Not very good new shows

In a way I'm kind of glad I didn't really like these shows...my DVR is busy enough as it is.

Eleventh Hour: I actually really like Rufus Sewell (from various movies, but mostly Dark City), but unfortunately this show is kind of terrible. It's yet another procedural but with more of a scientific, though not necessarily supernatural, bent. It seems there are only 2 regulars--Sewell as Dr. Jacob Hood, a biophysicist consultant with the FBI, and Marley Shelton as Rachel Young, his partner/bodyguard. I didn't find her very convincing. And the show's odd little attempts are humor are really just groan-inducing. As are some of the Hood's random explanations of scientific things. I mean, bar codes on milk cartons? Tweezers and grapes? Yeah. The X-files or even Fringe this is not.

Interestingly I think I watched a few episodes of the British version this is based off of. Patrick Stewart was the scientist and Ashley Jensen (from the British Office and Extras and Christina on Ugly Betty) was the agent. I remember thinking it was quite good, but I mean, it was Patrick Stewart. He's good in pretty much everything.

My Own Worst Enemy: Another show with an actor I really like. This time, it's Christian Slater, who I kind of love on the basis of Heathers alone really, even though that was almost 20 years ago. But sadly, he's not that good here. He's kind of playing two characters, a Jekyll and Hyde thing, but I didn't think there was enough of a difference between Edward and Henry. Christian Slater can't really help being...Christian Slater.

And the premise of the show wasn't explained very well. Edward is an international spy working for some organization and he volunteers to have a second, more average guy personality, Henry, created in his brain that doesn't know anything about him. Henry has a wife and two kids and travels for work, during which time Edward "wakes up" and takes over to perform his missions. Um, what exactly is the advantage of all this? Then things in his brain have gotten messed up, Henry finds out about Edward, and the two personalities are now switching off unpredictably. Chaos ensues, right? I guess it could be kind of Alias-ish, but I just thought it was pretty dumb and implausible.

The Mentalist: Kind of the same thing as Psych, which I watched a few episodes of but never really got into. Except here, Simon Baker is the master of observation who used to pretend to be a psychic but now is just working with the police whereas on Psych James Roday is the master of observation pretending to be a psychic to work with the police. But both are just procedural investigation shows which I've never been a fan of. Skip.