Monday Night TV...

Looks like Monday nights will have me watching TV again. It's been a long, long time since there was a show on that I wanted to watch on a regular basis - meaning week to week. Sure, there were the first couple seasons of 24 before it started to get predictable, and the last shows I regularly would tune in for were Joss Whedon's Angel a couple years ago and Gilmore Girls last season just to see how it played out. The biggest problem (besides quality) is that the networks cancel shows now so fast you can't even get into them. Every hit show had a so-so first season when looking back, but it's part of finding it's stride, and canceling a show after 4 episodes is pointless. So I stopped watching any new shows until they'd been on a year. Then of course was the Lost phenomenon. After that became a hit, all the new shows had to be serialized dramas where if you missed an episode you might as well forget it cause you'll never catch up. Now I've gone and found two shows that I like - which means I'm waiting for the canceled notice any day now. The first is K-Ville, which debuted last week, and has a sort of Miami Vice cop thing going that could turn out good. Stand alone case of the week shows with character and story threads running through them. You could miss an ep and not be lost, and yet there's still character development. A bit of humor, some drama, some action, New Orleans locale - this could work. The other show I caught tonight was a new one called Chuck. The premise seems to be a normal guy working as a computer tech at the Buy More store (the techs are called the Nerd Herd :) somehow gets an email/info from an old school buddy that winds up with him getting a whole lot of sensitive government intel inside his head (I missed the first bit of it). Thing is, he doesn't really know it. He keeps getting flashes of it. The CIA and other government types descend to take him in and get at what he knows. There's the hot government chick that befriends him and Firefly's Adam (I'll Be In My Bunk) Baldwin is from another agency as well. By the end, it seems the plan is for him to continue his normal life while they protect him and try to get the info he doesn't know he knows out of his head. Sounds bizarre, but it plays out great - there's lots of humor as this isn't 24 terrorist plots solved by Jack Bauer. Chuck is in over his head, but has to carry on anyway. His Nerd Herd buddy Morgan is pretty funny too. Laughs, action, and some good lines steal the show. I'm just not sure how far they can carry the concept though, but it's a pretty fun setup. So on Mondays now, I've got Chuck at 8 and K-Ville at 9. Why the networks are throwing these up against Prison Break and Heroes is beyond me. Good thing I'm not into those shows, or I'd have to record or download something. I hope Chuck and K-Ville can stick around awhile to get their feet, but against the other ratings hits, it'll be an uphill climb not to get canceled.