant return to TV. It's your basic family drama, and so far has brought nothing particularly interesting to the TV schedule. The family is dysfunctional, but not in any real entertaining way. The cast includes some good actors, including Sally Field, but they can't manage to breath any real life into some pretty boring scripts. There's just not enough humor or, clever dialogue, or cute guys, or...anything to keep it from being the show I fall asleep to on Sunday nights.