I saw five new shows this week. There may be one or two more premiers that I'll watch in the next week or two. I've already talked about Dark Angel which was the most interesting new show of this season. By that I mean I actually paid more attention to the program than to what I was doing on my computer. As an unfortunate counterpoint I saw the first 10 minutes of Grosse Pointe. This show about the cast of a soap opera and the behind the scenes machinations. A half hour comedy, at least I think it's a comedy. I totally expected something more like the movie Grosse Pointe Blank, but maybe Grosse Pointe is a real city and it makes sense to use that name. In any case, after a few minutes I just could not get into it so I stopped watching.

The next show is The Gilmore Girls on the WB network Thursday nights. It's an hour-long drama with Lauren Graham as a young single mom (Lorelai Gilmore) with a 15 or 16-year old daughter. Lorelai is in charge of what looks to be a very nice inn somewhere in the East Coast and the show is about her and her daughter. It seemed to be a nice drama and I like the characters -- they're not supposed to be far out like in Twin Peaks or Northern Exposure, but a couple of them are unique. The one that comes to mind is the inn's best cook and Lorelai's friend, who is a wizard cook but a hazard in the kitchen. I doubt the show will make it because it's opposite friends, but it is on one of the peripheral networks so they'll probably be happy if the show isn't rated at the bottom (which I think Grosse Pointe was last week). So I'll keep watching this show and see what happens.

Next show is That's Life which is shown Saturday nights on CBS. The premise is that Lydia DeLucca (played by Heather Paige Kent), a twenty-something single woman who has just broken off an engagement to be married and is starting college, tries to balance her studies with the many money problems she has. It's a dramedy, which I define as an hour-long drama that's meant to have many comedic moments. Also stars Debi Mazar as Jackie O'Grady, one of Lydia's friends. I don't know if I like the style of this show. Maybe it's just that dramedys are kind of weird to me. It's a serious show so the comedy seems out of place. I'll give it another show or two and see if the plot gets any better.

Last new show of the week is Queen of Swords, a syndicated show that is shown locally Saturday and Sunday by the UPN affiliate. This is basically an action show and the concept is a female Zorro. In fact the first episode went much like Zorro: person comes to California after father is killed, finds out how corrupt the local Spanish government is, decides to fight them with a black mask and body suit. This show was not interesting enough for me to pay it more than a quarter of my attention as I was playing battle-girl on my computer. I prefer a show that has more substance, more drama. The main is interesting and mysterious and we want to find out more about him/her throughout the show, or there is a relationship that builds, or, well maybe just those two. I can contrast this show with Xena, which is also an action series. But Xena has a friendship as a solid foundation for depth, which makes it interesting to me at least, since I tend to ignore the fight scenes.

I think I'm drifting away from sitcoms. Friends is still something I look forward to watching. But I just watched Two Guys and a Girl and it wasn't all that captivating anymore. When I think of Dharma and Greg, Will and Grace, Fraser and Spin City I don't feel any real anticipation. Strange because it was really boring tv-wise this summer with all the reruns. I guess we'll see if once I start watching these shows I'll get back into the rhythm of it. I am looking forward to Judging Amy and Providence while JAG and The West Wing were good shows last week. I've been more partial to dramas the last couple of years so it's not much of a surprise that I look forward to these shows more than others. But I also liked sitcoms, so I'm not too sure what happened there.