Is the ’07-’08 TV Season Dead?

By Bert Ehrmann
January 18, 2008

As the television writer's strike threatens to obliterate most of the 2007-08 TV season (not that the season was that great to begin with), there seems to be little left on television to watch other than re-runs of Seinfeld or episodes of Holmes on Homes on Discovery Home Channel. However, with the start of the winter television season set to begin later this month, there are some alternatives to the repetitive parade of knock-off reality TV the networks have been serving up these last few weeks.

Already airing on HBO is the last season of the best drama on television The Wire. After taking shots at how the police fight the war on drugs in the first season of the show, the destruction of the working class in the second, legalization of street drugs in the third and city hall/the educational system in the fourth this season series creator David Simon has his sights set squarely on how the media functions in America. The Wire airs Sunday nights at 9:00 P.M.

Airing Monday nights at 9:00 P.M. is the new series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fox. A sort of sequel TV series to the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), this time Connor mother and son flee 1997 to present day via time-travel under the escort of a "friendly" Terminator played by Firefly/Serenity alumna Summer Glau. From what I've seen of this show, Sarah Connor Chronicles is interesting, yet much of the story relies on overused concepts that reminded me a bit of the Bionic Woman series that sputtered out on NBC last year.

Fresh from their hit Mad Men, AMC is set to premier their new series Breaking Bad Sunday 1/20. In this series, Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle) plays Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who leaves his dull position after he discovers he has terminal cancer. Not wanting to leave his family penniless after his death, Walter decides to use his skills at chemistry to create and sell a super-version of crystal meth. But is Walter destroying the lives of others via his creation worth his family's future?

Mark your calendars because Lost moves from Wednesday night to Thursday nights starting 1/31 – which is like the ‘ump-teenth time Lost has had a schedule change since the series premiered back in ‘04. I still think that last season of Lost was a disappointment, yet, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope with the season finale last season that I can't deny. If the title of the first episode of this new season is any indication, this fourth season of Lost marks the “The Beginning of the End” to this once great show. 

I've been enjoying the Canadian comedy import series Corner Gas asof late. Airing on WGN weeknights at 11:00 and Wednesdays at 8:00 P.M., Corner Gas focuses on the fictional down of Dog River and the colorful cast of characters within. A sort of Canadian version of Scrubs, the episodes of Corner Gas are only slightly intertwined so a viewer doesn’t have to be familiar with the show to enjoy a random episode of this series now and then.

The little series that could Jericho returns to CBS Tuesday February 12. I've never liked the once canceled but newly reborn Jericho that much, but my boss at work does, and she promised me a slight pay-raise if I mention the series in my column. So consider Jericho mentioned.

The final season of Battlestar Galactica returns to SCI FI Channel this March. After the shocking season three finale last year that revealed several trusted Galactica crew members as Cylon infiltrators and the return of a seemingly dead Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) promising that she knows the location of their final destination Earth, literally anything’s possible in one of the best series of the 21st century.

The seventh and final season of The Shield is set to kick off this April on FX. I’ve tried several years running to start watching Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his Strike Team fight crime as criminals themselves, but I’ve never really been able to get into the series. Perhaps this year will be different?