TV: Wednesday Edition

I've been waiting for Mike to continue his TV preview. But since he's been idle for a while, and you faithful blog readers deserve an update, I'm going to totally beat him to the punch and pick up where he left off, with Wednesday TV...

Lost: OK, I'm not sure if this show is still on Wednesdays-- it might've been moved to a new night and I forgot. In any case, it won't be on at all until 2008. Whatever the case, I can't wait. Lost has been the best show on TV since it debuted three seasons ago. Great characters, inventive storytelling, a unique setting, and a very cool mystery that continues to unfold in each episode. The first season of Lost was the single best season of any TV show I've ever seen, ever, and although it hasn't matched that level since, it's still excellent. During the second and third seasons, some former fans stopped watching the show, saying they were frustrated because the show wasn't giving them enough answers. Those people? Are idiots. Just enjoy the ride and trust that the writers know where they're going with the story.

Pushing Daisies: Speaking of shows that go above and beyond, this is easily the best new show of the season. There's just nothing like it. The premise: there's a guy who has the power to bring dead people back to life just by touching them, with two caveats: 1) if he touches them again, they're dead forever. 2) if he keeps them alive for more than a minute, someone else in the vicinity will die instead. Hijinks ensue. Great cast, sharp writing, and the whole show has such a brightly colored fairy-tale vibe that you'd think it was directed by Tim Burton on crystal meth. And the narrator is the guy who voiced the Harry Potter audio books! Each episode is like a mini-movie. It's good, I'm telling you.

Bionic Woman: Now, this show? Painfully mediocre. Apparently, early in production, the show was completely revamped and there were all sorts of cast changes and scrapped scenes and re-edits and such. That's been very obvious in the first handful of episodes, which often jump from one scene to next in nonsensical fashion and drop storylines like a sack of bricks. Still, the show at least has potential. The first episode was pretty lousy, but then they (POSSIBLE SPOILER!) killed off the bionic woman's douchebag boyfriend and tried to lighten the overbearing mood somewhat. This show will never be Alias, but maybe it can eventually evolve into a halfway decent option as a mindless action show.