NEW SHOWS, NEW SEASONS, Part 1

After months of drought (thank God for brilliant Brit shows like The IT Crowd, Doctor Who, Jekyll and Peep Show, which more than filled the gap), American TV is at it again. New seasons and tons of new shows—and I've trimmed mine down to a handful of what seems best for me.

Heroes - Of course, Heroes! I do believe that comic book aficionados appreciate Heroes more than it being just a good show. While the Hiro-in-the-past storyline is predictable and slow, we reel at the memories of dozens of Marvel/DC time travel arcs we've read as kids. And it feels like such a tribute to comics, and not a Hollywood mockery. And even though they killed off George Takei, they've made it up by giving us Uhura. W00t! Downside: attempt at making Claire's tale into Smallville just plain sucks.

House - Finally, House is breaking off from it's formulaic streak. Accepting fifty or so applicants to fill in the slots left by Cameron, Chase and the black guy is brilliant (of course by now they've been trimmed down to only about a dozen). These new guys have lovable personalities, and I can imagine the show's writers working overtime figuring out how to cram all of them and spotlight each of them in each episode.

The Office - Now twice as long, but I somehow prefer the twenty-minute episode lengths of the past three seasons. Perhaps too much of Michael can be exhausting, or maybe you start to see the thinking pattern of each character after a while, making what was supposed to be a zany remark not so surprising and funny anymore. In contrast, Cel and I laughed so much more at the short eps of this season's The IT Crowd. Hope The Office gets better. Update: Episode 3 ("Launch Party") rocks!

In a few days: Dexter, Bionic Woman, Reaper.