TV is my Novacaine

Over the weekend D. and I went to an anniversary party for his brother and wife. His brother is only 8 years older than D. and has been married 30 years, has a grown daughter and a grand-daughter. Our niece and her friends are the Fertile Girls Network, all of them having at least one child, husbands be damned, and all under 25. They were all at the party with all their children. At one point several little girls were dressed as princesses or fairies, complete with magic wands, wings and tiaras. The little boys were making mud pies and climbing into the ice tubs with the beer. The FGN parenting skills tend to be on the lenient side. Ah, good times.

In the past two weeks, three friends have given birth and another has become pregnant. I'm happy for them all. Really. The couple who live in the yurt next door have a 5 year-old daughter. Her sing-songy voice is the first thing I hear every morning; the sound travels effortlessly through the trees to my bedroom window. I'm surrounded, and I surrender.

Thank God for TV. Honestly there are only a handful of new shows that look like I might be interested in watching, but I’m willing to give almost anything a shot. In the past the shows I watch would have been partly based on when they were on, but now I won’t have to worry about that because we finally got a DVR! Our cable company installed it Friday afternoon. Our current VCR set-up is so complicated that even my computer-geek husband sometimes screws it up and all we get is two hours of static.

In alphabetical order, here’s the new shows I’ll be checking out. (Of course, if they suck, don’t blame me – sometimes my instincts for TV are for shit.)

Bones
Premiere: Tuesday, Sept. 13, 8 pm/ET, Fox
Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) is a forensic anthropologist and part-time crime novelist (the character's based on best-selling author Kathy Reichs). With help from fellow lab geniuses, she unearths evidence from even the most decomposed or damaged remains. FBI guy Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) often enlists her aid, although he's no fan of science-geek "squints." Headstrong Dr. Brennan insists on joining Booth in the field, but she's a lot less adept with the living than the dead. [I don’t know why I am fascinated with forensic-type shows, but not medical shows (except Gray’s Anatomy, but that barely qualifies). I guess I can’t stand to see live people suffering, but I do love a mystery and to see the bad guys go down.]


Commander in Chief
Premiere: Tuesday, Sept. 27, 9 pm/ET, ABC
When a Republican president dies, his V.P., Mackenzie Allen (Geena Davis), makes history as she is sworn into office. Her résumé: Nobel-winning university chancellor, congresswoman, mother and, yes, an Independent. But everyone, including the president on his deathbed and the power-hungry speaker of the House (Donald Sutherland), wants her to resign. [LOVE Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland, plus this is an idea whose time has come, except not for Hillary.]


Inconceivable
Premiere: Friday, Sept. 23, 10 pm/ET, NBC
And baby makes... money, for the staff of Family Options Fertility Clinic, where therapist/cofounder and single mom Rachel Lu (Ming-Na of ER) clashes with cocky docs Jonathan Cake and Angie Harmon on ethical and legal issues. [OH COME ON! You know you are going to check it out too.]


Kitchen Confidential
Premiere: Monday, Sept. 19, 8:30 pm/ET, Fox
Celebrity-chef Jack Bourdain (Alias' Bradley Cooper) is cooking up a comeback. Having crashed and burned as an overindulgent young star, Jack is given 48 hours to assemble a crew to jump-start a fancy New York City eatery. Jack's short fuse and arrogance, plus his staff's antics could be a recipe for disaster. [I am loving the real Anthony Bourdain’s show on The Travel Channel called No Reservations, so I’ll at least give this a look. Plus Bradley Cooper is really cute.]


Reunion
Premiere: Thursday, Sept. 8, 9 pm/ET, Fox
One of six childhood friends (Will Estes, Chyler Leigh and Amanda Righetti, among others) has been murdered. As a detective (Mathew St. Patrick of Six Feet Under) investigates, the trail takes him back 20 years to the friends' 1986 high-school graduation. Each episode is a flashback to a pivotal point in a different year. The story advances year by year, week by week, until we learn whodunit. [Sort of a rip off on the 24 idea, but Fox has made that work.]


Threshold
Premiere: Friday, Sept. 16, 9 pm/ET, CBS
When a freaky alien object wreaks havoc on a Navy ship in the North Atlantic, the world's sexiest risk analyst (Carla Gugino) puts into action her "threshold" contingency plan for first contact. She assembles a team of eccentric geniuses (Brent Spiner, Peter Dinklage, Rob Benedict) to investigate. What they see, even on video, makes their noses and ears bleed and invades their nightmares, maybe even their DNA. [This could be really bad. Its one of three alien-related new shows – I’m not a big sci-fi fan so this could be a stretch.]

Of course, I will still be watching my old favorites: Alias, Will & Grace, Desperate Housewives, Gray’s Anatomy, 24, The Amazing Race, Lost and Without A Trace. And I wonder why I don’t have more friends in real life. I’m curious, do you watch TV shows that have to do with your real profession? Do you lawyers watch the lawyer shows? Knowing TV, I would think that watching anything to do with something I actually knew anything about would be annoying as hell. Luckily my skills, knowledge base and talents apparently aren’t good fodder for television. Except that Inconceivable show.

P.S. Thanks for all the love -- keep it comin'.