TV from 9/30 - 10/6

Monday (10/1)

Prison Break

What’s in the box?!?!? I can definitely say that this show is consistent. The problem is that it never improves. I appreciate that they have trimmed the amount of secondary storylines. Since the majority of the cast is in prison, their arcs keeping connecting which makes the show a helluvalot easier to watch. Michael is losing hope, T-Bag is scraping by, Whistler can’t be trusted, Mahone is losing his mind, Sucre is a drunk, and Linc failed in his mission. But none of this matters because they cliffhanged the show on the dreaded unknown box delivered by the evil people. What’s in the box?!?! I doubt it will be as cool as having it be Sara’s head.

5 out of 10

Chuck

I guess I’ll stick around but I am not all that excited about Chuck. There was nothing particularly wrong with the second episode, but at the same time there definitely wasn’t anything great. The dinner scene went on forever and the action wasn’t memorable. Still, Adam Baldwin working at the fake Best Buy is great. The female agent working at the hot dog joint with all the young boys just staring at her was amusing. Zach interacting with his sister, his buddy, the agents, are all usually funny enough so hopefully this show can find a groove soon.

5 out of 10

Heroes

The second season is starting off just as slow as the first season. The show is just good enough to keep me coming back but it took nearly half the season last year before it really delivered that knockout episode. I hope they can improve that schedule this time around. Still Claire cut her toe off and that ruled. Jack is still working at the Copy Kingdom and that rules. The Haitian was brought back and re-teamed with Jack, which is like giving me a gift of pure joy. I’m not interested in Maya and her bleeding eyes death power yet. Peter in “Ireland” is weak so far. I hope they can deliver on this Power that killed Sulu and is attacking Mama Petrelli. The ancient Japan plot is not as good as it should be although Kensei’s power revealing itself should kick things into gear. Cast gets huge again with at least Niki coming back next week so lets see if they can continue to juggle all these characters.

6 out of 10

Weeds

Celia gets naked… that’s bad nudity, bad bad nudity. I am not sure if there is much else that needs to be said about the entire episode. Well, Shane and Isabella getting high, touching boobs, and sharing tender moments was a nice scene. The porn set stuff just seems to be something for Andy to do for a couple of episodes. Hopefully stalker Nancy will lead to something good. There is still not enough Helia and Conrad and that is holding the show back.

6 out of 10

Californication

I complain last week and what happens this week? Hank is snorting lines of the back of a hooker. Hank is also drunk the majority of the episode, which just makes the show much more enjoyable. This was the episode where we got to see where Hank and Karen went wrong while at the same time putting them that much closer to being back together. By closer I mean they had sex. It is a good sign that the show was able to make the reading of the letter from Hank’s dad as emotional as was. This was easily one of the best episodes of the show so far.

8 out of 10

Tuesday (10/2)

Bones

This was just a by-the-numbers episode of Bones. There weren’t really any standout moments. Hodgins inability to deal with the hot FBI agent was amusing enough and Bones seeing her father in jail was okay but could have been better. Really the only thing I would want to watch again was drunk Booth at the end. It is still weird how they are tacking on these green-screen scenes with D.C. landmarks in the background.

5 out of 10

House

I am really enjoying this new season; much more than the beginning of last season. They have been able to make me rethink whether or not everything will be reset within a handful of episodes. Maybe Chase, Cameron, and Foreman won’t run back to be House’s pet monkeys. We’ll see. I can definitely take House abusing all the potential candidates for the rest of this month, especially if Kal Penn sticks around. Wilson continuing to abuse House is fantastic and that is the way their relationship should work not House screwing over Wilson to point of sending him to jail from last year. After all of 2 weeks, House is easily having the best season of the network shows I am watching.

9 out of 10

The Unit

This may be the last time I will really enjoy The Unit for a while. Instead of a mission a week, this was the culmination of how last season ended and the first 2 episodes of this year. Everyone is trying to expose who in the government is screwing over The Unit. Which lead to the awesome scene of them infiltrating the muckety muck dinner and showing The Man that they can get to him whenever they want to. Great stuff. The Mack torture scenes were good too, even if still don’t know what the hell happened between him and his wife. Please keep the Cerrano look.

7 out of 10

Reaper

Maybe Reaper will succeed. The tone of the show works with all the jokes and goofing off, instead of taking all the devil’s bounty hunting seriously. I hope they continue to injure Spanish every week since him getting shot by a nail-gun was one of the funnier scenes. Ray Wise makes the Devil menacing enough since most of his scenes are humorous with just the slightest bit of evil. I’m not too sure about the Workbench boss, but if it leads to Sock destroying merchandise to calm down it should work. Missy Peregrym has very white teeth, but is still hot. Reaper is holding steady at #2 of the new shows

6 out of 10

Damages

Damages is head-and-shoulders the best show that I am watching right now. There have been 10 episodes so far and none have disappointed. This week we finally got he big confrontation between Hewes and Frobisher. Somehow Glenn Close and Ted Danson were able to deliver by having the deposition slowly build to Frobisher exploding. This is capped off with Frobisher flipping out on his wife for sending the divorce papers to him the morning of his deposition. Ellen quitting then going to get drunk with friends was also very well done. They still got me wondering just what the hell happened to Ellen and her fiancé after the trial. I still hope Tom is not working against Ellen but there are still a few episodes left to make a bunch of reveals.

9 out of 10

Wednesday (10/3)

Bionic Woman

Although Bionic Woman hasn't put all of its pieces together yet, I still think that it is the best new show of the season. Right now it is because of potential. That awful human being yet good actor Isaiah Washington was introduced as Jamie’ handler this week. He’s another good character for the show. There was a damn decent training scene with Jamie and that guy who survived the Elecktra movie. The Sarah Corvus storyline looks like it will continue for a while so that’s a good thing. Jamie’s relationship with her sister is not dragging down the show. And I just love shadowy agencies that do good and the shadowy agencies that they stop. It’s the Alias fan in me.

7 out of 10

Life

I am giving Life a reprieve for at least one more week. This is based nearly entirely on this episode spending almost as much time on Charlie trying to figure out what was done to him and why than on the crime of the week. That along with the great scene where Charlie going to the barbecue at his old partner’s house, getting yelled at by the guy’s wife, then finding out that his partner kept his badge and his gun for him. The weekly crime was okay but nothing that you haven’t seen in a Law and Order or CSI. I hope they keep the larger storyline a major part of every episode because then I will stay till the show is cancelled before Christmas.

6 out of 10

Dirty Sexy Money

This gets the chop. I may continue to record it but I have no interest in reviewing it. Maybe if it survives past midseason I will check back in.

Thursday (10/4)

Smallville

Hey, we got a step up from last week. But since last week’s episode was awful, this is not high praise. I appreciate that they are not dragging out the awful Lana storyline, but at the same time find it hilarious that they push the reset button so hard that last year’s Lana/Lex arc is now gone. It was also good to see Clark visit the Fortress of Solitude because any Terrence Stamp is a good thing. The ending could also lead to something good as long as the secret government program has nothing to do with the Luthors, please be CADMUS, or Waller, or Brianiac. This week’s awful list; Lana was cloned, another Daily Planet editor that is not Perry White, possibly evil Supergirl, no Lionel.

4 out of 10

Big Shots

Adios. Take your place next to Dirty Sexy Money.

2 weeks in a row with Damages in first place and House in second. Plus we got an unexpectedly great Californication episode. Dirty Sexy Money and Big Shots are off the list. I am also not going to review Boston Legal and I recorded but haven't watched Pushing Daisies and Dexter.