O Danny Boy

I know there is no reason to trust my judgement in predicting TV shows after my last two blunders. But this time is different, and on the basis of a season and a half of episodes, I have to say: Mad Men is better than The Sopranos in all the ways that it counts. Mad Men isn’t as groundbreaking as Lost or as richly complex as The Wire, but neither was The Sopranos, and that show got oodles of accolades. Mad Men, however, is the superior show.

Dear Producers,

I really want to like Bionic Woman. Really, I do. Michelle Ryan is a dish, Miguel Ferrer is a great actor, and I’m a fan of Battlestar Galactica. But like Katee Sackhoff says in your pilot episode, “You’re going to have to do better than that.” Because as it is now, your show kind of sucks.

Every year at about this time, the networks unveil their new fall series and I pick the one (or two) that will likely make it to my TiVo Season Pass. It’s an old habit I picked up when I was a writer for TV Guide after college. Last year, I made the disastrous choice of Studio 60 which I have since, heartbroken, stopped watching and NBC has mercifully pulled the plug on.

This year, my choice is Bionic Woman.

After watching the last episode (“Monday”) of Studio 60, preceded as it was by a string of incredibly uneven episodes, I’m throwing in the towel. I simply can’t watch anymore. It’s like visiting a hospice where talent lays dying every week.

How much am I looking forward to Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip? Let’s just say that not since the second episode of Twin Peaks have I anticipated a TV show more.

A trend I’ve observed in hour-long drama series lately is the desire to show, at the beginning of the episode, the most dramatic moment of that episode.

Television is, dare I say it, the best narrative medium going right now.