A Mediocre Monday

We settled in for the first night of the new fall season last night. Forget PBS’ Sunday debut of Ken Burn’s The War, we did not – and will not – get that on our local nearly-full-time-fund-raising-rip-off public television station, KQET. (We previously wrote about that sorry operation.)

Anyway, last night we thought we’d give Chuck a try over on NBC before going to CBS for Two and a Half Men. That one didn’t fly for the scheduled one-hour duration. Contrived. That’s acceptable if it’s funny. It was not. So we switched early to CBS for the debut of Big Bang Theory. That turned out to be a half-hour of overworked nerd jokes – but funny, so forgiven all that. This season’s launch of Two and a Half Men wasn’t actually the best episode of the series, but it delivered enough to stay on our list of favorites. That being a half-hour show, we’re almost obligated to watch the following Rules of Engagement.

From there it was back to NBC with high hopes. That’s because we find CSI Miami a nauseating formula show with its episodes devoid of any hint of a plot. Splash a bit of overly-saturated colors around with the blood and you’ve almost got it. Too bad David Caruso postures his way through every episode. His imitation of acting is indescribably awful. Sadly, we made it through Journeyman only because it was the only option. That’s an hour to do some reading, I guess.

Tonight we’ll have to pass on House. It overlaps Dancing with the Stars in the early slot, and Boston Legal in the second. What’s with Dancing? It’s not what, but who. Helio Castroneves, the two-time Indy 500 winner who’s genuine, friendly and funny. The public persona is the same as the private one we found in the pits at Sebring in March.

Boston Legal debuts with a 90-minute episode. It’s the best program on television, hands down, bar none.