Rands Fall Line-up

I still miss the West Wing of a few years ago. I don’t think there has been a show what was so consistently good on so many different fronts. Since then, the only show which has come close in terms of must-watch weekly TV has been Lost, but a chunk of that show’s magic faded in the second season as I became increasingly frustrated with the lack of resolution to an ever growing pile of questions. I’ll be watching the season premiere, but I could easily stop watching in three episodes.

I’m just about caught up with the second (third?) season of Battlestar Galactica in preparation for the season finale. Again, like Lost, what was terrific television has got a little confusing as we head towards the season finale. Recent episodes have featured horrible writing with blatant and annoying flaws in basic logic. Fingers are crossed as the season winds up and, based on the hallway buzz from folks who’ve already seen it, I’m hopeful.

Netflix did an amazingly thing and got their hands on the series premiere of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and I’m happy to say Aaron Sorkin delivers again. I love his intelligently dense dialog and while I’m worried about how much drama he can create when his characters aren’t in the White House, I can say that Bradley Whitford and Matthew Perry have instant depth and chemistry.

The dark horse candidate for the Fall season is Jericho. I like for the same reason that I read all those Stephen King novels when I was a kid. I’ve got this love/hate relationship with horror. For example, I watched The Ring by myself from behind a large pillow, DVD controller in hand… probably muted 30% of the movie, but watched and rewatched the key scenes ten times. End of the world stories fall into the same bucket. I hate ’em. I mean, I love ’em.

Still, each and every one of those shows can fail. It’s all cool. I got a reliable back-up and it’s called Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. The premise is deliciously creative. Foster’s Home lives in a world where imaginary friends are real. Anything you imagined as a child is a living breathing creature. The problem is, what happens when you grow up and no longer need them? Welcome to Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. It’s a house chock full of every possible imaginary character you can imagine. Enter shenanigans.

Like Spongebob, Foster’s core demographic is pretty vague. I can sit and enjoy any episode alongside a 4 year old.

That’s good television.