Rebirth

As wholly supportive as I was of the writers during their strike, the CW's mass renewal of their major shows makes me hate them for not striking back when Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls were facing the chop. Oh, what could have been! Back in reality, though, this means more series for Supernatural, Smallville, One Tree Hill, Everybody Hates Chris, Gossip Girl and America's Next Top Model. Let's see what we think about a few of them....

Supernatural (Sundays, ITV2 ) I'm glad for. I don't think it gets the credit it deserves. Always quite funny, occasionally quite scary and remarkably consistent for a genre show, I'm surprised it isn't more talked about. I mean, if you think back to Buffy and Angel - the last important shows that did this sort of thing - I think there's a fair argument in saying that Supernatural has maintained the quality of its episodic stories just as well as they ever did. It lacks the wealth of subtext and emotion that Buffy and Angel eventually learned to incorporate, but it's still very capable television. Honestly I can't see any reason why fans of early Buffy wouldn't want to watch Supernatural. I'm glad it'll be back for a fourth year.

Smallville (E4) is less exciting news. How this shows gets away with being so bad so often I have no idea. It's not good and I find it hard to believe that it will ever give me what I'm looking for, but I still watch it clinging to the tiniest hope that something cool will happen. Honestly, it's a lot like going to church long after you've lost your faith. It's a boring obligation and you wonder why other people are still supporting this whole establishment. Sigh. Could someone at least give it the wrap-it-up signal?

I don't know how to feel about America's Next Top Model (Mondays, Living). Having watched a total of FOURTEEN different ...Top Model series already, I feel slightly burned out. Maybe not burned out enough to stop watching, of course, but enough that the experience of watching the show has altered greatly. I now watch it with either the resentment of an angry sports fan ("oh, fuck off, Tyra! How could you possibly send her home instead of her!") or the know-it-all disdain that comes from having perused The Fashion Spot a couple of times ("what a farce! none of these girls could ever walk at Milan!").

It's hard for me to comment on the others. I don't have great faith in Gossip Girl (because I watched The O.C.) and I'm yet to see how One Tree Hill's time jump works out, but I do have hopes for both so I appreciate that even if they weren't amazing seasons they will be given the opportunity to find their feet. It seems that the one great consequence of the Writer's Strike has been that many shows are being a second chance where usually they might not. I hope some of them prove it's a good idea to allow some time to growth.

If you have any thoughts on any of these shows, let me know...