What's on TV?

Returning to things superficial, I have absolutely no idea what they’re showing on local TV but here’s a list of shows I’m downloading:

1. 90210. Yup, remake of Beverly Hills, 90210 of the ‘90s. Episode 2 aired on The CW channel (and went straight into cyberspace) on September 9. From what I’ve read Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty are two of the original main casts returning. I’ve only skipped through episode 1 so I cannot say how good or bad it is.
2. Bones. Season 4 returns with Bones giving a lecture at Oxford. Of course, Booth was there too, and (of course) somebody found a dead body.
3. Burn Notice. One of the more interesting shows currently. Jeffrey Donovan plays a “burned” spy Michael Westen surviving on small jobs while trying to figure out the people who framed him. Think of a cross between MacGyver and Mission Impossible. Gabrielle Anwar plays the former IRA operative ex-girlfriend while Bruce Campbell plays an ex-SEAL buddy who informs on Westen to the FBI. Season 2 introduces Tricia Helfer of BSG fame as Westen’s new handler.
4. Do Not Disturb. New half-hour comedy revolving around employees of a once-famous New York City hotel.
5. Eureka. Quirky science fiction series Eureka is almost half-way through Season 3!
6. Flashpoint. Canadian show about an elite police Strategic Response Unit (SRU) – think of SWAT or our very own UTK. Casts include Veronica Mars’ dad Enrico Colantoni as team sergeant and crisis negotiator and former Pink Ranger Amy Jo Johnson as second sniper.
7. Fringe. One of the most anticipated new shows this year by J J Abrams about an FBI team tasked with investigating all things strange. Of course, behind it all is a huge conspiracy. This is a new X-Files with an in-house mad scientist.
8. Gossip Girl. Season 2.
9. Greek. Season 2.
10. Prison Break. Schofield and gang are back in season 4 to take the Company down with help from DHS agent. They really should think about changing the name of the show now, unless they mean to put him back into another prison to break out again.
11. Privileged. Another new show on The CW about rich people meant for young women. An aspiring writer/journalist takes up a new job as live-in tutor to two spoiled teenage girls.
12. Raising the Bar. Saved by the Bell alum Mark-Paul Gosselaar plays public defender in a new series by Steven Bochco.
13. Samurai Girl. Six-hour mini-series based on Samurai Girl young adult novels by Carrie Asai. Already finished, unless they’ll turn it into a proper TV series.
14. Saving Grace. It’s already half-way into the second season of this mature-rated show with Holly Hunter as an Oklahoma City homicide detective with a “last-chance” angel.
15. Secret Diary of a Call Girl. Billie Piper returns for a second season as London prostitute Belle.
    
16. Sons of Anarchy. Interesting new show about a motorcycle gang from The Shield writer/producer Kurt Sutter, featuring The Soprano’s Drea de Matteo and Hellboy’s Ron Perlman.
    
17. Stargate Atlantis. This fifth season turns out to be the last for Stargate Atlantis as Sci-Fi Channel decided not to order season 6. Sad, but not surprising considering the series’ plot has basically stagnated. Good news new Stargate series Universe will begin next year!
18. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Season 2.
19. True Blood. Anna Paquin plays a telepathic waitress who falls in love with a vampire. Oh, vampires have just come out of the coffin, so to speak, so everybody knows about them. The series is based on a series of books by Charlaine Harris.
20. Weeds. Season 4 of this HBO series about marijuana-dealing single-mother Nancy Botwin is almost finished.

Wow, that’s an even twenty! I don’t watch TV all the time, by the way. Some of the shows listed above are reaching the end of their respective seasons; some are going into a mid-season break, and many of the new shows I won’t watch beyond the first episode or two.

Swingtown has just concluded its first season. The show has a brow-rising plot involving swinging or open marriages, but is really about relationships. Spooks: Code 9 is a spin-off of British spy series Spooks, taking place in new-future United Kingdom after a nuclear bomb was detonated in London. I really have to ask why British shows have such short seasons, or series as they call it – only six episodes – compared to US shows running twelve to twenty episodes per season?

Finally, anime series Macross Frontier, released in conjunction with the twenty-five-year anniversary of the original Macross will soon complete its twenty-five-episode run. The series retains the familiar Macross space opera theme but with updated graphics and catchy new songs. This time around, however, the main characters are members of a private military company SMS while the enemy is a new mysterious race of bio-mechanical alien called Vajra.

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PS: How could I forget The Middleman, the coolest and funniest show this summer?!