TV - Sunday

Way too much to cover on Sunday, I may have to split this up over several days . Also, with all the TV posts, I forgot to post my week 7 picks, but I did make them. Since the games are already in progress, I'll just run them down here without any comment:

San Diego over Kansas City
Grren Bay over Miami
New York Jets over Detroit
Pittsburgh over Atlanta
Philadelphia over Tampa Bay
New England over Buffalo
Jacksonville over Houston
Cincinnati over Carolina
Denver over Cleveland
Arizona over Oakland, 27-13
Seattle over Minnesota
Indianapolis over Washington
Dallas over New York Giants 17-13.

Now on to the TV:

Desperate Housewives - Started out as a very good show with a good mix of comedy, drama and just enough mystery. Last season it really went downhill as the new mystery sucked in comparison to the original one, and it seemed like the writers don't know what to do with the characters. I like it better so far this season, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. I particulary hate how they handle Tom and Lynette, who are good characters, but the plotlines they put them in consistently suck ass. I may follow the Toast's lead of giving up on this show if it doesn't improve.

Curb Your Enthusiasm - I love Larry David. Even listening to him on some of the bonus features on the Seinfeld DVDs is hilarious. And it's nice to have a good smart comedy where they can use the word cunt (or "beloved cunt" as it were). The only complaint I have about this show is the short, short, short 10 episodes seasons, and the long gaps between. At this point, I don't even know if it is coming back.

Rome - Having taken Latin in high school and going to competitions, where my particular field of expertise was Roman History (yes, I was a geek, but my brother was a bigger geek, so I was overshadowed), I was excited when I saw the first previews for this. Everything on HBO is good, and this had subject matter I was particularly interested in. It hasn't quite been as good as I had hoped, but it is very good. They do a good job of covering some pretty big historical moments while focusing on pretty ordinary people. The one thing I think they don't do particulary well is give a sense of how much time goes by between events.

Entourage - I didn't expect much from this show when it premiered, but per my policy of watching anything that HBO puts on, I gave it a chance. I first I didn't think much of it, but it grew on me pretty quickly. They get some good guest stars and the plots are always interesting. One thing that bugs me is it seems like these guys are living far above their means, Aquaman or no.

Big Love - I have a hard enough time understanding religous people in general, much less freakishly religous people like these who mold their entire existence around their beliefs. So I was worried that I wouldn't be able to relate to this show. However, it has done a good job of making this family interesting and likeable, despite their unusual living arrangements. This isn't quite as good as shows that preceeded it, like Carnivale and Six Feet Under, but it's defintely worth watching.

Deadwood - Excellent show. Actually, I guess it's technically over, but they're supposed to wrap it up with a couple of movies, so I included it anyway. Great, great characters, interesting plot and setting, I just wish it would continue. The only complaint I have with the show is similar to my complaint about The Shield, they spent the first few episodes making Al seem like about the most horrible person you can imagine, then they have since turned him into something different and likeable, despite his major flaws.

The Sopranos - not what it once was, but it's still a good show. As a matter of fact, I get tired of hearing this complaint about the show. No show that has been on that long can ever live up to its early days. I still think there are a lot of interesting things going on here, especially with Christopher. Hopefully, they'll be able to end it well.

The 4400 - The premise is great, but the writers don't seem to know where they're going with it. Sometimes they seem to want to be a serial drama, and others, they seem to want to be an episodic drama with a separate plotline that gets resloved each week. They introduce something one week, then pretend like it never happened a couple of weeks later. It's really annoying at times. The acting is also pretty awful, it definitely looks like a cable show. Having said all that, they ended the season with a pretty good episode, and I hope they'll be able to pick it up from there and fo a little better with it.

Seems like I'm missing something, but I can't think of what it might be. What do you guys think of these shows? Anything else I should be watching on Sundays?

Update:

The Wire - I knew I was missing something. I can't believe I left this off. I just started watching this a month or so ago, and I'm now caught up to current episodes. This is one of the best shows on TV. The characters are great, from McNulty, all the way down to Bodie, everyone has a lot of depth. The dialgue is great, though I don't know if I believe that no one in Baltimore says "the police" or " a policeman" and instead goes with "a police" or that anyone in 2006 still uses the word "mope." But I'll never know for sure, because one thing this show has made me realize is that I never want to go to Baltimore. I've heard that this is supposed to be the last season, but I really hope that isn't true. This show is excellent.