On Our TV

I don’t normally care about the Nielsen ratings, but I just noticed that Heroes made it into the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings. Here is a list of the top twenty shows for last week:

1. “Desperate Housewives,” ABC, 21.43 million viewers.

2. “CSI: Miami,” CBS, 18.54 million viewers.

3. “Grey’s Anatomy,” ABC, 18.51 million viewers.

4. “Fox NFL Sunday Postgame,” Fox, 17.59 million viewers.

5. “Fox NFL Thursday Postgame,” Fox, 17.19 million viewers. — Associated Press

6. “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS, 17.17 million viewers.

7. “NCIS,” CBS, 17 million viewers.

8. “Deal or No Deal” (Monday), NBC, 16.97 million viewers.

9. “Criminal Minds,” CBS, 16.56 million viewers.

10. “Heroes,” NBC, 16.03 million viewers.

11. “CSI: NY,” CBS, 15.31 million viewers.

12. “NBC Sunday Night Football,” NBC, 15.22 million viewers.

13. “House,” Fox, 15.20 million viewers.

14. “Two and a Half Men,” CBS, 15.04 million viewers.

15. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” ABC, 14.65 million viewers.

16. “Saturday Night Football,” ABC, 14.64 million viewers.

17. “Law & Order: SVU,” NBC, 14.20 million viewers.

18. “Boston Legal” (Special 1½6), ABC, 13.47 million viewers.

19. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 13.18 million viewers.

20. “ER” (Special 1½3), NBC, 13.04 million view

Of the shows in the top 20 I watched 3 of them. I think Jill watched either 4 or 5 of them. I would personally place Heroes at the top of the list. I like it way better than Desperate Housewives, but Desperate Housewives is definitely an interesting show.

I would also put Jericho into the top 20, but obviously my tv viewing habits don’t fall into the norm. Maybe one week I should try watching all of the shows in the top 20 and see what I think of them.

Every time I write about Heroes I have a hard time keeping myself from saying, “Wow, that was cool!” So here goes…

Wow, that was cool!

Now, that I got that out of the way…

Last night’s episode had some interesting story lines. It seems like we are meeting more and more people with super powers. Which I find to be very entertaining.

One of the best things that happened was we found out that Claire’s Dad (Horn rimmed glasses guy) Mr. Bennet is a good guy! I suspected that Mr. Bennet was a good guy when he said, “that’s cool” in a previous episode after learning about Hiro’s power to bend time.

Mohinder’s dreams were kind of interesting. Does Mohinder now have the power to see back in time or were his dreams related to something else? In one of Mohinder’s dreams, we find out that the episode’s title “Seven minutes to Midnight” refers to the time on Sylar’s watch when Sylar killed Chandra Suresh. Kind of interesting. I was hoping Mohinder would look into the car to get a glimpse of Sylar, but he didn’t.

Hiro’s story last night was a bit interesting. He meets a waitress named Charlie at the Burnt Toast Diner in Midland, TX. Midland, TX by the way is very close to Odessa, TX. Anyway, Sylar kills Charlie the waitress because she is another person with super powers. I wasn’t so sure about Hiro’s decision to go back in time and try to save Charlie. We shall find out what happens with that soon enough.

Have you noticed that very few of the characters are shown every week? Hiro and his sidekick Ando get the most air time. I wish Peter Petrelli were on more, because I really find his character interesting.

Lastly, I wanted to say something in general about preview trailers for tv shows. My wife Jill and I hate the trailers for ER, because they always make it seem like the next episode is going to be the most exciting thing ever and it turns out to be just another episode of ER (nothing special). Fast forward to last night’s trailer for the next episode of Heroes. Oh my goodness, I am SOOO looking forward to next week’s episode. Unlike ER, I know that next week’s episode of Heroes is going to be the best show on tv. We finally get to see them save the cheerleader or maybe not.

Here’s the preview for Heroes episode 9 for those who missed it or for those who want to watch it frame by frame to try and figure out what is happening next week (believe me you won’t):

Remember when Alias was such a big deal because it was renewing the idea of a serial? You couldn’t miss an episode or you risked being completely lost. Then came Desperate Housewives and Lost. Lost was at least kind enough to provide periodic episodes that were just for the purpose of catching you up in case YOU had been marooned on an island and missed recent shows.

Now it seems every show must add a serial element. Shows like Ugly Betty, which would be fine with no “mystery” waiting to be solved still have the mystery. So, what is this fascination with the serial?

The serial has been around for a long time. The book Treasure Island was originally written as a newspaper serial, as were several Charles Dickens’ novels. Radio created the “soap opera” a highly dramatic type of serial that later migrated to television. But, other than nighttime soaps, such as Dallas and Knot’s Landing, the serial was not seen as frequently on primetime television in recent years. E.R. has a serial-type style, but I’ve missed whole seasons and not really lost any major plot lines.

But today I can name many serials right off the top of my head: Heroes, Lost, Jericho, Desperate Housewives and Kidnapped, without even stopping to think too hard. One obvious appeal for writers of shows is that they can develop a longer plot line. Audience members are also likely to tune in more often, once they’re “hooked”.

The funny thing is that the networks like the serial, but not TOO much. Alias was watered down after the first season, leaving behind the cliffhanger nature of each episode for a more standard form of show. Some people say that, ultimately, this is what ended Alias’ run– the network kept insisting things be dumbed down more and more (well, that and Jennifer Garner getting married and having a baby), so that the audience wouldn’t get lost. Thankfully, it seems to have paved the way for other shows, such as Lost, to have an easier time of weird and twisting plot lines.

So, I’m all for television serials. I just wish they wouldn’t create serial elements in shows that don’t need it.

Well, my nine to five job has been taking up almost all of my spare time. So here are my brief comments on this weeks tv shows:

Desparate Housewives: Does Bree know how to pick them or what?

Survivor: That was a short social experiment.

Dancing with the Stars: Can you say, “follow the rules”?

LOST: Can hardly wait for the premier.

ER: Less drama please!

7th Heaven: Now that was a sermon!

Those are my main comments for the week. Like I said, I haven’t had time for much TV watching.