State of TV: Wednesdays

I just got back from a fancy dinner with a friend that involved a few cocktails, so apologies if this isn't the most coherent or comprehensive of posts. My desire to get this up before Thursday compels me to finish it!

OK. Wednesdays. 8pm. "Pushing Daisies." This show suffers from two major flaws. First, it is just way to twee. Every time the two leads beam at each other like the love sick fools they are, I roll my eyes so hard that sometimes my eyeballs don't face front again until the show is almost over. I usually see enough of an episode to know, however, that the second thing wrong with this show is that most of the plot each week tends to focus on a crime, and it is therefore just another damned crime procedural, and I am sick of those...I do like Chuck's wardrobe every week, though.

Also at eight is "Kid Nation," and if you need some explanation as to why I watch this show, just check this out, (skip ahead to about 3:30 for the real awesomeness):



Jared is my hero.

Lastly at 8 there's "America's Next Top Model," and it's the usual stupidity, but this time they have a model with Asperger's syndrome, and she's kind of rad.

Nine is another one of those hours of TV in which I watch something on more than two channels. Four, in fact. "Private Practice" is one of those shows, and the main reason I tend to watch it--and the main reason it seems to exist at all--is because of the inherent likability of its lead, Kate Walsh. There are a few actresses who have that quality--I think Maura Tierney and Jenna Fischer are two others--and I find it kind of refreshing. It's not just that they're attractive (and all three of them are, but not in an obvious sexpot kind of way) or that they're funny (although, again, they are). It's that they are...likable. And there's just no other way to put it.

Slightly less likable is Michelle Ryan, AKA the "Bionic Woman." I take that back. She's not unlikable, she's just boring, and I think the show's creators realized this shortly after they began, and thus increased the screen time for the far more interesting Katee Sackhoff as Jamie Sommers' nemesis...But the show still suffers considerably from a real lack of spark.

I couldn't begin to tell you what's going on on "Gossip Girl," although I make an attempt to watch it every week. Something about rich teenagers in New York, I think. And finally at the 9 o'clock hour we have "Kitchen Nightmares," which is not nearly as compelling as the BBC version of the show. I'm not sure if Gordon Ramsey is just afraid to be quite so mean to the people in his own country, of if Fox just doesn't know that a little of Gordon is often more than enough. Either way, if you have BBC America, be sure to watch "Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares" instead of the Fox version.

At 10 is "Project Runway" which premieres tonight, and I haven't watched yet so I can't comment on it, and "Dirty Sexy Money," which I've found I only watch for the brief moments when Donald Sutherland appears on it. He's by far the most dynamic actor on the show, and the most compelling character.

And there you have it. Now pardon me as I go pass out...