New TV season.

I've watched my fair share of TV over the years, but much of that has been sports programming - ever since The Simpsons went downhill and Family Guy went off the air and then, upon its return, was so unfunny that I refuse to go back to it no matter how many people tell me the more recent ones are looking better, I haven't been much for that old tube mainstay, fiction. CSI is about the only show I watch regularly in that vein, and I only just started watching that late in Season Four. (The sixth season begins tonight.) Over the past couple nights, however, I have at least checked out a couple programs - one new, one older. My fall TV season isn't going to be packed, but it might have a little more company.

Lost: I didn't watch a single episode of this last year, which I think makes me the only person in the country for whom that's true. But I did keep more or less abreast of the plot developments, and, for no particular reason, sat down last night and watched most of the show, save for a brief interlude early on during which Drew, Dave and I went over to Cold Stone. But I saw the opening, which was nuts, and the last 40 minutes or so, which were really no less nuts. Knowing what I know about the show up to now, and having seen what happened, I will say, as vaguely as possible so as not to spoil anything for anyone, that there is now no way this show will have a reasonable resolution. Things are far too weird, the strange coincidences far too rife. I've got a guess, but it's based largely on Wednesday's show and not too much else; regardless of what the answer is, though, it's going to be in-sane. The teaser promised that next week "the fate of all the survivors will be revealed." Can I be the first to say "I'll believe it when I see it?"

My Name is Earl: I have never - never - seen worse acting on a sitcom. I'm sure there have been sitcoms that featured worse acting (pretty much anything on the WB or UPN comes to mind), but I sure didn't see them. Honestly, everyone is terrible; no one from the actors to the director has any sense of comic timing. It doesn't help that there's no laugh track, of course, but things can certainly be laugh-out-loud funny without one. I laughed, I believe, twice during the show. Possibly three times. None were particularly boisterous. It just wasn't all that funny, and the line readings were just painful. Now, I know this was only the pilot - they still can hit their stride (Jason Lee, when on Conan the other night, said that he felt the shows were getting funnier and funnier) and with most of the exposition out of the way, things could potentially open up... but on the other hand, they could just as easily be hamstrung by a potentially one-joke premise. I like Jason Lee, but this doesn't seem like the character for him - that may yet change, but ultimately all I can say about the first episode is this: it didn't work for me.

It's more annoying because I had to choose between this and the season premiere (at least I assume it was) of House, a show I had actually watched a bit in reruns over the summer and had liked a decent amount. (Though I still have about six of them sitting in the TiVo because I don't especially like watching reruns for some reason.) Every show follows the same formula, yes, but you could say the same thing about CSI or Law and Order, both of which, I don't need to tell you, are immensely popular. And Hugh Laurie alone makes the show worth watching.

So the fall will probably look like this for me: CSI, Lost, House. (Mercifully, there are no conflicts in that group.) Maybe something else will come along; having TiVo might aid in that, though I need to keep plenty of space open for Champions League games. At least I know I'll be home in the evening.