Rounding Out Premiere Week

After watching Monday night's shows, here's how the rest of my TV week went.

On Tuesday we tried out the new CW show - Reaper. It was fun - a little bit quirky, with some laugh out loud moments. And how can you not love his schlubby best friend with a name like Sock? So we enjoyed it, and I plan to keep watching.

Wednesday after Top Model (which I'll write about later), I tried Private Practice. Was it great? No. But it wasn't bad either. I like enough of the actors well enough to give it a few more weeks to come into its own. It also helps that Paul Adelstein (who plays a nymphomaniac) is totally hot and was naked in the first five minutes of the show! (Yes, I'll wait while you go watch that part in slow-mo.)

And then there was Thursday. Rather than watch The Office premiere (I'm sorry, Jim and Pam - don't look at me that way!), I tried being loyal to Grey's Anatomy. Wrong move! The show has been going downhill for awhile, but the premiere was the end for me. Without Addison to be saucy, and without Burke to be stoic, everyone else wanders around with nothing to do. Izzy and George continue to be pathetic. Christina is a ghost of her former self. McDreamy and McSteamy say boring things to each other. And by making Callie the new chief resident, the Chief has neutered Bailey to the point that she can't even save the show.

Thus, I'm sad to say that I canceled my season pass to Grey's Anatomy. We broke up. It's over. No break-up sex, either. My loyalty on Thursdays now belongs to The Office, where it should be!

Stay tuned for the Top Model recap for this week! It's a good one!

Falling Down For Fall TV

Woot! It's almost time for the fall TV season! And thanks to Entertainment Weekly's fall TV preview, I've decided on my tentative plan for what I'll be watching. As is my custom, I'll be trying out a few new shows to see if I can discover a new obsession. That's what I did in the cases of Heroes and Lost, and look at them now!

So here it is, my plan. But I'll keep an open mind, you never know what buzz might sway my mind!

SUNDAY

Still a virtual wasteland, at least I can count on The Simpsons and King of the Hill for laughs. But I will need to try out Viva Laughlin. At first I thought it was just some Vegas show featuring occasional appearances by Hugh Jackman. But it turns out, it's a MUSICAL. It will be either awesome or tragic. I can hardly wait to find out which. The real question is when the next season of The Amazing Race will start?

MONDAY

Starting the night will be How I Met Your Mother. And thank you, EW for the big spread highlighting the show! Man, it's so good. At 8:30, I'm going to give the CW's Aliens in America a spin. It sounds like an interesting take on the classic fish out of water genre - a Pakistani kid gets plopped down into a midwest school. After that, of course we'll be watching Heroes - anxious to see what's happening with Hiro in feudal Japan!

TUESDAY

Potentially a Netflix night, but I do want to test drive the CW's new show, Reaper. A guy finds out his parents sold his soul to the devil. Now he has to catch escapees from hell. Weird, wild fun, right? Sure, it may have some icky bad guys, but I can't imagine it would be any scarier than Charmed or Buffy. In some ways the lead sounds like he's a pseudo-superhero, and you know I dig that.

WEDNESDAY

As usual, the networks insist on cramming all the juicy stuff on one night. Damn you! As much as I'd like to try out ABC's unusual Pushing Daisies or the potential train wreck of CBS's Kid Nation, you know I'll be strutting the catwalk with America's Next Top Model. After that, I will be crossing my fingers that Private Practice is good stuff. You know I love me some Kate Walsh, and now they have Audra McDonald, whom I adore. And although we must wait until February, Lost will be there. (Although there is a rumor about the show being relocated to Sunday, which is fine by me.) Fortunately, we should have Project Runway coming up in October, which will make life oh-so-sweet.

THURSDAY

Not much on this night, but I'll be alternating between Grey's Anatomy and The Office/Scrubs block. (Watching the latter when the former is in reruns, or if it gets sucky.) The bad news is that NBC is pulling its shows from iTunes, so no more downloading episodes of The Office or Battlestar Galactica (NBC owns the SciFi channel)! It's as if NBC is determined to have me hate them even more. It almost makes me want to avoid My Name Is Earl!

FRIDAY

If we're at home, it's Netflix all the way.

SATURDAY

In case you missed the memo, the networks no longer air original programming on this night (other than Cops - ick). So go outside and party like it's 1999. (Or watch a Netflix movie.)

And that's my plan. Looks like my weekly schedule won't be drastically different than last season, other than a potential show for Tuesdays. Thank goodness we started our Netflix subscription - it's really made life more enjoyable!

