A little small screen talk.

Now for my best Larry King impression...

The Amazing Race 8 has begun in fine fashion. They found 10 mildly dysfunctional families of 4 to traverse the nation doing various tasks. I've always been a huge fan of this show, despite loathing the reality genre. It's smart, exciting, and doesn't pander to the audience with some of the more ridiculous of plot twists. They just let the race happen, and we watch. That's probably why they've got every single reality Emmy. As usual some teams are more interesting, likable, and loathable than others. The whole family thing is an interesting new twist, and they've twisted it back by adding a more family-road-trip aspect to the program. All in all, excellent TV.

Is there a better TV acting duo than James Spader and William Shatner? The two of them simply own Boston Legal. I would never consider watching this show without Shatner, and the interplay between Spader's slimy mercenary and Shatner's early-onset-Alzheimer's fading star is probably the best you'll see on TV this year. Shatner's always had trouble finding a niche for his unique brand of acting, and BL is probably the best fit of his career. He deserved his two Emmys (Emmies?) and will likely add a few more to his mantle before this show is through.

I can't believe Battlestar Galactica's on hiatus until January. Someone should be beaten for leaving me with that sort of cliffhanger. Even Adama's getting shot wasn't half as edge-of-your-seat as this one. I can't wait! What a quality TV show.

You know, before I met Barbara, I watched pretty much only The Sopranos on rented DVD and cable news. Now I'm addicted to no less than 3 TV shows (above) and TiVo a couple others, including Iron Chef America, Tripping the Rift, and Nip/Tuck. I contend that, finally, TV has gotten better than movies. It tells great stories about interesting people and has mastered the genre's strength of the long season.

Frankly FX has the best angle, in my opinion. They've got 3 flagship shows, Nip/Tuck, The Shield, and Rescue Me (which isn't as great as the previous two, but Denis Leary's worth watching). When one ends, the next season of the other begins in the same timeslot. What a great way to continue viewership. The Martha is learning the hard way that two concurrent Apprentices is foolish when there's only 13 episodes of each show. They should just run them consecutively in the same Thursday time slot. Not that I watch that dreck, but I can make an observation.