Fall TV, Week 5--addendum

OK, I realize that last blog post was a little short.

And I'm sorry that I'm still obsessing over Lexie's death, but there was a flashback of Lexie's face in the promo for this week's Grey's—it's as if they don't WANT me to forget her. Plus another character on another of my beloved shows was killed off this week, and it brought back all those memories. I'm not surprised by her death, not like I might have been by Lexie's if I hadn't read about it (sort of) on Twitter first, but I'm disappointed in this new death. Why bring her on the show if only to kill her off? Sure, she was always a guest star, and I figured that meant something, but still. It's as if she was brought on simply to move the plot forward. As if there was no other way to accomplish what they accomplished. (I don't want to give away too much—I'm sensitive to spoilers.) Weak writing.

So ther than that, I really have nothing to report on this week's TV. We've settled down into one of my least favorite times of the year—let's see how much we can mess with our loyal audience by putting on specials, going on hiatus for the holidays but putting in a special holiday eposide that you're likely to miss if you don't have a DVR, and sweeps.

Don't get me started about sweeps. November, February and May every year. It's supposed to determine audience size so they can figure out how much to charge advertisers, but if they always put on specials and special episodes of existing shows, it doesn't really tell what the "real" audience size is. And all I know is, I either miss my shows for some asinine earthquake/hurricane/volcano event miniseries, or my shows do some sort of over-the-top stunt to attract ratings. Either way, I get screwed.

So I'll talk instead about two shows I haven't mentioned because they're not on the networks: Dexter and Homeland.

I love Dexter, even though after the first few seasons, it's really been kind of up and down. This new situation with Debra knowing what he is has potential. And Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah from my beloved Chuck) could add a lot to the season.

But Homeland. There aren't enough superlatives to discuss this show. The two leads plus Mandy Patinkin and Morena Baccarin are fantastic. The storyline is intense. I didn't know how they were going to pull off a second season, but so far, words can't express how much I'm loving it. And you all know me and words. Even the sound design is amazing.

But this week, the best thing about Dexter and Homeland is that they are not going to be preempted by the election or the World Series (although, as that's going, it's not going to be preempting very much this week either), they are not going to have special Halloween episodes, they aren't going to do anything for sweeps, and they aren't going to go on hiatus.