Catching up with Grey's

OK, let's review where things stand with romantic entanglements at Seattle Grace, shall we?

Addison and McDreamy are kaput for good. Addison is also finished with McSteamy. Except for sex. Can you blame her? And then she did it with Alex, but he doesn't want to admit that he has a thing for her. Also it should be noted that Addie is just incredibly sexy standing around doing nothing.

Meanwhile McDreamy and Meredith are together and facing the big challenges all couples do - like snoring.

Christina and Burke have forgiven each other or whatever and are now engaged. And practically everyone knows except Meredith. And why that even matters, I don't know.

Over in kneejerk land, George freaked over his father's untimely demise, and ran off to wed Callie in Vegas. Also, Callie O'Malley is also the funniest name for a doctor in a very long time. And is there anyone that thinks they'll actually stay together? Doubtful - George seems to be a magnet for relationship angst.

Izzy's fiancee is dead (I think it's weird she even calls him that, but whatev), and she finally cashes the enormous check and opens a free clinic with Dr. Bailey.

And the Chief discovered that his wife (Loretta Divine) is singing the same tune she did in Dreamgirls - they're through. So he becomes the poster dude for Just For Men. And no, it does not look good on him.

Amidst all this chaos, it appears it's only Dr. Bailey that's actually learning anything at this "teaching hospital."

Now that you're all caught up, let's talk about the present issue. Meredith - wanted? WANTED! DEAD OR ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!!!!!!! Sorry, couldn't resist. But seriously, is she gone? Can a person actually survive that without brain damage? My guess is no, but in the magic world of February sweeps, she will. After all, she's the name of the show. What are they going to do, rename it O'Malley's Anatomy? Wow, that makes me think of something completely different...

Why Grey's Anatomy is Even More Awesome

Despite all of the complaints about my beloved shows (see previous posts), I think that one show not only beat the sophomore slump, but IMPROVED in its third season. So I present to you, 5 reasons...

Why Grey's Anatomy is Even More Awesome

1. McSteamy joining the cast as a regular was an inspired choice. Not only is he dreamier than McDreamy, he's also quite the man-whore. And that suits me just fine. Watch out Dr. Bailey - you're next!

2. The show maintains the delicate balance between ratcheted-up tension and silly comedy. Witness the drama of Burke & Cristina's secret showing up in the same episode where an uber-vain man refers to himself in the third person.

3. The return of Izzy! Finally she got off the damn floor and is back in the hospital having fun. I missed her! Let's have more fun with Izzy and Karev, please.

4. I've previously mentioned the fun friendship of Bailey and Addison. Now we have the equally interesting one blossoming between Addison and Callie. Girl power!

5. Keep it gay! Between T.R. Knight coming out, and actually seeing Joe the bartender's relationship with his partner (Walter), Grey's does not shy away from my people. And that is a beautiful thing. Oh, and did you know that Joe has his own blog? Check it out!

T.R. Knight comes out!

Hooray for being gay!

I appreciate that he wants to keep his private life private, but it's great that he took this step in the press.

As if I needed another reason to love my Grey's Anatomy boyfriend, George!

Considering what was going on with Michelle on America's Next Top Model this week [recap forthcoming], it's just been a gay ol' week!

McSteamy is McPlastic Surgeon

Grey's had a few interesting moments this week. Let's review.

1. Denny left Izzy nearly $8 million. One could argue this all but guarantees she'll quit being a surgeon. I would have to say I doubt that. She'll just be a surgeon with designer scrubs!

2. McSteamy now works for Seattle Grace, because apparently besides being a slutty sexpot, he's also a plastic surgeon. Interesting! Oh, and did he sleep with Callie? Part of me hopes he did.

3. The burgeoning friendship between Miranda and Addison is great - Sterfanie actually emailed me about it, and I couldn't agree more. They couldn't be any more different, and yet...there you are.

4. And in an unsatsifying ending to the Meredith saga, she picked McDreamy. Boo!

5. When Burke gets angry, it's a wee bit scary, no?

Who will she choose?

That is pretty much the central theme in Grey's Anatomy this past week, and I actually liked how it turned out - that she won't choose! Because even though he's a jerk, I admit that McDreamy is rather hot.

But not as hot as McSteamy! Growl.

I loved Bailey finally confronting Izzy and *gasp* admitting she might have had a part in it all. No more muffins, Izzy!

Am I the only one that missed the memo that the bartender Joe is gay? Of course, ScottE pointed out that the place is called "The Emerald City," so I suppose I should have known better.