Here's a quick few catch-up thoughts for the mean-time...
° I noted my concerns after the first episode, but ten episodes in and Nip/Tuck's fifth season (Tuesdays, FX) has just been embarrassingly awful so far. Everything the move to L.A. seemed to promise has been reneged on; there's just as much Julia and Matt nonsense as there ever was, Rosie O'Donnell's all over the shop and Shawn and Christian are playing host to an even more far-fetched and ridiculous list of clients. Worst of all, though, it seems to have lost the desire to be anything more than a salacious soap opera. Gone are the often crude but still valuable reflections on the characters' relationships, gone are the more challenging themes. It's just gotten ridiculously shallow and uninteresting. I am shocked by the fact that I had heard so much positive reaction in advance.
° Peep Show's fifth season (Fridays, Channel 4) has been predictably fantastic so far, with the emboldened Mark a particular delight. Taking on burglars, getting all Secretary with Dobby in the stationary cupboard - what's next? The good news is that Channel 4 - and perhaps more importantly, Mitchell, Webb, Armstrong and Bain - know they're on to a good thing and have all agreed to go ahead with a sixth season. Yay. That means Peep Show will have doubled the output of shows like The Office and Spaced. 24 episodes! Watch out Seinfeld, eh?
° I was generally positive about Dirty Sexy Money (Fridays, Channel 4) when it first started but now its prematurely-ended first season has finished, I'm not so sure. I love Peter Krause, Donald Sutherland is mesmerising and I also really enjoy the performance of Natalie Zea, but the show feels pretty much like a more male-oriented Desperate Housewives. There's murder and intrigue and sex and comedy, but it exists in a world it never really explores, and I'm already slightly bored of it. It's another pretty ABC prime-time soap opera.
° JD as The World's Most Giant Doctor might not the only one standing on other people's shoulders on Scrubs (Thursdays, E4) this year. The other day I recognised JD's monologue on growing up as an almost verbatim reading from Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch. Still, Scrubs' seventh season has been better than I'd expected considering its poor sixth season, so maybe it has justified its last hurrah.
° I'm finally catching up on Gavin and Stacey thanks to the BBC's re-airing of the entire series (Mondays, BBC Three). I won't lie to you, readers...I enjoy it very much. It's not the sharpest comedy around, but it is wholly likeable. Roll on, Lesbian Vampire movie?
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