Best New Crime Show?

[Gerald So]

In your opinion, what's the best new crime show this season?

My vote goes to NBC's CHUCK, starring Zachary Levi as an electronics store techie whose brain is bombarded with thousands of state secrets when a rogue spy sends him an e-mail. Adam Baldwin and Yvonne Strahovski star as agents from the NSA and CIA respectively tasked with recovering said secrets. It's nicely unclear which agency has the better motive.

The least original show of the new season IMO is NBC's JOURNEYMAN. (I say this as a big fan of QUANTUM LEAP and a modest fan of TRU CALLING.) Unlike QUANTUM LEAP, JOURNEYMAN is short on backstory. Hero Dan Vassar (Kevin McKidd) blacks out and starts tripping through time without warning. Very disorienting to me. This is one I'll skip.

[Paul Guyot]

DAMAGES, which premiered this summer on FX, is great. Most would call it a legal show, but I think it qualifies as crime. I feel like CHUCK will get old fast, but I thought that about PRISON BREAK, so what do I know? CANE could be really good if the network leaves it alone.

My favorite of the new year is BURN NOTICE.

[Gerald So]

I didn't think of the summer series because their first seasons have wrapped. BURN NOTICE was my favorite of those. DAMAGES is too dark for me.

[Karyn J. Powers]

Got to be SAVING GRACE for me on TNT.

[Karyn J. Powers]

I have to add LIFE to my list.

[Gerald So]

I'll watch another episode, too. It feels like RAINES, BLIND JUSTICE, and HOUSE mashed into one. The key will be if and how Lewis's character distinguishes himself.

[Bethany K. Warner]

I really like CHUCK too. I think it's a lot of fun since Chuck is an everyman kind of character.

I've watched the first two episodes of JOURNEYMAN but can't decide if I like it yet. It's a bit QUANTUM LEAP-ish for me, but I think it could have potential. Doubtful it'll get that long though.

LIFE... the verdict's still out for me on that one too. The first episode left me unsatisfied but curious, so tonight's will be a big factor on whehter I become a fan or not. I think it's got promise, but again, like Journeyman, it'll be interesting to see if the network gives it enough time to develop.

[Gerald So]

I found the second episode of LIFE (last night's) more gripping than the first. Adam Arkin's character hasn't had much to do yet, but I'll keep watching.

[Kevin Allman]

Margot, I also loved BOOMTOWN...which is why I knew they'd cancel it.

[J.D. Rhoades]

BOOMTOWN ruled.

A friend of mine showed me several DVD episodes of the British show LIFE ON MARS. Premise: a cop in Manchester 2006 who's investigating a series of murders steps out in front of a car, gets hit, wakes up...and it's 1973. He's the same guy, same police force, but there's no DNA, no computers, just "old-style", i.e. brutal, policing. His conflicts with his thuggish boss are priceless. I really want this to come to American DVD.

[Mary Reagan]

It's on BBC America Dusty. They'll be doing the second (and final) series at some point, so they'll likely show the first season reruns one more time. Apparently there's an American version in the works. I'm not usually fond of American remakes of British series, but on occasion they've done well.

I'm also hoping they release a region 1 version of the DVDs (both series are now out in the UK). Of course I could just go and invest in a regionless dvd player and be done with it.

[Gerald So]

Premiering last night (Oct. 3) was PUSHING DAISIES. I'd seen commercials for the show but did not know it involved a private investigator. Here's the synopsis from ABC.com:

Grown up Ned (Lee Pace) puts his talent to good use by touching dead fruit and making it ripe with everlasting flavor. He opens a pie shop. But his gift leaves him wary of becoming close to anyone, as beautiful waitress Olive Snook (Kristin Chenoweth) finds out. His life as a pie maker gets more complicated when private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) finds out about Ned's secret. Emerson convinces the cash-strapped Ned to help him solve murder cases (and collect the hefty reward fees) by raising the dead and getting them to name their killers. Then Ned is handed the case that changes his life forever. His childhood sweetheart, Charlotte "Chuck" Charles (Anna Friel), is murdered on a cruise ship under strange circumstances. Her death brings him back to his hometown of Coeur d' Coeurs to bring Chuck back to life, albeit briefly, and solve the crime. But once reunited with Chuck, Ned can't bring himself to send her back. He helps her escape after her grieving aunts, Lily and Vivian (Swoosie Kurtz, Ellen Greene), former synchronized swimmers Darling Mermaid Darlings, think they've buried her forever.

Chuck becomes the third partner in Ned and Emerson's PI enterprise, but she encourages them to use their skills for good, not just for profit. Ned is overjoyed to be reunited with Chuck, the only girl he's ever loved. Life would be perfect, except for one cruel twist -- if he ever touches her again, she'll go back to being dead, this time for good.

The first episode was quirky fun, the no-touching rule working to heighten romance. The mystery could've used more closure, and the fairy tale narrator grated after a while, but I'll tune in next week.

[Gerald So]

If you missed the premiere of PUSHING DAISIES, there's an encore tonight (Oct. 5) at 8 on ABC.