TV shows - roundup

"Law and Order: SVU" - This is my favorite of the "Law and Order" franchise. Now that "Criminal Intent" has been moved to cable, I won't be able to watch it, being cably-challenged and all, except that I think I did hear that second-run episodes would be shown on NBC sometime, so maybe I'll catch it then. I'm looking forward with some trepidation to the beginning of "Law and Order" given Sam Waterston's character's job promotion and the departure of Fred Dalton Thompson as he pursues the (real) presidency. I thought the episode was ok, with a script obviously designed to showcase a tour-de-force performance by the guest star (in this case, Cynthia Nixon). The whole thing with the sargeant seemed really odd. OK, so he's gone for like 15 minutes and then he's back on the job. Ummm, ok, so who did he have pictures of?

"Heroes" - I thought it was a good start to the much-anticipated second season. I hope they don't fall into the same pitfall that "Lost" fell into in their sophomore year, though the "Heroes" writers have figured out that small payoffs are necessary instead of just generating more and more questions and never giving any answers. I liked the introduction of the two new characters, especially that there wasn't a whole onslaught of new characters, except that with the combo of them and Ando and Hiro, it means I actually have to keep my eyes glued to the TV to read the subtitles. "Lost" was a huge part of this as well, with Jin and Sun, but who knew that hugely successful primetime shows could sustain forcing its viewers to read subtitles when so many people seem resistant to reading subtitles when going to the movies? I laughed when Hiro's hero turned out to be a white dude - and yes, I happen to know what "gaijin" means. With so many characters, I'm ok with them not having talked about all of them in the first episode. From the previews, we're going to see more familiar faces in the second episode. Looking forward to seeing what the deal is with Peter, but poor Mr. Sulu. Sayonara.

"Dirty Sexy Money" - I had heard that this was almost a throwback to the days of "Dallas" and "Dynasty", and being huge fans of those shows, I decided to give this one a try. To me, the writers just tried entirely too hard - and it showed and almost reeked of desperation. It was so over-the-top, even for a soap opera, but with none of the camp of "Dallas" or "Dynasty" and really none of the sincerity of a real daytime soap opera. I was almost out before the first half-hour was up, but then came the spectacular scene with Donald Sutherland that had me glued to the screen. Donald is not only the best part of the show, but he's really wonderful, and he was really the only reason I even watched the entire episode. However, the appeal of watching Donald week after week isn't enough to get me through the rest of the show. This is the show that has one character who is a raving asshole priest who has an illegitimate child on the side that his wife and kids don't know about and that his mistress has just dropped on his doorstep and another character (brother to the priest character) who is a married would-be Senatorial candidate who is having a torrid affair with a transsexual. Trying entirely too hard.

"Journeyman" - I only gave this show a chance because it was on after "Heroes" and the husband was going to try it out. I was able to last 20 minutes into the show before I was out. It had the initial appeal of "Quantum Leap" to me, but I really disliked not knowing why this stuff was happening to him, and after a while, I didn't care about him or what he was doing. I heard the rest of the show from the other room because the husband was still watching it, but it still didn't keep my attention enough to keep watching it.