Oh, television. That brilliant boob tube served as probably my best babysitter growing up, entertaining me with a spinning wheel and someone who called himself the Ultimate Warrior. I couldn’t get enough of The Simpsons and I never got sick of ninja turtles.

Now that the Fall season is upon us, there’s a wealth of new shows to absorb, as well as the opportunity to jump back into universes we have not seen since the Spring. The five shows that I will definitely be following over the course of the next few months are:

• Heroes: I didn’t watch this show when it first came out, because I thought it was just a cheap copycat of X-Men. On some level, it is, but the storytelling grabbed my interest and it wouldn’t let go. It’ll be interesting to see where they go with this sophomore effort. I’m looking forward to the Origins spinoff as well. Particularly awesome in HDTV. Yatta!
   
• The Office: Purists will say that the UK rendition is infinitely more insightful and funny than its US counterpart, but having never been exposed to the former, I can appreciate the latter with a full heart of laughter. Steve Carell is absolutely brilliant, but it’s because of guys like Rainn Wilson that I love this show. It has the same appeal as Dilbert and Office Space.
   
• The Colbert Report: Yes, I know that this isn’t a sitcom or a drama, but Stephen Colbert is probably the best entertainer on television today. Too bad he got snubbed at the Emmy Awards.
   
• Poker After Dark: As you may already know, poker is one of my obsessive thoughts. I like the six-player tournament format of this show — featuring some of the best poker pros on the planet — because it mirrors the home game that I play with my friends every weekend. The banter is pretty great too.
   
• The Bionic Woman: Having never watched the original, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this pseudo-remake. The twist, in case you missed the pilot episode, is that the original Bionic Woman is alive and well. In fact, she’s turned evil and started replacing additional body parts. The new Bionic Woman starts off with quite the formidable nemesis.

Surely, I’ll be watching other shows too. I like CSI (only the Las Vegas original), Jeopardy!, Family Guy, and all sorts of other shows, as well as NFL football and NHL hockey. There’s also a flurry of new shows that I’ll be avoiding like the plague… but that’s fodder for another day.

Subscribe to Beyond the Rhetoric