The start of the new TV season has been a major disappointment. Even with most of the shows flying in under the expectations radar, they've all quickly fallen off the DVR To Do list. 90210 lasted less than two episodes. Fringe and True Blood seem like Fox and HBO are turning back the clock to their early days of more pulpy/trashy than actual quality programming. Sons of Anarchy really had nothing to it. And JoAnna Garcia (star of Priviledge) seems a sure fire bet to replace Traylor Howard as the cute perky girl that always has a show on TV but never seems to become a name actress. The Wire is over, The Shield is ending, Entourage is Entourage and Gossip Girl is the Trot Nixon of TV (a steady, scrappy player who's fun to root for but will never reach the full potential you'd once hoped for).

So what's on the horizon? What can save the day?

30 Rock: I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of Tina Fey but her show is one of the best on television.

Life: Fringe has been ripping off some of Life's throwaway gags (Damien Lewis, like the father in Fringe, were locked away for over a decade and now find the "new" technology like cellphones and seat warmers to be riveting), but Life is a much better show. The cases are more interesting and the arc of "Who Set Up Crews?" is much better. One possible downfall could be the treading water issue. Burn Notice is a good show with a similar "Who Set Me Up?" arc and they spent this season doing basically nothing because they didn't want to solve the bigger case and then not have anything for the next season. Hopefully the Life crew will have a better game plan. Also, I can spend this season trying to pin down whether Sarah Shahi is an underrated actress (possibly because she is so good looking) or if I'm overrating her (because she is definitely good looking as evidenced below).

Oh, and the ratings challenged Life might be in its last season, especially since it will get no help from lead-in Crusoe.

Dexter: One of the more underrated shows on TV gets one of the most underrated actors in TV (Jimmy Smits).

Heroes: Yeah I know. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But what about the third time? Could it be a charm? I have to admit, I'm going to tune in for the third go-around even though the first two were fairly unsatisfying.

The Life & Times of Tim: I was laughing out loud at this clip. Something about the guy's voice and the cheap animation makes me crack up.

Worst Week: I know Worst Week is getting good reviews but all of the reviews have also said that they aren't sure how the show will be able to maintain for a full season (or even a handful of episodes). It might be worth checking out but I have a feeling it could be like Pushing Daisies. A show I adored (yeah I know how that sounds but watch the show and tell me that isn't the way to describe it) when it came out but quickly tired of after a few eps.

Eleventh Hour: Could be terrible and I'm not a follower of Bruckheimer TV but I'll give it a shot.

The Mentalist: I like Psych and it seems like the same show. The one issue which could make this more of a laugh at than laugh with is how flimsy the insights of The Mentalst are. He'll see one thing like lipstick on a collar and then guess something out of it. That's not really insight as much as it is a lucky albeit educated guess. And personally, The Luckybuteducatedguessist isn't much worse of a title than they have now.