So, how about some more TiVo news?

Tuesdays bring a new season of Beauty And The Geek on the CW. Sadly, this season has been the weakest from the beginning due to a sorry attempt to avoid getting stale. They brought in a male beauty and a female geek, destroying nearly all the chemistry the show usually brings. The male beauty means the pretty girls have a boy they can hang out with who doesn't challenge them and the female geek shelters the boys the same way. Given the premise is that the members will grow emotionally, this is a disaster, leading to petty rivalries and other shallow spats. Nothing special here!

Cane on CBS was intriguing, but unsuccessful. Jimmy Smits, the lead, is always a welcome presence, but this turns out to be nothing but an updated Dallas. Cavemen is also on Tuesdays, but even I could resist it! Reaper is another CW show, and I struggle with it. The actors are charming--including a marvelous turn by Ray Wise as the devil himself, charming and a tiny bit scary. Still, the gimmick is just that and the characters aren't terribly engaging. A dear friend convinced me not to give up on it, but I'm still on the fence here. Reaper, you're "on notice"!

The other new Tuesday show is Carpoolers. What a dud. The characters drop to the lowest level of unimaginative sitcoms, the actors don't help this any and the idea of putting most of the scenes in a car where everyone faces forward? Not an inspired moment.

I'm still going to continue to watch The Unit for now. Thank you, Dennis Haysbert, for being interesting! Otherwise, this show wouldn't amount to much but occasional guy fun. Boston Legal isn't really working out, but I can't resist William Shatner's zany act. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is still moving along in what becomes a glacial rhythm. Why are all the stories about exploited children in danger? Are we so desensitized to violence and sex crimes that they have to raise the ante? On Fox, Bones shows a slow decline in story quality, but David Boreanaz is worth the price of admission all by himself. Makes me wish I'd watched Buffy all those years ago. House, on the other hand, struggles this season. They've tried a re-vamping of the cast, moving the supporting trio of characters to more-limited roles and adding a new layer of characters for the title character to abuse. This isn't working!

On Wednesdays, I tried the CW's Gossip Girl. Yeesh! Pretty, pretty people, but the cheesiest, lamest soap opera, damaged by a voiceover from Kristin Bell of Veronica Mars fame. Bell's snarky tone was nice on her former show, but wears thin on this show. By the way, she's now pulling duty as a character on Heroes, where the same ironic tone just leaves me wondering if she has forgotten real acting.

CBS' Criminal Minds has suffered a key loss. Mandy Patinkin has left the show. He was the main reason I watched the show, so we'll see how that goes!

NBC has added Bionic Woman and Life. Bionic Woman is like the recently-departed Alias, a very pretty heroine dropped into a battle between two intelligence agencies who won't play by the rules! Why watch it? Did I mention how pretty she is? Or the marvelous fake boobs on her arch-nemesis, who only wears skimpy tank tops?

Life is a much happier tale to tell. I think it's the most-overlooked show of the season. Sure, it looks like another standard-issue detective show, and it is. Why recommend it? Check out the lead character, a man who was framed for murder and spent twelve years in prison before he was exonerated and could return to his job as a cop. How does a cop survive prison as a marked man? The beatings, constant fear, and daily struggles to keep the barest needs close? Well, he takes to Zen. Then he gets a huge legal settlement, so now we get to see him struggle with material and sensual temptations, his anger, and the demands of a cop's job (not to mention trying to locate the persons who framed him). He's delightful!

Fox has brought us Back To You, featuring a passel of sitcom veterans. Utter failure. I don't know if I feel worse for Kelsey Grammer or Fred Willard here. At least they didn't get work on Cavemen! And why isn't Cavemen already canceled?

CDs listened to today:

• Bela Bartok: The Wooden Prince
• Alice In Chains: Dirt
• Hebert Vazquez: String Quartet No. 1
• Ludwig van Beethoven: The Symphonies, disks 5 and 6 (conducted by Sir Georg Solti)
• John Coltrane: Blue Train
• Dafnis Prieto: Absolute Quintet
• Elliott Carter: In Sleep, In Thunder
• Frente!: Marvin the Album