alias
The best not-desperate show on any network is the spy drama Alias, which is back with its fourth season and its highest ratings to date. Although the show will never reproduce the mesmerizing plot twists of its first two seasons, it’s not repeating last year’s mistakes when plotlines simply unraveled. Instead, Alias is going back to what works: Sydney and Vaughn as an item, exotic locales, a great soundtrack, impossibly evil villains and some of the best cliffhangers in the business.
house
Perhaps the most refreshing show to join the midseason lineup is House, an unlikely medical drama that revolves around Hugh Laurie as an irrepressibly impatient maverick doctor with a nonexistent bedside manner and an uncanny ability to diagnose his patients. With a terrific ensemble cast and steadily increasing ratings, House is the quirky drama that will stay on the air this season. Now if they could only get rid the cringeworthy ER/Chicago Hope-esque scenes that bookend every episode.
jake
For all those out there who are still crushing on Uncle Jesse from Full House, John Stamos is back on network television in Jake in Progress, coming this March to Thursdays on ABC. In the sitcom, Stamos will play a slick celebrity publicist, working and playing in New York City. Since Full House ended, Stamos has had trouble finding a permanent gig on TV, but with a sure-thing supporting cast and a trendy subject like celebrity-obsessed culture, it looks like Uncle Jesse, er, Jake may be here to stay.
numbers
Who knew that math could be cool? On Friday nights the new CBS drama NUMB3RS is doing for math what CSI did for forensic science. David Krumholtz (the dorky Shakespeare guy from 10 Things I Hate About You) stars as a not-so-dorky mathematical genius helping his FBI agent brother solve a widearray of crimes in Los Angeles relying solely on—you guessed it—numbers. And set aside the skepticism—the show's numbers really do add up—the producers hired a professor from the California Institute of Technology to supervise their calculations.
deadwood
Those of you who are disenchanted with the current romanticization of cowboys need to pay a visit to dear old Deadwood Sunday nights on HBO. Entering its second season this March, Deadwood is an unforgiving western drama with true grit that spares none of the good, the bad or the ugly for its viewers but, rather, rubs their face in it. In addition to more sex, murder and manipulation, fans can look forward to the return of the less than decorous Calamity Jane.
tilt
ESPN continues its domination of the poker racket by expanding its coverage with the fictional series Tilt. Michael Madsen, of Tarantino fame, plays the reprehensible yet unstoppable poker machine, Don “The Matador” Everest. Tilt follows the story of several card aficionados’ plan to take him down at (surprise, surprise) ESPN's cash cow, the World Series of Poker. As you might imagine, poker jargon and casino scenes drive the otherwise flimsy narrative.
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