but speaking of the glowing box, very little on it holds my attention these days. with buffy on its way out, alias on its way down and charmed having lost its way, the only real hour of television i crave each week is 24. now last year in particular i was a total tv junkie. so much so that i would tape one show while watching another. of course, part of my whatever about the boob tube is not really having one these days. there is one in my house (with cable even), but only when my roommate works nights do i have free reign with it.

with greater access, i would probably watch the creek (also headed for a FEE-NAH-LAY) and pick up again with angel and charmed. i'm intrigued by that miracles show, you know, with skeet ulrich. and without buffy, i'll hop back on the gilmore girls bandwagon. or maybe not, given that both of the boys on that show are off to new projects next season. is rory heading off to harvard? what's going on on that show? it just seems that everything is stunt programming these days and i just can't bothered. give me some great scripted drama and i'm all over it, but that seems to be harder and harder to find. even the good ones seem to be sinking into oblivion.

ok, so alias is still one of the best hours on television, yet each new episode since the sd-6 climax/post super bowl showdown has left me colder and colder. it simply isn't as compelling anymore. the ford focus thing is getting a tad out of control and even though i'm sure that j.j. was sick and tired of writing those "will sydney be exposed?" stories week after week, i can't help but feel like this new direction was due to pressure from the network to broaden the show's appeal, make it less serial and more episodic. the takedown of sd6 was the show's "leland killed laura palmer" moment, that time when the central mystery/hook is resolved and the story has to evolve from its original incarnation into something equally involving. a creative lull after such a shift is to be expected. but taking twin peaks as the model, even though the black lodge/windom earle stories picked up steam and proved as quirky and layered as anything in the first season, who was left to notice? i'm still on board, but six feet under is back this weekend, and...