It's mid-September, and among other things, that means new TV shows. And returning TV shows from past years. I am by no means a TV addict, but I do watch a fair few shows - DVR is pretty much the best invention ever, because at my house we tend to record (I still want to call it 'tape' even though there's no physical media involved) a bunch of stuff and watch it in one burst on a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning. I like this approach, because it means we don't have the TV on every minute of every day we're at home, which would drive me insane.

I'm always leery of new TV shows, because to be honest most of them are awful - we watched about half of the pilot episode of "Animal Hospital" before realizing it was utter garbage, which was not even remotely surprising but also kinda disappointing. The monkey deserves better, dammit! WHY DOESN'T ANYONE EVER THINK OF THE MONKEY!

We did watch the first episode of "Revolution" last night, which was fairly promising - although the TV dork in me wishes that Giancarlo Esposito would have shown up in his first scene (as a badass sherriff/people hunter sort of guy) and offered everyone a bucket of chicken. I'll probably keep watching it, it's an interesting enough premise and so far it's a pretty engaging show, although I'm not sure I'm up for a 'what is the mysterious cause of this mystery' show that drags on for years like Lost. Fortunately, JJ Abrams, who also runs Revolution, has promised not to go all Lost on this show...we shall see.

As far as returning shows, I'm both excited for and kinda nervous about the return of Community - without Dan Harmon and several of his people, it runs the risk of being a very average, non-weird show, which would be disappointing. I'm also looking forward to the return of Parks & Rec, 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother, Bob's Burgers, Archer...I like dramas too, but there is nothing better (or harder to do) than a well-written comedy.

My questions for you this week, then:

1. What current shows are you excited to see again?
2. What new shows are you interested in checking out?
3. How long do you give a new show before giving up on it? (I watched the entire season of FlashForward knowing it was horrible but hoping it would get better. It didn't.)
4. What are some of your all-time favorite shows, in any genre?
5. Is there anyone from a past show that you've liked that you will watch on a new show just because of that actor? (We watched the aforementioned Animal Hospital because of Justin Kirk, for instance)

What else is on your mind this week? Baseball pennant races heating up, football in full swing, hockey...sigh. Converse!