TV: Potpourri

I've been unhappy with Joan of Arcadia this year, and I've apparently said so often enough for Bill Sherman to take note of it. Well, I finally watched the episode he talks about in that post, and I agree: it was great; the best episode of the year, as far as I'm concerned. Any episode with Constance Zimmer as ex-nun Lilly has got something going for it right off the bat -- she's swell -- and the episode as a whole was a belated but welcome return to the lightness and humor of the first season, with the uplifting but non-sappy message that sometimes you can change the lives of those around you for the better, without even being aware of it. One of the reasons I enjoyed the show so much its first year, despite my being an atheist, was that it was a smart, entertaining, feel-good show. (I have room in my dark little heart for about one of those.) But this year, until now, has been all about feeling bad. (And you can't make me feel much worse than by making me watch one of the Duff sisters try to act.) Hopefully we've turned that corner.

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Tonight marks the fourth-season debut of The Shield, TV's finest drama. (What about The Sopranos, you ask? Or Deadwood? Remember, HBO isn't TV. Well, that's what their ads say!) Glenn Close debuts as the squad's new Captain (now that Capt. Aceveda has left the police -- but not the show, it appears -- for the city council), and I can't wait to see her tackle what's sure to be a meaty role. Michael Chiklis' Vic Mackey is one of the best, most complex TV characters ever created, and Chiklis is endlessly compelling in the role, but I may be an even bigger fan of Jay Karnes as the peerlessly brilliant but equally socially awkward Detective "Dutch" Wagenbach. Round that out with CCH Pounder's morally outraged Claudette Wyms and Walt Goggins as the oafish Shane Vendrell, and it boggles my mind why this show doesn't receive a boatload of Emmy nominations every year. It's brilliant, just brilliant. Watch it.

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I love having my VH1 Classic back. Yesterday, I saw Night Ranger's "Sister Christian," and it renewed my belief in humanity.

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I usually tape the Tuesday morning repeat of the Monday night Daily Show. The guest was Professor Harry G. Frankfurt, who has written a book (more of an essay, really) called On Bullshit. Jon Stewart went on and on about how if we were watching the 11PM or 1AM broadcast of the show, the word "bullshit" would not be censored. For those of us watching the 9AM rebroadcast, all we would hear was "bullbleep." True. However, when Frankfurt came out (he was actually already sitting at the couch when they came back from commercial, which was odd; I assume he has trouble walking), they showed an onscreen graphic of the book, whose title clearly read, large and unblurred, "Bullshit." Weird. So: written, okay; spoken, bad. That's a new one on me. Perhaps they assumed anyone who would actually object to the spoken, would be unable to comprehend the written?