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This new series from Fox has hit the scene with a huge amount of advertising, so it will be interesting to see if it lives up to the amount that they are spending on it.

The cast is decent - though it's a large ensemble cast, Nathan Fillion seems to be taking the lead with his portrayal of Alex Tully, a contractor who receives a call one day that his wife has been kidnapped and he needs to show up for a race in order to win her back. Implausible, perhaps, but it seems to be a bit interesting.

Read "Shows: Drive" »

In this new game show from Fox, each contestant must answer ten questions, and each correct answer is worth progressively more money. The first one $1000, the second $2000, and so on, up to $500000. If they answer all ten questions, then they are given the opportunity to answer an eleventh question, worth $1 million.

To make things interesting, the contestants are all regular people, and they are given five "classmates", who are all fifth graders (or of that approximate age). Each of their classmates can help for two questions. If they don't do anything, the classmate has to sit down, and the contestant picks another to stand next to them for the next two questions.

Read "Shows: Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?" »

We caught this mid-season replacement while we were looking for something, and figured we'd watch. All in all it wasn't bad, but talk about your ripoffs. Three judges sit behind a table and watch as "talent" (and I use that word loosely) streams by them in search of their fifteen minutes of fame. Sound familiar? No, it's not American Idol. That starts next week. This is instead the public casting call for a new Broadway production of Grease. What an idiotic idea.

Read "Shows: Grease: You're the One That I Want" »

In the vein of American Idol (in fact, it looks like they use the same stage) comes Celebrity Duets. Each week, a celebrity - typically an actor - is teamed up with a singer to perform a song. Then they perform and are given a review by a panel of judges. At the end of the show, votes are taken to determine a winner among the performers from that show, and the next week the process continues until there is a winner.

The show is entertaning and the performances aren't bad. But the judges are a bit wacky. Little Richard, especially, just seems like he is in a different world. He refers to himself in the third person and makes statements that just make you wonder if he is even paying attention to what is going on in front of him or if he's just there for the paycheck. I don't think anyone has to worry about this taking over their timeslot, but if you've got a few minutes to kill (and any kind of device that lets you fast-forward through the junk), it might be worth watching.

We watched this new show from Fox the other night and wow was it bad. The ensemble cast appeared full of unknowns, but I have to admit to not even being able to make it to the first commercial break, so I can't even say if I met the entire cast. Note that I'm not talking about the break at fifteen minutes - I'm talking about the break that comes at two or three minutes in, when they show the opening credits.

The premise seems to be that there are a handful of people who congregate in someone's apartment and have a happy hour of sorts. I'd guess they're going for a sort of upscale Friends. Then they make jokes about one another, but the jokes aren't very funny and there isn't much to like about anyone, at least that I could see. I didn't even get a flicker of a smile, and I'm generally one who laughs at most anything (see My Name is Earl).

After a couple minutes of this, I was in pain and just had to turn it off.

Update: I have no idea if this is telling in any way, but according to the schedule for this coming week, it's already being replaced by a rerun of 'Til Death.

We caught this new CBS show through the Tivo before it aired, which was nice. Frankly, it's always nice not to have to deal with commercials - not even having to fast-forward them. In this case, CBS and Tivo got together and offered a special download that you select and there it is, waiting for you to watch. Thus far, it's the best new show we've seen.

Read "Shows: The Class" »

Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) stars in this new show about two couples living next door to each other. He and his wife represent the elder (and presumably wiser) couple, and he tries to impart his wisdom to the newlywed husband who just moved in next door (Eddie Kaye Thomas of American Wedding).

Read "Shows: 'Til Death" »

Nielsen Media Research tracks a number of things having to do with just how badly we want our TV, and one of those things they keep tabs on is the size of the television markets in the United States. This is mostly so that the networks can sell their advertising. You see, if your city is in the Top 25, it (and, by extension, you) will get more attention than if it is not.

Read "Shows: Charlotte's Moving Up In the World" »

Twelve contestants on this Sci-Fi Channel reality show are vying for the ultimate approval of comic legend Stan "The Man" Lee, who will award them with their very own comic book, and apparently they will also get their own original movie on Sci-Fi as well.

The show isn't all that well put together, as it has absolutely none of the polish of some other reality shows, but that actually adds to the charm. The contestants are entertaining in how much they seem to want to be their superheroes and that's just part of the fun. Watching the guy with the muscles lose out to the hundred pound girl because she has more heart than he does is a riot.

We recently came across this show from comedian Louis CK on HBO, so we watched it. It's a bit uneven, but there are moments where it flat-out shines. I admit, those moments are pretty few and far between, but still. There are some. You just have to make it through the rest of the show. At least it's only half an hour.

This is an odd show. It was picked up as a Tivo Recommendation the other day and I decided to watch it. It's about this guy who gets dropped off by his camera crew in an inhospitable area (in this case, the middle of the desert) and left for seven days. He has a load of camera equipment and that's about it. He's supposed to survive on his own. The crew comes back to pick him up a week later.

Of course there is no way to know for sure if the crew isn't shawdowing him or something. But what a wacko. I've looked to see if he is on anymore and I haven't yet been able to find him. The show Survivorman is apparently on The Science Channel (normally, I mean), which I don't usually get. It just happened to be on Discovery last week so it was picked up.

Anyway, in this episode he wandered about for seven days and talked about plants he could use, and myths about plants you were supposed to be able to use (one cactus, for instance, that people said you could use as a water source but that would actually dehydrate you even faster) and how to eat scorpions safely, that sort of thing. He also taught you how to make fire and the like. It was somewhat interesting. I'll keep an eye out for it. Anyone know if it's on anything other than The Science Channel?

I haven't quite decided what to think about this show just yet. Apparently some like it. It's definitely different. As near as I can tell, Earl (played by Jason Lee) won the lottery. When he did, he decided it was time to turn his life around. Not entirely, mind you. He's still white trash, and it seems he's likely to stay white trash.

But he has decided that he's got to do something about his karma. I don't know where he learned about karma (I've only seen the show twice, so perhaps I've missed that part), but he's decided it's important. So he made a list. The list appears to be about 200 items strong, and it contains everything he feels he's done wrong. Each week, he takes care of one of those things by revisiting it and trying to correct it.

Meanwhile, ex-wife Joy (Jaime Pressly), her new husband Darnell "Crabman" (Eddie Steeples) and Earl's brother Randy (Ethan Suplee, who seems to have lost a bit of weight since the last time I saw him) help him along the way.

Well, Joy actually seems to be trying to get some of Earl's lottery winnings while the Crabman is an easygoing guy who really does more to derail his new wife's plans than anything, and Randy probably is more dead weight than anything, but he means well. Most times.

But if nothing else, the show has heart. And it's different. That's for sure.