I like television. I like it a lot, and I won't apologize for it. It's my favorite medium.

It's time to celebrate it! Each week I am going to bring you the most notable things that I saw on television during the past seven days.

Let's get to it!

(Be warned, there may or may not be spoilers ahead!)


MONDAY



New York Yankees vs Tampa Bay Rays (YES)

I'm shocked that Labor Day weekend was just this last week. It feels like so long ago.

As it was Labor Day Weekend I hung out with my family for the most part, and didn't spend a lot of time watching television. Except for watching baseball. We're all big baseball fans and, more specifically, we're all big Yankee fans. So we made sure to watch the game.

The Yankees beat the disappointing Rays by the score of 4-1, and all was right with the world.


TUESDAY



Melrose Place (The CW)
"Pilot"

I never really watched Melrose Place when it was originally on TV. One summer, many years ago E! got the rights to rerun the show and I watched most of, if not all, of the first season. But I don't remember much about it except Andrew Shue's unchanging expression.

With the (relative) success of last year's updating of Beverly Hills, 90210, it was nay a matter of time before Melrose Place followed. A lot of the pre-premiere press revolved around returning (but not regular) cast members Thomas Calabro (Dr. Michael Mancini), Josie Bissett (Jane Andrews), Daphne Zuniga (Jo Reynolds), and Laura Leighton (Sydney Andrews). There was particular focus on Laura Leighton returning as Sydney.

Fooled us! Sydney turns up murdered before the opening credits!

SO WHO KILLED SYDNEY AND WHY??? I'm assuming that will be the central storyline for season one.

(I think it would be funny if all the returning cast members ended up getting murdered this season)

Hey, there are a bunch of pretty new people living at 4616 Melrose Place! Let's meet them!

David
Bad boy. Was sleeping with Sydney. Estranged son of Dr. Michael Mancini (who was also sleeping with Sydney). Art thief.

Auggie
Chef. Alcoholic in recovery. Burned bloody clothes in a dark alley. Murder suspect (too obvious?).

Ella
Publicist. Sleeps around with both men and women. In secret and painful love with Jonah. Lives with Lauren.

Violet
New in the building. Has crush on Auggie. Kind of creepy and/or awkward with people. Finds Sydney's body (floating in the pool). Could be Sydney's secret daughter. Ashlee Simpson.

Lauren
Doctor with financial trouble. Decides that having sex for money might not be so bad if the guy is nice and cute. Lives with Ella.

Jonah
Film, comic book and sci-fi geek. Aspiring film director making wedding videos. Living with and dating Riley.

Riley
Elementary school teacher. Living with and dating Jonah.

Looks like I've got a new show. I real enjoyed the unabashed trashiness that comes off as a little less ridiculous than it is on 90210 because here the characters are all adults, even though the actors are all probably the same age as their 90210 counterparts.


WEDNESDAY



Not much going on on Wednesday besides Glee, which my new favorite thing in the world. More on that here.


THURSDAY



Big Brother (CBS)

Last week I talked about Big Brother getting to the point in the season where it invariably arrives -- the point where I hate everyone left in the game and I want to stop watching. Sometimes, I even do stop watching.

This week, I've softened my stance. Of the three remaining players -- Jordan, Kevin and Natalie -- the only one I truly hate is Natalie. I no longer hate Kevin because I realize that he is just playing the game stronger than anyone else had for the last two weeks and consequently he ousted the players that I had been rooting for who had been stupid to see what was happening. I don't hate Jordan either, but she frustrates the hell out of me because she seems wholly incapable of fighting for her survival by winning any challenges.

Or, at least that was the case. In a surprise turn of events Jordan actually won part two of the final head of Household competition (Kevin had won part one), which means that she has a 50/50 chance of making it to the final two. I think she would have made it anyway (she's the smart choice for either Kevin or Natalie to bring along to the finals), but now she goes into the finals having won something. I have to say, she earned a modicum of my respect this week. She was already the sweetest player to ever live in the Big Brother fishbowl, and now she's actually done something while in there.

My prediction for next week? Kevin will win Head of household and take Jordan with him to the finals, where Kevin will win the grand prize ($500,000 -- which they really need to increase, it seems so paltry next to other shows' prizes) and Jordan will win the new viewer's choice consolation prize.


FRIDAY



Psych (USA)
"Shawn Has the Yips"

This might have been the strongest and funniest episode of Psych this season. I've said before that the strength of Psych lies not in intricate plotting or innovative examinations of the human condition, but in the chemistry of the cast.

In this episode, Shawn, Gus, Juliet, Lassiter and the rest of the Santa Barbara Police Department softball team are enjoying a nice post game meal (where Shawn ruminates in his prodigious hitting, while ignoring Gus' taunts about Shawn's inability to make a throw to first base. Shawn has the yips. In walks a mysterious gunman who shoots up the restaurant -- and the case begins!

This episode was particularly funny. The highlight being the homage to Lethal Weapon 2, in which Shawn finds himself stuck on an elliptical machine that is rigged to explode when his heart rate drops too low. It was a scene that was not only really funny, but also totally touching and heartfelt. And that's the kind of thing that Psych does best.


SATURDAY



Saturday is a television dead zone. The networks have totally given up, and so have I.

I worked. And I took a brief sojourn to a local bar when I needed a break from work.


SUNDAY



Chicago Bears vs Green Bay Packers (NBC)

My dad grew up in Texas in the 1960s. He didn't really have any local professional teams to follow, so when he was forming his sports loyalties he gravitated towards the teams he would see on television. He could have been considered a "band wagon jumper" or a "front runner" because the teams on television a lot were the best teams in the country. I guess that's what happens when you grow up in San Antonio and the only other football option is the team from hated Dallas.  As his teams he ended up choosing the New York Yankees in baseball, and the Green Bay Packers. And thus they were also my teams (it wasn't such a stretch with the Yankees since I grew up in New York City).

In a town that worships in equal measure the Giants and the Jets, I got a lot of funny looks as a kid when i said I was a Packer fan. Most people I meet these days assume that I was a band wagon jumper during the Brett Favre era. Nope, I suffered through the Don Majkowski era just like every other Packer fan.

(Although, admittedly, next to most people who follow football in this country I would probably be labeled a casual fan at best. Baseball is my passion; football is a nice diversion.)

Watching this game was weird, because so much of my Packers association is tied to Brett Favre. Last season we didn't get a lot of Packers game on television here in New York City, and yet Favre was on TV every week playing for the New York Jets. It was a bizarre season. Now Favre is in Minnesota and the Packers had the prime time showcase game on opening day against their biggest rivals -- the Chicago Bears.

The Packers ended up winning a wonky game 21-15 that was a defensive showcase in the first half (that saw a 10-2 score at halftime) and an injury-riddled, sloppy, high wire act in the second half.   


Tune in next week -- same Murmur time, same Murmur channel!

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