These mini-reviews are spoiler free for this season unless otherwise noted. Previous seasons are fair game.

Sundays

The Unit / 4×01

Only one episode has aired so far, but it is a great episode. The Unit occupies a place somewhere between fantasy like 24, and realism like Generation Kill. When it’s good, it’s really good, but it’s weaknesses are when the wives stories drift into too much silly drama and when they try to push the action scenes farther than their budget can handle. The season opener had neither of these problems, and set up what could be a really good way to mix up their standard formula. I’m really looking forward to the rest of this season.

Rating: ★★★★¼ 

True Blood / 1×01-1×04

This new drama on HBO is a twisted mix of Buffy, John from Cincinatti, and an Anne Rice novel. The acting is well above average, especially Anna Paquin as Sookie, and Lois Smith as her grandmother. The show is very strange, but it’s well paced and it definitely has “what will happen next?” draw. Given some time to flesh out the characters and story it could turn into something really good.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Dexter / 3×01

Dexter had a surprisingly good first two seasons. It’s kind of creepy how effectively they make a serious, realistic serial killer a sympathetic character. That said, I’m not sure what new territory they will find to cover in the third season, and the first episode doesn’t really give many clues, it just rearranges some of the pieces a bit. It’s good so far, but they are going  to have to come up with some new angle to keep it from getting stale.

Rating: ★★★¾☆ 

Mondays

Prison Break / 4×01-4×05

From the good season premiere, Prison Break has kept up the momentum and avoided falling into any of it’s regular traps. It’s as good as Prison Break has ever been, and it looks like they may be able to pull off a whole season without falling down. It’s not great TV but it is entertaining and I look forward to watching it most weeks.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles / 2×01-2×04

Terminator is one of the few overtly sci-fi shows on the air right now. It manages to capture the feel and atmosphere of the second movie very well. The second season starts with a slower pace than the first season, but they have set up some good plot points for the rest of the season, and done a good job exploring some more of the characters backstory.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Chuck / 2×01

Chuck is Alias if you make it a lot less serious and add in the store scenes from 40 Year Old Virgin. Of the two successors to The O.C, Chuck got all the humor, and Gossip Girl got all the teen angst. Chuck got the better deal. It’s silly and unrealistic, but all the characters are likable and it’s a whole lot of fun. The season opener is one of the better episodes so far, and the season is off to a great start.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Heroes / 3×01-3×03

Heroes started off well, but has never quite hit it’s stride. This is especially true in the second season when most of the mysteries from the first season were resolved, and the ones they replaced them with were lame for the most part. So far the third season is much better than the majority of the second season, although I think it has the potential to get a lot better if they tighten up the writing a little and step up the pace. They also need to increase the use of superpowers by a whole lot. What’s the point of a comic book show if people stand around talking most of the time?

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Tuesdays

NCIS / 6×01

NCIS is one of my relaxation shows because it requires very little investment to watch. You know someone in the Navy will be found dead, and you know they will figure out who did it. It’s unusual for a crime procedural in that the character interaction is it’s main draw. Unlike shows like CSI:Miami where you could easily replace all the actors with cardboard cutouts and have the same quality show, NCIS has very likable characters, and they have a decent amount of development and movement. In addition, once or twice a season they do something that entirely breaks the formula, which is a nice surprise.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

The Mentalist / 1×01

Do we really need another crime procedural? Is there anyone out there thinking “I need more murder mysteries, 16 per week is just not enough!” On top of that, do we really need a shameless ripoff of Monk and Psych? I’m willing to give any show a fair chance, no matter how cliche or dumb the synopsis sounds, but I just can’t work up any enthusiasm for The Mentalist. The characters are bland for the most part, and with the exception of Amanda Righetti being hot, none of them make an impression. If it doesn’t improve in another two episodes or so I’m dropping it.

Rating: ★☆☆☆☆ 

90210 / 1×01-1×05

I liked the pilot for this show, and am happy to say that it’s stayed entertaining. The characters are likable, even the tragically flawed ones, and more importantly the angst and drama never drags the whole show down. Most of the teen actors look like they are genuinely having a good time. Ironically, it’s the cast members from the original 90210 that are the weakest link. They just can’t act very well, and when you don’t have teen overreaction to fall back on, it’s blatantly obvious. It’s no O.C., but it’s been solid so far, and it has a lot of potential.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

House M.D. / 5×01-5×02

House is House. It’s basically the same show it’s been from the beginning, although the cast changes this season are working surprisingly well. I don’t think they will be able to get many more seasons from formula, but they can definitely do some interesting things if they know they are going to wrap it all up.

