Happy New Year!

This is a wonderful week. The sun is shining, it’s a gorgeous day for a walk and I apologize for any inconvenience, but with the New Year’s holiday I have wandered luxuriously into this new year and part of the fun is for the first time in a very long time I have a completely empty DVR.

An empty DVR? No backlog of “Supernatural” episodes? NO! I’m caught up now to the midpoint of Season Six on The CW and I’m in the same boat as everyone else waiting to see what those Winchester boys will get up to next.

To be fair, that is, I’m caught up in the sense that TNT only showed maybe two-thirds the episodes of Season Five, and I actually had to purchase the Season Five finale on iTunes in order to start watching my Season Six episodes. But they started over with the pilot episode on TNT and hopefully they will show all of them the next time around. I’ll keep my eyes open.

"Twilight Zone"

So while emptying my DVR, I took in part of the “Twilight Zone” marathon on Syfy. I remember their first marathon. It started with the pilot episode, “Where Is Everybody?” with a guy stuck in an isolation simulator.

I had a completely different setup at the time. I had to be right there to hit “record” on my VCR if I wanted to record the things with no commercials. I’ve put together a pretty good collection of “Twilight Zone” episodes in my media library since, but there was one that I knew I’d missed. I had to go purchase a new tape and I missed the end of “Nothing in the Dark,” with Robert Redford and this sweet old lady who was so scared of opening her door lest she should let Mr. Death in.

Well, in the intervening years I’ve collected many more episodes but while I’ve watched for that particular one I never saw the end of that episode. I finally saw it this weekend and it was very sweet. What’s really nice about a DVR is there are show descriptions. You don’t have to just record everything. Most of the episodes were familiar but all the same, there were still a few I didn’t have, and it was nice to simply record them as they aired and watch them at my leisure.

"Doctor Who"

Also sweet was a marathon of “Doctor Who” episodes. I enjoyed another opportunity to watch Sally Sparrow in “Blink” and I don’t not like it but again, everyone in the world likes “Blink” better than I do.

I think I just don’t like how the Angels work because there’s too many of them for none of us to have noticed before, and what’s “seeing”? In a world full of bugs, for instance, something would be seeing them all the time, and a closed circuit camera would stop them forever, because they would always be observable. Even moving very, very fast. Which again, not a favorite storyline for something usually made of stone. The transformation is too instantaneous in both directions.

"The Undercovers"

But back to the fun. I had a couple episodes of “The Undercovers” bopping around in my DVR and again, not great. Not bad. I think putting Shaw to work as a baker was cute.

But more to the point one of them had a mini-reunion with Enver Gjokaj and Harry Lennix of FOX’s “Dollhouse” appearing in the episode. With Tahmon Penikett on FOX’s “Human Target” (new episodes Wednesday) and Summer Glau showing up soon on NBC’s “The Cape,” it’s certainly nice to see some familiar faces popping up here and there. Now, if Eliza Dushku could’ve popped out of someplace as a counterterrorist agent that would’ve been delightful.

But with Steven and Samantha Bloom running about being gorgeous and saving the world with ever more intricate backstories that before NBC runs out of episodes for this canceled show they’ll have stopped an assassination attempt against Oprah, how could it not already be delightful?

"Pretty Little Liars"

I’m just one guy and even with an empty DVR there’s only so much I can watch, so when I heard a Facebook friend of mine casually announce she was so pleased “Pretty Little Liars” was returning this week I was intrigued. It’s not a show I’ve been able to make myself watch but it sounds like there may be something to it at all. Here’s my friend Kay’s take on The Family Channel’s “Pretty Little Liars,” which returns this week:

Kay: I enjoy it. The characters are complex, and stretch beyond the typical teenage dramas. The addition of the "new media" to the plot is interesting, as mysterious e-mails and texts come from character named "A," which is best-I-can-tell, someone who is impersonating a dead character. When I was in high school, rumors were rumors, and lies were hard to catch. The idea that these young women are living in a wired, web-enabled, closed-circuit world, and it therefore makes "lying" something riskier, something trace-able, it adds to the complexity of the plot. The young women are gorgeous, and I believe the inclusion of a character who is discovering her sexual orientation is a welcome addition. The show is not politically correct, but I see the show as an indulgence, and a break from the crime dramas that are popular now.

TJ: Well, Kay is not wrong that the procedural crime drama is the go-to genre these days. We could certainly use some creativity. NBC’s “The Cape” seems to be genre fiction in the style of its long defunct “Heroes,” and one of the midseason replacements I’m most looking forward to is David E. Kelley’s courtroom shenanigans in “Harry’s Law” starring Kathy Bates.

That said, watching teen dramas is just troubling, not just the way they manage to justify everything they do by feeling things with their feelings, and how … OK, like in “Gossip Girl” on The CW, this glamorous world where there are no parents and everyone’s gorgeous and it’s basically a teen soap opera, but everyone’s supposed to be texting each other all the way through. And “Nikita” and “Hellcats” and “The Vampire Diaries” and that Ashton Kutcher “The Beautiful Life” thing last season, all of these shows where a team of producers sat outside a mall in a windowless van and threw out rhinestones until they had enough pretty children for their cast.

But as for new years resolutions I will try being a little more open-minded. I did watch three episodes of “Billy the Exterminator” on A&E while doing other things and I found it to be fun if a little psychotic. It’s an ex-con who’s building a business with his family and everyone’s just got all sorts of stuff going on. Mostly the vermin you see in the southland is some pernicious stuff so you don’t mind that he’s occasionally a little too happy about killing it, and it’s at least a little bit character-driven.

