catching up with an old friend... tv

Since I'm watching a lot more Star Trek lately and I'm getting mildly pumped for the next season of Lost, I've decided that my sci-fi television quota is pretty much filled. I'll probably be holding off on Fringe or The Dollhouse when they come out. I'll still keep tabs on valued opinions from friends, critics and blogs; but I'll be keeping distance.

That leaves room for getting into a new high school comedy-drama from the CW. I've narrowed it down to three:

1) Gossip Girl
This isn't really a new one. I've seen about ten or so episodes. It fits the bill, although it's way less eventful than the advertising makes it appear. Of course, I'll still have to catch up with what's going on though. Also (speaking of sci-fi), I'm not totally convinced Blake Lively is a human being. Look into her eyes. She's pretty, but there's no soul behind her eyes. She's either a lovely demon or a fairly lifelike android. Oh, and when they play Guitar Hero on that show it looks way fake and lame. On the plus side, it's about time the setting went New York City rather than L.A. I prefer the NYC myself and they've got a whole new set of teenage problems over there that they don't have on the west coast (you know, lack of cars). The school uniforms are plenty stylin'.

2)90210
Caught the premiere online just now. Seems to be more of a remake of Gossip Girl than the show it's actually named after. They got the gossip blog on it and everything (complete with the line, "That's what a blog is supposed to do -- cause problems"). The fact that I never really got into the original 90210 may actually make it funner. I can catch up on some of the old lore. Actually, it really seems cut and pasted from a bunch of shows. They got the mom in Arrested Development to play the exact same character (awesome, actually -- she totally name-drops Ricardo Montalban). Another great bit of potential is that the "Brandon and Brenda" characters are actually adopted siblings in this one. That means that this show can do what the original 90210 could never do: have the brother and sister hook up with each other. I also give this one points for having a character named Silver. Silver! Remember I said I was going to name my daughter Silver the Enchantress? Remember? 'Tis a shame Silver is the blandest character.

3)Privileged
A couple of critics have already given this one some thumbs up. Didn't catch all of the first episode, but I do think that this may be the one for me. It's actually about a young woman hired to tutor a couple of Paris Hiltonesque privileged high schoolers. One of them is mean, but semi-smart and domineering while the other one is nicer and more committed, but less likely to stick up for herself. The smart one looks like Wynona Judd btw, and that's not good. The whole spoiled heiress thing IS totally played out, but it does help that the tutor acknowledges it by actually saying, "The whole spoiled heiress thing is totally played out." Unfortunately she sort of has a weird overbite thing goin' on. Other miscellaneous pluses include TASING in the first ten minutes.