Rating: ★★★¾☆ 

Fringe / 1×01-1×03

The best new show of the season, Fringe has an atmosphere and formula different than anything else on right now. They have a great set up, an original and cool take on “future” technology, and mysteries like only J.J. can do. It’s way too early to tell if it will fall apart like X-files or Lost, but for now it’s a must watch.

Rating: ★★★★¾ 

Wednesdays

Criminal Minds / 4×01

Criminal Minds is the best crime procedural on TV right now. It tries to be realistic, the characters are all well fleshed out at this point, and the writing is tight. The season four opener pickes up from the cliffhanger last season, and does a really good job at resolving it while leaving long lasting consequences.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

CSI:NY / 5×01

CSI:NY is the middle child of the CSI empire. It has never been as good as the original CSI, but it is also usually much better than the tragedy that is CSI:Miami. There’s not much more to say, it’s CSI.

Rating: ★★¾☆☆ 

Bones / 4×01-4×05

Bones has not adjusted that well to the cast changes this season. While Sweets was a great character when he popped up occasionally, it seems like they are having to try to hard to find reasons to get him into every episode. The new intern every week thing is a decent idea, but they haven’t executed it very well. Also, the Brennan/Booth attraction is getting old. Bones may be on a downward slide.

Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

Knight Rider / 1×01

The new Knight Rider captures the spirit of the old show to an extreme degree. If you could ignore the special effects, this could easily be one of the 80s Glen Larson action shows. Unfortunately, TV writing and acting has advanced a long way in the past 20 years, and very little of that advancement is apparent here. Still, if you can get past the bad dialog, blatant Ford whoring,  and shameless ways they get the characters into various states of undress, it provides an entertaining 42 minutes of campy fun. I have my doubts about whether they will last the season, but if they tweak the formula a little it could end up filling a niche nobody else is going for right now.

Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

Thursdays

Smallville / 8×01-8×02

For a show that usually has the season premiers and finales as it’s highlights, season eight started out with a whimper. While the departure of Lex and Lana certainly won’t hurt the show, as both of those characters were tapped out long ago, they haven’t really capitalized on it yet. At least they seem to realize that Clark is approaching his mid 20s, and can’t sit around his farm being a bum any longer. The premiere opens the door for a lot more Justice League storylines, which is a good thing. Still, so far the season is very unimpressive.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Supernatural / 4×01-4×02

What a difference a show makes, while Jensen Ackles was entirely uninspiring on Smallville, he is great on Supernatural. Supernatural started out slowly, but over the last three seasons is has gotten consistently better by fleshing out the characters and universe while keeping the standalone episodes very well written. The seaon opener contains quite a few surprises, and sets a good direction for the next season or two.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Teen dramas tend to be mediocre, and write down to their audience. The really good ones either elevate the necessarily angsty and overdramatic plots with clever writing and truthfulness like Freaks and Geeks and The O.C., or they have a unique hook that puts the drama into perspective, like the supernatural in Buffy and detecting in Veronica Mars. 90210 is aiming for the former, and makes a good start of it. This is a review of the first two episodes, shown together as a two hour pilot.

While there are a lot of winks at the old show, this 90210 definitely has a lot more in common with The O.C. than the original 90210. The first hour suffers a bit from being rewritten so many times by so many people, but it provides a solid start. The characters are all likable, and they all stand out on their own, which is no small feat for a teen show, since for most shows of this type the characters blend together for the first few episodes.

The second episode feels more consistent than the first, although I don’t like it as much overall. Unsurprisingly, the only noticeably bad acting comes from two of the cast members from the original show. The storylines are retreads of things we have all seen a million times before, team rivalry, cheating boyfriend, rich guy woos poor girl, although they do manage to add a few little twists. It’s not an impressive episode, although it’s not horrible either.

