Here we go again

Well, the new television season is upon us. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up this time. Of the new crop of programming, so far I've seen two episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which emphatically reminded me of how little I care for the manufactured melodrama of most cop shows, and hospital shows, for that matter; also two episodes of the "controversial" new Fox series Action, which took until the second episode to really hit stride, but is riotously funny. The only other new show I've seen is the first episode of Snoops, which was pretty painful. However, I'll give it another shot, as the first episode of any series has to make a lot of introductions.

As for returning shows, the WB aired the other of the two episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that it pulled in the wake of the Littleton tragedy. It's a shame, too, because "Earshot" dealt with school violence and alienation in a very mature manner in an all-around excellent episode. Of course, critics would have attacked the superficial similarities without actually paying attention to what the show was saying.

Also finding its way back on the VCR timer was The Practice, which dropped the ball on Lindsay's assailant and her and Bobby's engagement from last year's season finale, but still offered a solid episode with a great performance from Henry Winkler. New episodes of The Simpsons, Futurama, and King of the Hill were decent, if somewhat unremarkable in varying degrees.

The biggest find of the week, however, was HBO's Reverb. This hour-long live music show split between Alanis Morrisette and Everlast, and the latter just totally kicked my ass. Live, he's got a very organic approach to rap and hip-hop, with stand-up bass, jazz-inflected drums, and a serious groove. Chalk one more record up on that CDNow wish list.

Finally, on the subject of HBO, it seems they've cancelled the absolutely brilliant Mr. Show. This sucks in ways words cannot adequately express.