Fall Lineup

Autumn has definitely arrived. How do I know this, besides the fact that I've had to turn on the heat in my apartment, ride the bus home from work in the dark and use an umbrella? Because the fall television season lineup has begun! The fantastic array of prime time shows available for my viewing pleasure is more than a little overwhelming. During the summer months I am so busy doing outdoor activities that I don't really miss watching TV, but as the days begin to get shorter and the evenings colder, sitting at home on the couch after work starts to seem VERY appealing.

I can potentially see myself falling into severely addictive patterns. The fact that my boyfriend has a very large, very fancy flat screen television complete with DVR only makes the problem worse. I don't even have to worry about rushing home to watch some of my favorite shows. They are all conveniently recorded for me to watch at my leisure - even if two fantastic shows air at the same time! What a great invention. So far, here is my personal lineup of what I have deemed as "shows worth watching" so far this season.

Desperate Housewives: Welcome to season three of this prime time soap opera. I've spent my Sunday evenings watching this show for years and it never ceases to entertain me. The only disappointment has been the loss of the uber hot gardener boy. It's interesting that as an urban 20-something I am so interested in the lives of suburban housewives, but ABC always provides fantastic comedy and drama with enough gorgeous men added to the mix that I can actually almost see myself in a similar environment someday! Susan has finally married Mike, Lynette is struggling with cancer, Bree is pretending to carry her knocked up daughter's baby, Gabrielle got married but is having an affair with Carlos, who is engaged to Edie. A new family on the block has also been introduced this season and promises to provide some new drama and scandal - I can't wait!

Brothers & Sisters: I started watching this show last year since it airs right after Desperate Housewives and got pretty hooked. The show stars five adult siblings and their somewhat crazy mother who lost her husband at the beginning of the first season. The Walkers deal with all kinds of issues: romance, parenting, divorce, infidelity, addiction, war and even death while trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy. This season Sarah's husband is leaving her, Kevin's boyfriend is moving to another country, Tommy has a baby, Justin returns from serving in Iraq and continues to struggle with drug addiction and Kitty is on the presidential campaign trail with her Republican boss and fiancé. I love how Sally Field's character continues as the meddling mother trying to involve herself in her adult children's lives. There's lots of room for drama with this show and I think it will continue for subsequent seasons.

The Bachelor: And here we go again. Yet another bachelor. I don't know why I continue to watch this cheesy and unrealistic show, but I can't seem to help myself! Brad Womack, 34, is this season's eye candy. ABC calls him "sincere, sexy, successful and maybe the series' hottest guy yet." OK, he's pretty darn attractive and has a smokin' body. And, he's a self-made millionaire. Brad says he wants to settle down and find his soul mate. Obviously the way to do that is to date multiple women for six weeks, fall in love with one of them, and then propose, right? This is reality, folks. Brad is from Texas and has an identical twin, which should make for an interesting twist later in the show. Brad appears to be sincere, but you never know with these shows so I am anxious to see how things play out this season. So far I am less-than-impressed with the women who were selected. A few of them are very pretty but most are mediocre and more than a few seem downright dumb. Poor Brad, did he get shafted? We shall see...

Kid Nation: This is the show I have been most excited about watching this fall. Commercials have been airing for months and the news has featured dramatic articles about child abuse - talk about drama! Forty kids settle in a deserted New Mexico town called Bonanza City, where they are challenged to stay for 40 days with no adults and prove they can build a better world, pioneer-style, in this brand new reality series. The kids range in age from 8 to 15 and come from various backgrounds. They will confront grown-up issues while coping with classic childhood emotions of homesickness and peer pressure - and the option to do basically whatever they want, when they want. The episodes feature challenges between the four town districts and end with a town meeting where the council awards one child with a gold star worth $20,000. Considering the cast is all children, I can only imagine how entertaining and dramatic this season will get, I'm super excited to watch!

America's Next Top Model: Oh my gosh, this show just NEVER gets old. Tyra Banks hosts this hit reality series and gives normal girls the opportunity to prove that they can make it in the high-stress world of super modeling. The show is in it's 9th season, which means there have been nine previous winners, and even though I've never really seen any of these supposed "top models" on a runway or in a magazine, I still really like the show. Super high-stress and dramatic, each week the would-be models have to learn about walking, posing, style and fashion under 24-hour surveillance. Then at the end of the show Tyra and her posse dramatically cut one girl, dashing her dreams of becoming the world's next super model. Tragic. Do you wanna be on top?

Survivor China: I've never really been a huge fan of Survivor, but have been known to watch it from time to time. In fact, I think I even watched the season finale last year although I can't remember who won. The thing I like about Survivor is that you can pick it up on any given episode and it doesn't really matter if you don't have the entire background of the show; it's still entertaining. So here we are in China, with 16 survivors are split into two tribes and expected to rough it in the jungle until asked to perform physical challenges that will send on of the two groups to Tribal Council, where they must eliminate one of their tribe-members. The challenges are always extremely entertaining, and the physical and mental strain of surviving in the wild tend to wear on the contestants, usually providing in entertaining bickering and sometimes all-out brawls. We'll see what this season has in store...

Grey's Anatomy: In my opinion, still the all-time best show in television. I have been completely obsessed with this show since day one. Fictional Seattle Grace Hospital is full of beautiful witty doctors who perform medical miracles and continue to sleep circles around each other providing constant drama and heartbreak. And with life and death in the mix everything becomes just a little more intense. This season Meredith and Derek attempt to break up but can't get over their sexual attraction, George tells Izzy he loves her and has to end his marriage with Callie (also his boss) while repeating his internship, Cristina has to deal with being left at the alter, Alex continues his adorably sexy bad boy act and we get to meet Lexie, the shows' newest character and also Meredith's estranged younger sister. This combined with the characters being surgeons in an incredibly busy hospital, this season should provide with some very entertaining and emotional drama, I absolutely cannot wait!

I've been spending a pretty good amount of time at Stewart's house, and he conveniently has a brand new flat screen that does not need to be bashed on the side every 10 minutes in order to get a clear picture. He also has expanded cable with tons of hi-definition channels, and he likes to watch a lot of TV, which means that I have been exposed to quite a few additional fall shows that I wouldn't normally be exposed to. So far, these have included The Hills, The Real World, Friday Night Lights and Deal or No Deal. Great, like I needed to add any more shows to my weekly line up. And this is in addition to the reruns of Friends I watch while eating dinner when I get home from work every night. I'm going to have to start keeping a separate day planner just to keep my TV watching straight.

I am a big commitment person: I start something - I finish it. So if you add it up I've basically committed to more than eight hours of quality staring-mindlessly-at-the-TV each week. And is that wrong? Then why does it feel so right...