I'm not going to review every TV show as it airs, but I figure a brief weekly recap on Sunday of what I saw and what I thought might not be a bad idea. So let's see what I watched and what I thought of it.

1. Chuck: There's just so much awesomeness in every episode of Chuck that it's a tragedy this show is not more popular. Watching Sarah text use her toes while tied up and in a mini-skirt (bonus to the cameraman who managed to not violate any FCC regulations while shooting that), the new super-spy Buy More, Dolph Lundrigan's character snarling at Casey "I must break you" (I laughed, Cathy didn't get it. Then I wept) and then having Chuck's mom, played by Linda Hamilton kick some ass and be super scary. You get all of that in a hour. Most fun I had watching TV this week.

2. House: The show has been getting a lot of flack and accusation that it has jumped the shark by getting House and Cuddy together. After all, how can the show be good if House is happy?

Well, I'm pretty happy and many of my friends would say that I am, in fact, a pretty miserable bastard when I put my mind to it. I look forward to the show trying this. It's a writing challenge to be sure, but the show has pretty good writers. So why not watch to grown-up try to work together and carry on a grown-up romance. I'd sooner that than another season of why the two of them can't be together. It's off to a decent enough start, so I'm going to keep watching to see how it all works out. Or doesn't. Lay your bets now...

3. Castle: My problem with the season premiere wasn't the mystery, which was a perfectly fine one - three people murdered within a few hours of each other, in different parts of town, with no obvious connection. No, the problem is that when we last saw our mystery solving team, Castle and run off and left Beckett who was just about to declare her willingness to try and give it a shot. He doesn't call all summer, doesn't contact them when he comes back in town and interferes with their murder investigation. Yet, by the end of the episode, all is forgiven and he's back with the team.

A little too easy, quick and tidy. I understand Castle is more guilty pleasure than a deep intellectual exercise, but I think Castle should have been made to suffer a bit more than he did.

4. Hawaii Five-O: The more I think about this show the only saving grace is Scott Caan's Danno, who so thorough hates living in Hawaii it becomes amusing. Thank God for him because without him to try and force some cracks into the granite and boring exterior of Alex O'Loughlin's Det. McGarrett the show would be tedious. Daniel Dae Kim looks bored, and poor Gracie Park looks mortified. Then again, considering she spent 3/4 of her screen time either in a bikini or her underwear, I can have some sympathy.

Add in Irish terrorists as the bad guys (I know the show is a remake from the 70s, but do you have to find bad guys from there as well), a complete waste of the James Masters as a bad guy (he was shot twice in the chest and fell in the harbour, but his body wasn't found, so he'll be back) and more fly-overs than a Republic of Doyle episode and you have something kind of pretty, but kind of tedious as well.

5. Bones: The team gets back together to solve a mystery to help save a colleague's job. Even though she stumbled through it for months, they solve it in two days. Bones is still clueless about human interactions. Booth is moving on with a hot reporter chick, which no one believes will last and fans will hate.

It's a fine enough show, but if there was ever a definition of a show taking one step forward and then one step back, it would be Bones. I've missed a lot of shows the past few seasons, and yet I can step right back into and not be lost at all.

6. Fringe: Easily my favourite show of last year, when they went flat out with the madness. Monsters of the week and Massive Dynamic conspiracies were replaced with war with an alternate version of Earth. It was glorious fun, exciting as hell, and featured some great acting. As I've said before, Walter Bishop is the most fascinating and tragic character on TV right now.

That's why I had high hopes for the season premiere, which saw "our" Olivia stuck in the alternate universe. Certainly a source of tension and drama there. Instead, it was a dead boring hour, of Olivia escaping, realizing there is no escape and slowly losing her mind from the experiments performed on her. Dull, dull, dull.

I deeply hope this is a one episode drop-off and that things kick back into high gear soon. But wow, that was not a great start to the season.

7. The Amazing Race: It wasn't a classic season premiere, like the one a couple of years ago where Swiss bastards laughed at and mocked teams trying to carry 50 pounds of cheese up a hill and nearly dying in the process, but any show that has someone trying to use a glorified slingshot to shoot watermelons at a knight and ends up shooting herself in the face is going to get bonus points with me.

(she wasn't seriously hurt, so it's all right to laugh at it.)

I debated whether that or the truly stupid tattooed couple ("What's a battlement?" was topped only by Phil asking her what country she was in, to which she replied "London?") was the best moment, but after some strong internal debate, I'm going with the watermelon to the face.

As for teams to cheer for, the two doctors have a lot of potential and hell, I have to cheer for the A cappella singers. Anyone who is lost and in last place who start singing "Waiting for Phil to come and send us home" is going to win points in my books. That and the line, "tenors are known as the tough guys in the A cappella world." Awesome.

I missed The Event (four hours of TV on Monday night is enough for me) and Blue Bloods because I had Clare over visiting and he was busy watching his beloved Blue Bombers break his heart again. This week I might try and catch the premieres of No Ordinary Family, Human Target and Body of Proof. We shall see.

Last Five
1. Ice age - Hawksley Workman
2. It's a hit - Rilo Kiley
3. See when you're 40 - Dido
4. Give it away - Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. We got the clap from capitalism - The Kremlin*