I can't believe that Heather failed to review the best new show of the season by far, NBC's "Life".

So far, she works for people who torture, and torture ends up saving the day. I felt politically violated by the last episode, not sure I'm going to watch again.

... is very charming. However, I'm wondering how it will be sustained on a weekly basis.

Gossip Girl ... I swear I tried to like this or be interested in it. Heck, it's got all the makings of a guilty pleasure, but frankly, it left me cold. It did seem very much like same old, same old.

Ah, rats, maybe the key is word 'old' and I'm too old to watch it and enjoy it.

I'm going to disagree with you about Heroes. I'm enjoying just as much as ever. Plus, Milo was shirtless and doused in water for large portions of the episode. Nothing can be bad about that. Nothing.

To avoid getting this letter censored I won't repeat that description. However, she omitted the only demographic of human (not chicken) that should matter; the people who would like to watch good television, but can't find it, and may not even know what good television is.

This is a time when "big is best," when certain Presidential candidates are considered shoo-ins before a single primary vote is cast and before they even talk a lot, just because they have big poll numbers. The concept of what makes television good, or even great, has gone forgotten, especially by critics (and critic fans) who think a tongue full of bile substitutes for thoughtful judgment and heart.

At any rate, while Pushing Daisies is cute in a Hudsucker Proxy way, it's unlikely to keep an audience long. It's impossible to feel anything deep for a collection of plastic Muppets to whom anything can happen. Ugly Betty pioneered that, but kept its weirdness in the fashion world; Betty still went home to reality (and believe me, calling Brooklyn or anything in New York "reality" is a real stretch).

But who knows? Shows adjust. Daisies apparently has a lot of hype behind it; it's been promoted at science fiction cons as the year's great fantasy show. ABC wants it to succeed and may let it mutate a bit to find a more permanent audience. The producers may cut back on the Willy Wonka settings and stupid puns. That might make the show darker, more despairing, and therefore more compelling. Or that might kill it entirely. Who knows?

That's why TV reviewing is a 365 1/4 - 24 job. Very little is certain, and miracles can happen as often as disasters. And why TV reviewing should be done by someone who actually cares about television and its audience.

REAPER is the best of the new shows this season, it doesn't need more cowbell. Perhaps Heather is a tad too mature for it.

I like PUSHING DAISIES, Bryan Fuller is one of my favorite writers, but I agree with jlj, it might be hard to maimtain. It might be better as a movie.

Thumbs up to the opener of "Pushing Daisies," though I have to go along with those who wonder how long they can keep it fresh. With enough imagination, the writers could take it - and us - just about anywhere.

Disagree with Heather on "Moonlight." Yes, the plots so far are pedestrian, but there's some interesting weirdness going on around them. That they broke with one of the most overworked conventions of such genre outings at the end of the second episode bodes well, too.

Otherwise, sticking with old favorites "House," "Boston Legal," and "Numb3rs." Relieved I no longer have to stick with "Gilmore Girls."

I feel lost without it.

(Only five months...)

Actual dialog from Bionic Woman: "I'm a bartender and you're a professor! How can you respect me?" The show is painfully bad.

Well, now we know what the price was for a second season of Friday Night Lights. Instead of generating drama from basically good people struggling to do what's right, we have TYRA AND LANDRY BEATING A GUY TO DEATH AND THROWING HIM IN THE RIVER. Y'know, typical high school problems.

I was also hoping to see some mention of "Life." I find all the characters except Crews and Reese to be tiring and boring though. Maybe that's intentional and maybe not. I guess Ted Early isn't too bad but we don't see much of him.

The Zen feature could have easily gone the same way - tiring and boring - but Damian Lewis is a good enough actor to make me believe it.

I'm no snob. Just someone with apparently unusual taste, which must be why my shiny new digital TV just sits unused while I turn to the internet for info & entertainment. I miss TV. It's like a childhood friend I no longer recognize. Maybe it's me. But I doubt it. 30 Rock is the only thing I will willfully watch. I really hope Bryan Fuller can succeed with Pushing Daisies, but I found it a bit much... like Tim Burton's Big Fish, I wanted to like it more than I did. The idea is clever, but the execution reminds me that less can be more... but the guy who gave the world Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me (at least season 1), and probably the more compelling story threads of Heroes, deserves to be given a chance and a half to show us what he has in mind. The cast is first-rate, and the people behind it brilliant. I'll stay with it as long as ABC does... and longer - if it meets the same fate as Wonderfalls and only gets to play out it's story arc on DVD. Maybe I just need to wear sunglasses to avoid being blinded by it's dazzling hi-def brilliance.

Thank you Heather for watching everything so we don't have to. I'd much rather spend time online reading your take on TV than on the couch seeing it for myself. ;)

And I put up with him for entirely too long before finally booting him out of my life, but permanently. Best decision I ever made.