The Return of Must See TV

I know this is supposed to be a movie site, but as the line between movies and TV continue to blur, I will from time to time toss some TV stuff in here. What better time to make my first TV related post than after seeing 5 glorious hours of quality premiers over the last 2 nights. The returns of "24" and "Carnivale" proved to not only meet expectations, but to blow them out of the water.


"24" - I have always been a big "24" junky, calling my good buddy Lee at all hours of the night looking to borrow the next disc of season one (the only season I didn't see while it was airing). Thanks in part to Lee, "24" is now in my opinion one of the 2 or 3 best shows on TV. Despite the 3 quality seasons already in the books, I was a bit concerned about the upcoming season. The combination of a lot of the old characters leaving and the fact that Jack Bauer can only have so many bad days leads me to believe the show will have to go down the tubes at some point. Thankfully after watching the first 4 hours, the time is not yet upon us. I won't give anything away here, but lets just say that the story is ripped right from the headlines, and the creators did a great job of once again giving the great Jack Bauer another bad day without it getting silly. The new characters work wonders for the show so far, and Jack is in midseason form. As long as it can sustain the quality over the entire season, we should have a winner here. So if you haven't already been watching...Shame on you. The Jack Bauer Power Hour is required viewing.

"Carnivale" - I loved the first season of "Carnivale", but have always kind of been leary that it would go off course before the story is told. The first episode of the new season certainly isn't off course though. I would even go so far as to say that episode 1 of "Carnivale" was better than anything "24" threw at me this weekend. No small praise coming from me. One of the knocks on season 1 of "Carnivale" was that not enough happened. Thankfully more seemed to happen in the first episode of season 2, than happened all throughout season 1. We even found out who Management is. Which if you saw season 1, was one of the great mysteries. I can not wait until the inevitable meeting of Brother Justin and Ben Hawkins. Season 2 of the new best show on HBO is shaping up to even exceed the first.


With another episode of "Lost" on Wednesday and the premiere of ESPN's new poker show "Tilt" on Thursday, my schedule seems to be filling up with quality prime time TV.

Here is a quick little list of what I consider must see TV:

• 24
• The Shield
• Lost
• Carnivale
• Chappelle's Show
• South Park
• King of the Hill
• Six Feet Under
• Family Guy
• Jeopardy