let’s talk about hot women on TV!

okay, calm down. not really. well, sort of. let’s talk about TV and what i’m watching and what you’re watching, and if the shows happen to star beautiful women, so be it.

admittedly, my TV-watching habits have changed quite a bit over the past year. used to be, when i was working at TVG full-time and even in the years afterward, i had a solid primetime viewing sked every night of the week. nowadays (and even before the writers’ strike), i’m lucky if i can find an hour of must-see TV per day. there are precious few series i’m following in any kind of regular manner, and so many others that have fallen by the wayside (i’m looking at you Boston Legal). i still have a general idea of what’s going on with different shows, their casts and storylines, but i’m not invested in very many at all.

as mentioned last week, i’m delighted that LOST is back. oh how i love that show. (and not just because it co-stars evangeline lilly...though, that’s definitely a point in the win column for the castaways and for me.) here’s a series that mindf**ks its viewers week in and week out, throwing out more questions than it gives answers, and winding itself into such a convoluted pretzel that it’s making Twin Peaks look vanilla. perhaps that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but anyone who watches LOST will agree: it’s never boring. there are only seven more episodes before it disappears into the ether for an indeterminate period of time, so i’m savoring it while it lasts...even though anytime anyone mentions jacob, or we catch a glimpse of jacob, or the camera zips around the exterior of jacob’s cabin, every hair on my body stands on end. every single time. ::: shiver :::


speaking of hair-raising TV, i made the mistake of watching a few episodes of Paranormal State during a sunday-afternoon marathon on A&E and scared the crap out of myself so badly that i couldn't sleep that night. never again.



i was really looking forward to The Sarah Connor Chronicles, mainly because i have been championing lena headey’s talents for more than a decade and now here she’d finally be, in all her splendor, for a full hour on network television every single week. finally, someone was giving her her own high-profile series, and i wasn’t sure who’d be happier about that, her or me...but i’m starting to think the answer is probably her, because – try as i might to love the show – i’m bored. i don't care what happens and, beyond the minor thrill (dwindling each week) of seeing her beat some tough dude (usually cybernetic) senseless, i’m barely watching. tonight i tuned in and had it on the background while i checked email, did the dishes and essentially did everything but actually watch the show. sad. lena kicks ass, but...i’m finding TSCC meh.





which is the perfect segue to The L Word, a show that veers back and forth between meh and great and awful from minute to minute instead of from episode to episode. i realize there aren’t many people reading this blog who actually watch L, and that's too bad because when the show gets it right, it rocks. in fact, i’m so eager to see the next week’s episode (canada gets them two weeks post-U.S.) that i’ve started watching it on YouTube. it’s a shame the series has such uneven quality, both in terms of its actors and its writing/directing, because crappy talent like cybill shepherd and mia kirshner are ruining it for real finds like rose rollins and leisha hailey (pictured).


and, really, in terms of TV dramas, those three are pretty much it for me these days. i watched the first episode of Eli Stone last week and quite liked it, so that may be added to the roster. i’m addicted to Project Runway, because i madly ♥ tim gunn and the designers are usually wickedly brilliant (plus, you know, heidi klum is very cute), and i usually end my day with The Jimmy Kimmel Show because i find him endlessly entertaining. oh, and the 10th cycle of America's Next Top Model starts in two weeks, so i'm contractually obliged to watch that when it airs (though i almost bailed during cycle 9).

but otherwise, the TV landscape has become kind of arid where my tastes are concerned. and i’m not that optimistic about what’s coming.

so, what are you watching? or not watching, as the case may be? what are your top five must-see shows in a given week? and are there any that you’ve dropped out of sheer boredom?

more importantly, are there any that i’m not watching but should be? (for the folks who’ll inevitably tell me to try Friday Night Lights: been there, done that, couldn’t get into it. sorry.)

go!