It will be interesting to see if they can manage to develop the characters enough, and differentiate the show from the other teen dramas enough to keep the show going. For now it stays on my watch list, I’ll reassess after a few more episodes.

Season four starts by wiping away most of what they set up at the end of season three. Everyone is out of prison, some of the non-core characters from the last season get killed or sent away, and Sara turns out to be alive. While I’m not a big fan of retconning out significant events, I think the show is better with Sara, and the way they brought her back was believable enough I’ll give them a pass this time.

Rather than trying to escape, or being on the run, this time they are assembled, working as an off the books unit for Homeland Security trying to take down “the company” (possibly the stupidest conspiracy name ever). It works well in the first two episodes so far, and they manage to keep the pace up, which has been a problem for the show in the past. It’s a good setup, since it means they are trying to break into places rather than out of them. They also have almost everyone in the same place, which works a lot better than the scattered stories of the previous seasons.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good the first two episodes were, and how well the new setup works. They could easily keep it going for at least a season without getting old.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Season 1

The Alias pilot is the best pilot in recent memory. Unlike most shows, the writing, production, and acting are top notch. The pacing is perfect, and the surprises keep coming without feeling forced or cheesy. The rest of the season is just as well done. Abrams keeps the perfect balance between Sydney’s two agent lives and her personal life. People die, actions have consequences, and even though there are a lot of twists, none of them seem forced or tacked on.

While the pace understandably slows a bit from the pilot for the normal episodes, it still keeps up the energy and plot development. Changes come quickly, and rewatching the show, it surprised me how much of what I remembered as great Alias is in the first season. The only negative to the season is the aforementioned cliffhangers every episode, although it’s not nearly as much of an issue while watching DVDs as it was when there was a week between episodes. Overall it is a shining example of great TV, and as good a first season as any show has had. There really isn’t much to say other than go watch it.

Rating: ★★★★★ 

Season 2

Season two has a different feel than the first season. The action centers more around CIA operations rather than SD-6 ones, and the tension on everything is cranked up. In Phase One, the infamous “Superbowl” episode, they change everything by destroying SD-6 and the Alliance. What becomes clear on further viewings is that although they didn’t actually destroy SD-6 until Phase One, it had been sorely neglected for the first half of the season. There are very few of the mission/counter-mission instances that the first season was built around, and getting rid of SD-6 doesn’t  really change the tone or execution of the season much.

Phase One is the best episode after the pilot, and the murder and replacement of Francie with a double at the end is a bold move most shows would not have done. Despite that, it marks the end of one of the aspects of the show that made Alias so great, Sydney’s interaction with her non-spy friends. With Francie an enemy agent and Will brought fully into the CIA, everything goes fully spy, all the time. I personally think this, not the other changes to the show, are what began it’s decline. Without the normal person counterpoint to ground things, the over the top spy stuff just gets more and more unbelievable.

Despite that, the rest of the second season is still great. It plays out like the fourth act of a movie, and ends with the great moment of Sydney finding out Francie is a double, then their brutal fight. After that is one of the biggest resets and cliffhangers in TV history, with Sydney waking up two years later in Hong Kong. It’s a perfect setup, and potentially a great way to get out from under the tension and pace that has built up over the last two seasons.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Season 3

Unfortunately, they don’t pull it off. After a good start with plenty of interesting twists and new situations, the first half of the season completely stalls out. It focuses almost entirely on the mystery of what happened to Sydney for the last two years. The good part of that is the personal drama she goes through, trying to pick up the pieces of her life. The bad is the poor pacing and ultimate answers in Full Disclosure. It’s revealed that she wiped her own memory to hide yet another Rambaldi artifact. This is silly for a number of reasons, the biggest being that Sydney thinking she would be ok with missing two years is completely out of character. It would also have been far easier to just destroy the artifact, which they even mention in the show, yet never explain.

One part of this season that did work well was the arc of Lauren, Vaughn’s wife. They actually manage to make her a likable character before reveling her to be a traitor. It is truly a shock when she is revealed. Unfortunately, that is the highlight of the season.

After that, the season just keeps getting worse. The problems include but aren’t limited to:

• Sloane flip flopping from good to evil and back so often you start to not care.
• Reuse of gadgets and spy scenarios.
• The Francie double is turned into some kind of supersoldier, yet gets killed by an untrained reporter.
• Rambaldi changes from a mysterious prophetic Galileo into a omniscient magician.
• Every few episodes Rambaldi gets a new endgame and is retconned into more history of the characters, even where it contradicts what we already know.

