More TV Talk

So, the new TV season is starting up... slowly. There isn't actually all that much I'm interested in, to be honest, but I've welcomed back one favorite show and tried out one new one. So...

House: Oh, House, I don't know quite how it is that you manage to make jackass characters and disturbingly dysfunctional relationships so amusing and entertaining and even "awww"-worthy, but don't ever change. Well, not on that front, anyway. The changes you've already made, I've been fine with. In fact, I prefer the new underlings to the old ones. You can bring back Old Guy again any time you want to, though.

Fringe: I watched the pilot, and wasn't all that impressed. To begin with, the whole investigating fringe science/paranormal crap while dealing with massive conspiracies thing is becoming a pretty tired premise by now. I have no doubt it's still entirely possible to do fresh and engaging things with it, but the pilot sure didn't feel especially fresh or engaging to me. On the plus side, the cast seems really good, and it's very visually stylish. And there was a hint or two of humor that suddenly made the show sparkle for me briefly, although I'm not actually sure they were at all intentional. Otherwise... well. All the decisions the characters made and actions they took seemed to happen entirely because the plot (or the setup for the series) required them, rather than because they made any sense at all. And the science was far beyond "fringe" and well into the realm of "painfully, laughably bad." And this is coming from a Doctor Who fan. At least Who never took it all so seriously. So, yeah, on balance it really just wasn't quite interesting enough to induce me to stay around for the second episode. I figure, if it morphs into something worthwhile -- and I admit that the potential is there -- I'm sure people will let me know, and I can go and watch it on DVD.

So... When is Heroes starting up again? Next week? I think that's the only other currently returning show that I care about (except for a couple that I'm not going to watch as they air because I'm still catching up on the DVDs).