Speaking of “Southland” I will watch at least one episode when the series returns this Tuesday on TNT. It seems someone must be watching it for it to hang on as tenaciously as it has and in that’s the case, they must be getting something out of it. But it’s up against the final five episodes of “Caprica” which Syfy is burning off like it’s incriminating. That and I’m heading into a rehearsal process this week that is going to be taking up some time and energy of its own.

"The Tourist"

My folks and I took in “The Tourist” last weekend with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. It was a sort of stylish action adventure romantic spy thriller. So there was something for everyone -- mostly one on either side.

Angelina Jolie plays consort to an international thief pursued by mobsters and British police officers. She draws Johnny Depp as a hapless tourist into her world of high finance and intrigue, only to discover .. well, I don’t want to give anything away. Really, the plot twists are the only things going on in this film, which is very pretty and a revival of the best in atmosphere of 1970s spy thrillers.

But despite how beautiful everyone is, with the complete lack of chemistry between Jolie and Depp and all of the pointless running about, ultimately you’re better off tracking down “The Thomas Crown Affair” remake with Pierce Brosnan. It’s a much more enjoyable use of your time.

Coming up

Beyond that, lots of things starting up again even this week. “Desperate Housewives” dropped a bombshell in its return Sunday, although how Paul Young has been married to Felicia Tillman’s daughter and never knew it is beyond me. Well, he knows now. Tom Scavo seems to be in for a universe of vengence-driven wacky sight gags and pratfalls so fans of that can set those DVRs when the show returns next week.

“Castle” is new this week and oh yeah, remember what we liked about this show? Apparently Kate gets to explore Castle’s creation based on her, Nikki Heat. Looking forward to that. And that reminds me, what ever happened to that Dana Delany as a medical examiner project? Crime fiction may be a bit over-explored these days, but I know I’d watch it.

Also fresh this week the season finales of “The Closer” and “Men of a Certain Age” on TNT, looking forward to those. “Men of a Certain Age” has been a little low-key this season but I’m enjoying it.

And oh, hey, CBS is having some kind of dance competition, “Live to Dance” in New York and Los Angeles. Say, are there seriously enough dance gigs in this world to support all of these dance competitions I mean what the hell? I see enough Turner Classic Movies to notice that around the 1930s and 1940s and into the ‘50s and ‘60s some, everything would shut down occasionally, a thousand people would stream onto the screen without provocation, explanation or anything so polite as a by-your-leave and everyone in the movie would dance. That never happens now, award shows have trimmed back all the glitz, nothing is choreographed anymore I mean what the heck do all these winners and runners-up go on to do?

“V” returns this week and we might get some followup on that armada of spaceships they’ve got hiding out there somewhere in space. Also back Tuesday night is a couple’s version of “Biggest Loser,” “No Ordinary Family,” “Parenthood” and “Detroit 1-8-7,” which seems to be hanging on somehow.

Wednesday CBS has got the People’s Choice Awards which I don’t watch, along with more dancing, there’s new “Minute to Win It” and “Law and Order SVU, which seems like a terrible matchup, and new comedy all night on ABC, including new “Cougar Town,” which I love, and new “Modern Family,” which everyone else loves. There’s also some new “Top Chef” on Bravo and something new on TBS called “Are We There Yet?” which just looks hilarious but .. no.

Speaking of TBS I’m aware of Conan O’Brien’s appearance there and while I’m totally on Team CoCo, love Andy Richter and from the episode or two I caught in passing oh my G-d he seems to have scooped up all the surviving writers from the Abe Vigoda project “Fish.” But he’s up against the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and that just doesn’t work for me, sorry.

In similar news, IFC seems to have tracked down “The Ben Stiller Show” from on MTV when I was in college a thousand years ago and he must not have paid the ransom because it’s on the schedule for Wednesday night. Get that and the Julie Brown show and the Andy Dick show and you won’t even need a bong.

The wonderful thing about Thursday is pretty much everything is back so I don’t need to mention anything specifically, but here’s the excitement. Turner Classic Movies is airing a bunch of Peter Sellers movies at least the next couple of Thursdays so if you can’t get enough of this certifiably insane actor and the asylum of roles he inhabits, this is the night to tune in.

Nothing on Friday -- for now -- and then oh, seriously, OK, “Primeval” is back on BBC America and I caught the first episode of the new season this weekend. Abby and Connor have been trapped in the distant past for a year and despite the constant danger, despite the hardship, despite having to rely on each other for everything, they’re still living like flatmates and their clothing is no worse for wear and Abby is still blonde which I don’t believe for a moment.

They hope against hope to find a wormhole through time and space called an anomaly -- which, frankly it happens often enough in this show they need to call it something else, like the totally expected -- and one day on a raiding party to nowhere in particular they just stumble on Helen’s anomaly device.

Helen Cutter is the psycho wife of scientist Nick Cutter who was the “sensible,” “cautious” time traveler until he vanished. Helen would line anomalies up in a field and jump from one into another, to the distant past to the distant future. Oh, and the one Connor made? Took him right home. Nice, huh? He got a spiny dinosaur to swallow it and get sent back.

I’m sick to death of Connor and Abby and the sheer amount of brain damage I would need to have incurred in order to enjoy this show. Definite pass.

Y’all haven’t heard the worst part, though. Syfy is remaking “Being Human.” No, not simply airing the BBC version which would be pointless enough, but actually remaking it. I don’t know why, necessarily, unless Mitchell’s involvement in the Great War is too much for American audiences to get our heads around.

It’s basically a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost sharing an apartment. I just hope this version is a little more faithful to lore. There are so many different /kinds/ of werewolves and vampires and ghosts running around in genre fiction it’d be nice to see them hold to some set of rules or another.

Sunday is all new animated episodes on FOX including the premiere of “Bob’s Burgers” which looks actively gross but I’ll check it out, and the two-hour premiere of “The Cape” on NBC. Looking forward to that one. Enjoy!