The jumping the shark moment happens when Sydney has to “fight” a multi-arm robot in a secret government installation, it’s completely ridiculous. The first two seasons were believable if you were willing to stretch things a bit. The third season takes it way out into comic book territory, which is doubly bad because Sydney no longer has a “normal” life to ground the show.

The season is not unbearable to watch, but it can definitely turn into a chore depending on your suspension of disbelief limits.

Rating: ★★½☆☆ 

Season 4

The fourth season starts with an unapologetic complete reboot of the show. They even go so far as to have a character say “Last year sucked”. Everyone is once again working all together for a secret organization with no accountability, under Sloane. If you can accept the game of organizational musical chairs, it starts off well, with minimal Rambaldi and a lot of spy action in the vein of the first season. The first three quarters of the season are much better than anything in season three, although the last quarter lags a bit, with too much Rambaldi.

Returning to the formula of the first two seasons breathes new life into the show, and makes it entertaining to watch again. Having Elena Derevko as the season’s  main villain fails, mainly because no reasonable explanation for her wanting to commit genocide is given. They again spend a lot of time setting up some elaborate conspiracy with Nadia’s entire life, but in the end it doesn’t seem to matter. The way they bring Irena back to life is also pretty contrived and unbelievable. The season ends in a very annoying, though well done, cliffhanger car accident in the middle of a big reveal.

Overall it’s a very solid season of TV, and while not as outstanding as the first two seasons, it’s still very entertaining and worth watching.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Season 5

Another round of cast changes and fake death starts the fifth season, although since Vaughn’s return was planned from the start, it works much better than the previous fake deaths. Prophet 5 is a decent enemy, which was missing in the fourth season. They also completely ignore Rambaldi until the end of the season, which was a good choice. The new characters work for the most part, and old characters show back up more and more as the season progresses to finish things off.

The finale is well done, Sloane finally gets what he deserves, and they leave enough of an opening that a movie sometime in the future wouldn’t be a stretch. Rambaldi’s ultimate plan is not revealed in a satisfactory way, unless you consider it being to screw over Sloane from 500 years in the past. It seems like a whole lot of work to set up multiple Rube Goldberg contraptions just to reveal an eternal life serum to people you already know will just die, since you are a prophet. Still, it’s a good season, and the Rambaldi nonsense is no more cryptic and frustrating than it has always been.

Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Overall

Even though it’s a flawed show for most of it’s run, the production values, acting, and action sequences are great throughout the show. For the first two seasons it is a great show, for the last two seasons it is a good show. You could probably skip the third season entirely and not miss much.

While Rambaldi artifacts and lore are good McGuffins in the first two seasons, after that they become overused. Even in seasons four and five when they dial down the Rambaldi nonsense, it still hurts the show when they do bring it up. I can’t help but think the show would have been much better if they gave the enemies in the last two seasons more conventional goals and motivations.

Overall, it’s a great show, and easily grabs and keeps your attention. Many of the biggest problems the show had while airing aren’t valid when you can watch it marathon style. It has aged well so far, and with the exception of outdated cell phones, even the early seasons seem like they could be new this season. I strongly recommend the first two seasons to everyone, and the rest to people who really enjoyed the first two.

Overall: ★★★¾☆ 

All of the actors do a great job, especially Lance Reddick, essentially playing Daniels from The Wire as a Homeland Security agent. Even though the science is pretty out there, the show manages to keep a feeling of high realism throughout, much more so than Lost for example. It also manages to hold on to an unsettling ambiance very unusual for a TV show.

I am cautiously optimistic about the show, even though Abrams shows have a track record of starting off fantastically and then falling off the horse in a season or two. If they can manage to pace the revelations well (and make them interesting and believable) while developing the characters, this show could have a good long run. Hopefully the monster of the week element will give them focus where they were unable to find it in Alias and Lost. It does bode well that quite a few of the questions brought up earlier in the pilot were answered by the end, maybe they have learned from their mistakes.

This is definitely on my must watch list.

Rating: ★★★★½