I've been watching the mid-season replacement TV shows!

I've already mentioned how superb Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been (and continues to be) and that Cashmere Mafia is pretty bad. Terminator is about as good as the new second season gets, so far. I have yet to see Fox's New Amsterdam and Unhitched, or NBC's quarterlife, but they're sitting on my TiVo, waiting to go (I just haven't been in the mood to cover all the TV shows--even with the shortage of new stuff due to the writers' strike).

Joining Cashmere Mafia in the race to replace Sex And The City is Lipstick Jungle. Now, I have a minor crush on Kim Raver, one of the stars of this show, but even seeing her on a regular basis won't exactly save it. Three powerful New York businesswomen who still find time to have weepy lunches at the drop of a hat? Not only is it bad, it's realistic!

ABC's Thursday nights are devoted to a Lost rerun, then a new Lost episode followed by Eli Stone. I feared that Lost would suffer from its long hiatus--and the normal plot problems that come with extended serial dramas like this. It's a pleasant surprise to see that the show is actually better than last year. They've drifted away from flashbacks to the characters' pasts and now flash forward to their futures. It's added an unexpected level of intrigue. Eli Stone seems like another in a long line of programs where somebody has visions of God, or maybe visitations, or maybe the just get randomly thrown around in time (Quantum Leap, Joan Of Arcadia, Early Edition). The lead actor is charming, the gimmicks are goofy, and it just doesn't work. Maybe if it were a telenovela, limited to a short run, it might work, but the gimmicks and the aimlessness weigh this down.

CBS brings you Welcome To The Captain. It's a moderately awful sitcom with an unrequited romance, a neurotic lead, and a bunch of zany supporting characters (the Seinfeld formula, but with romance thrown in).

And on the guilty pleasure side, I can't wait for the return of Beauty And The Geek. That's just wrong...

CDs listened to today:

• Dmitri Shostakovich: The String Quartets, disk 3
• Various Artists: Sounds Of The Seventies, 1971
• Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde