What I'm Watching

The so-called regular TV season is over--hence no more LOST or Desperate Housewives recaps--but I've still found plenty on the tube to keep me occupied:

1. The Big Bang Theory - This may be my new favorite comedy. Consistently witty, I end up chortling loudly through each episode. Thanks to reruns, I'm pretty much caught up with season two. However I'm SOL when it comes to watching season one. Unless I want to pay. Which I don't.

2. Mental - This is the show my friend Ari was script supervisor for. Sadly, it does nothing for me. Lead actor Chris Vance is attractive enough--and the writers have found a number of ways to get him shirtless (Booyah!), but his character of maverick shrink Jack Gallagher is completely unappealing to me as he persistently walks around with the perpetual smirk on his face.

There is of course former 4400er Jacqueline McKenzie as fellow shrink Veronica Hayden-Jones. It's nice to see McKenzie land on her feet after the untimely cancellation of the addictive series, although maybe one day she'll get to play a character with her own lovely Aussie accent.

Then there's Annabella Sciorra, who is completely unrecognizable as hospital chief Nora Skoff. I say unrecognizable not because she disappears into her role that you cannot recognize the former object of Wesley Snipe's Jungle Fever, but because apparently cases worth of Twinkies and Cheetos have disappeared from their packages taking up residence on the former hottie's petite frame. (Odd factoid: IMDB and Celebutopia list Ms. Sciorra's birthdate as 1960, while Wikipedia puts it at 1964...)

Even Estella Warren (Planet of the Apes) who played a supermodel on a recent episode looked like she'd been dipping into the Ben & Jerry's lately. Hey, I'm all for more realistic portrayals of women's bodies, but if you're casting a supermodel why pick someone who looks like they could be a linebacker for the Steelers?

So--about the show: Jack's got secrets (a wife? sister? gone missing...), Veronica's got secrets (an affair with another doctor at the hospital...), there's politics and medical mysteries and yawn...

The worst part (other than the super-smug Dr. Gallagher) are the cheesy effects that supposed to depict the "mental" (get it?) condition of the patients--i.e.; what's going on inside their heads. Let's put it this way: the special effects on Star Trek: TOS were more believable.

On the positive side, the script supervision for Mental is AWESOME!

3. The Closer - After watching season four, I'm hooked. Unfortunately, like with The Big Bang Theory, I can't go back and watch prior seasons for free. Oh well--I'll have to satisfy myself with season five which started up on Monday.

4. The Tudors - I missed out on season two--which depicted the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn. Seriously, given the premise for the series ("You think you know a story, but you only know how it ends. To get to the heart of the story, you have to go back to the beginning..."), it shouldn't have gone past season one. By the time Henry married Anne, he was bloated and middle-aged. At the time of Jane Seymour's death (which occurs in the middle of season three of the series), he was disgustingly fat and afflicted with gout and only nine years away from his own demise.

Seriously, does Jonathan Rhys Meyers look anything like a decrepit fatty?

In addition to being seriously factually challenged, season three was pretty tedious.

5. Pushing Daisies - Cuties Lee Pace and Anna Friel are back as ABC airs the last three episodes of the quirky series on Saturdays. The final episode airs this Saturday. Sniffle...

6. Eli Stone - ABC airs the last four episodes of this quirky series on Saturdays starting June 20th. (Dear ABC, what is it you have against quirky series?)

7. Frasier - I've been DVRing episodes of one of my old favorites for days when there's "nothing" on TV. I've got eleven so far...

This should keep me busy until season four of Dexter starts up...