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Man do I watch a lot of TV or what? In my defense, most of my regular shows have not premiered yet and well, the DVR is a miracle machine...

Men in Trees - The best way to describe this show is Sex and the city in Alaska. A lot of people have also compared it to Northern Exposure and EVerwood because of it's small mountain town feel, but I've never watched Northern Exposure and it's definitely not a family show like Everwood was. What it is is a show about a relationship coach/writer, Marin Frist, learning about men (and doing voiceovers a la Carrie Bradshaw) in a town in Alaska when men outnumber women ten to one. It's kind of a cute premise but it all hinges heavily on the likeability of the main character, who's played by Anne Heche. I liked her, but I can see how others could find her annoying. I liked the supporting players though: a crazy fan who decides to move to Alaska when Marin does, Marin's super efficient editor, the owner of the local bar, the owner of the only plane in and out of town, and the fish-and-wildlife guy that Marin will obviously be hooking up with. I'm glad that there's another romantic comedy type show on the air again, but honestly I just wish that Miss Match had stuck around.

Jericho - I thought this show had the most intriguing premise of the season (yes even more intriguing that Heroes). A small town in Kansas sees a nuclear mushroom cloud appear on the horizon to the west and is suddenly cut off completely from the rest of the outside world. They soon learn (from an interrupted answering machine message) that there was a similar incident in Atlanta, to the east, and they're left wondering if they could be the only people left in America. Intriguing, right? I found the pilot to be a bit odd though. First of all, they used a lot of pop music on the show, like the Killers and Snow Patrol. I think this is okay in most circumstances, but for some reason I prefer my serious sci-fi dramas to be dramatic underscore only. Second, they introduced a ton of characters and none of them seemed too fleshed out. I mean, I know that character development takes time but I didn't "get" even one of the characters, especially not the supposed lead of the show, played by Skeet Ulrich. I think it'll take a couple of episodes before I can make a real judgment.

Kidnapped - I didn't watched Vanished but it premiered early and hasn't gotten all that much buzz so I assume I'm not really missing anything. I did check out this one though, and I liked it. I thought the pilot did a really excellent job setting everything up and I like mystery shows. From what I've read, I believe that the plan is to solve this case this season and have another kidnapping case next year if the show is renewed. I think this is smart, but that would really only work if Knapp and/or King are enough to carry the show (a la Jack Bauer). The pilot didn't really set them up to be the main characters, but we'll see. Hopefully this won't be cancelled before the mystery is solved though (like Reunion which yes, I am still a little bitter about).

Smith - I hate heist movies. I find the idea of them to just be really irritating because we're supposed to be like rooting for these people to pull off these great heists when they're really just CRIMINALS! So why did I decide to watch this show? Because the cast includes Simon Baker (who's hot), Jonny Lee Miller (who I have an inexplicable crush on), Virginia Madsen, and Amy Smart. Interestingly the only one I'm not all that familiar with is Ray Liotta, who's the lead. But I was bored. So I didn't even finish watching it.

Six Degrees - I know I said that I wasn't going to watch this show because J.J. Abrams has burned me too many times (Felicity, Alias, Lost) but I couldn't help myself. My DVR makes it waaaay too easy to watch anything and everything on TV. Anyway, I watched it and I was pretty unimpressed. Usually J.J. Abrams shows start off great and then spiral into messes of too many loose ends but this one was just kind of...uninteresting. The cast is really great, I liked Hope Davis and Bridget Moynahan, and Jay Hernandez is totally totally hot. Erika Christensen bugs though, and her "secret box" thing is so Meghan from Felicity. But the only storyline I cared at all about was the photographer dude. And once the whole six degrees thing works out, won't it just end up being a show about six people who all know each other? Wasn't ever going to put this on my schedule and watching the pilot just confirmed that. I do love an opportunity to bash JJ Abrams though.