If it’s between Cupid and the Unusuals, I think the Unusuals should win.

Cupid surprised me. Bobby Cannavale and Sarah Paulson have a great deal of chemistry. The love stories are usually very interesting, not only in what they are, but how they end. Because I’m a sap, I found myself in tears at the ending of this week’s episode. Rob Thomas is a hell of a writer and I know that given time, we’ll see Cupid snared by Psyche’s (that’s right, we all know he should end up marrying his psychiatrist, Claire) own form of love arrows. Yes, the show is entertaining and sappy and well written, but it is not as good as the Unusuals.

When I heard the networks were coming out with two cop shows, I could feel my cop show heavy heart begin to buckle under the weight of anticipation. Based on the commercials, I expected the Unusuals to be somewhat a farce of cop shows, but what it turned into was a blend of the comedic and humourous that make life worth living. The craziness of being a cop in a city that is known for the ridiculous, the sublime and the just plain scary deserves a show that gives you all of that. Also, I was glad that this show moves away from the gritty type of show where the cops are no heroes. Amber Tamblyn as Detective Shraeger is excellent, Harold Perrineau and Adam Goldberg work so well together, I just want a show with the two of them and Kai Lennox who plays Eddie Alvarez basically steals every scene he is in.

I think I’m getting a knot in my throat just thinking about this show.

We all love Cupid and I know you’re tired of cop shows, but watch the Unusuals and see how it is different. The Unusuals is doing for cop shows what Bones does for forensic anthropological shows – add character, humour and heart.

I love television and as such, I have had to chose many times to watch one show over another. No, I don’t have a little box in my home recording everything, but I will watch House instead of Chuck, not because I don’t like Chuck, but because I like House more. I will watch Heroes instead of 24, because I kept hoping I would finally see an episode of Heroes that blew me away. 24 is doing a much better job of that, and I should have been watching it. I wish the network would keep both shows. They come on at different times and both are entertaining. But in the end, if ABC has to make a decision, I hope that it saves the Unusuals, even if it is at the expense of Cupid.

Three weeks ago saw the premiere of two new cop shows, NBC’s Southland and ABC’s The Unusuals. The shows share some similarity with other cop shows in that they are about finding the bad guys and bringing them in. Unlike shows like CSI and its many offshoots, both shows concentrate mainly on character development versus catching the bad guy.

Southland has an eerie opening, like you’re about to see some sort of gangland violence or mafia shooting right after the last name cycles through. It was created by the makers of ER and, like ER, it follows the characters as they do their work, as if there is an unseen and unacknowledged film crew following them around. It feels less polished than ER and, in that, is supposed to seem more real. While the cops seems very real (not accounting for the way some of the sentences are put together), the people they interact with seem much less so. In the last episode, the basketball star whose car and wife’s pet was taken by two women he brought to the house was so stiff that I just wanted to skip through his parts. His insults were flat and you could almost see the cue cards. The girls who took the car was the worst approximation of gold digging black women I’ve ever seen on television (of course, it’s been some times since I’ve been around any, so maybe not anymore) and the absurdity that is the alcoholic cop’s activities of the night was by far the worst of the viewing. That being said, there is something a little bit melancholic about the show that says, “One more episode.” Though I like the show, I’m not sure if I like it enough to recommend.

The Unusuals, on the other hand, I very much like. From the snazzy opening title to the humourous dispatch calls that act as a voice over, this show hits the right blend of comedic and serious. Unlike Southland, I actually care about the characters and their situations stand out to me. The 42 year old detective that wears a bullet proof vest to fend off impending death (after all, both his grandfather and his father died at 42), his partner with a brain tumor who lives life to the fullest as he faces what may be his actual death, the rich girl who becomes a cop to buck the system her parents still want her to live in, the secretive, tough cop who’s partner’s death in the first episode leads us to this idea of “who can you trust” for which the Unusuals is based, the very good cop who has a little bit too much ego, but is also very good at his job, if not for being led by his girlfriend who would rather see him succeed politically than practically, and the born again Christian cop with a past that is one overheard conversation away from being discovered.

I think the difference between Southland and the Unusuals is that Southland takes itself very seriously. After all, how can you not when there is so much killing and brutality going on. It’s nice to see Regina King in something again and the actors are actually very good. Benjamin McKenzie, formerly of Fox’s The OC, plays a rich guy who turns to policing after something tragic in his past. His partner won’t let him forget that he learned to shoot at the Beverly Hills Country Club. There’s also the obligatory misogynistic cop who’s a cracked out alcoholic on a self destructive streak… Many of the cops feel like stereotypes, or at least like they started out as stereotypes, so badly developed that traces of those stereotypes still bleed through.

The Unusuals also have the rich guy (or girl) who turns to policing – although the only tragedy is that she appears to have carelessly ignorant parents. There’s also the guy with a self destructive streak, though his self destruction tends to work out well for himself and those around him. It’s good to see Harold Perrineau again after he irritated the hell out of us by shouting his son’s name over and over again on Lost. In this show, he’s neurotic but he’s also accessible and you understand him. Amber Tamblyn is the Unusual’s little rich girl who still unfortunately interacts with people from her rich past while still trying to keep her beginning a secret. Adam Goldberg is excellent as the cop with a brain tumor whose self destructive tactics turn out very well for himself and those around him. He is also Harold Perrineau’s partner, one of my favourite on-screen partnerships in just 4 episodes.

I don’t think Southland will stick around for long. I mean, I’ve been wrong before. Both the Big Bang Theory and Fringe are still going, despite both being perfectly awful. Southland is not awful. It just needs something else to add a little more humanity.The Unusuals is very good, one I highly recommend and one in which I would be very angry if it doesn’t get a second season pick up.

I am the biggest frakkin’ soft-hearted, blubber ladened, cry baby when it comes to love. So it was no surprise that I was clamouring to see Cupid. It’s not only the idea of watching a 1 hour love story every week, but also watching another Rob Thomas vehicle.

When I first heard of Rob Thomas, he was writing the show Veronica Mars. I didn’t watch the first season because I was a little sore. I had come up with the idea for a modern day Nancy Drew. I was in the outline stages when it was announced that Veronica Mars was coming out. Mine would have been a high school show without the noir edge that Rob Thomas brought to his show. Being that I am merely a wannabe, his was the better show.

Cupid is the story of a man who believes he is the Roman God of love, exiled from Mt. Olympus, who must put together one hundred couples (of the true love, happily ever after variety) before the other gods will let him come back. So he begins his quest in the grandest way, trying to help a guy who traveled from Ireland to New York find a woman he only met for 20 minutes. They do so by lighting a sign to her under the ball drop in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. This gets Cupid arrested and sentenced to 90 days in a mental institute where he meets Dr. Claire McCrae. Upon release (he pretends his name is Trevor – or is it pretend?), he gets invited to her singles group, where he brings his friend Dave, who is looking for the mysterious Holly. Cupid(Trevor) asks them all to the bar where he works for a singles’ karaoke sing along. There, he gets another single, Madeline, to write an article about Dave’s quest. Madeline and Dave start falling for each other, but Cupid pushes Dave to continue searching for Holly. Although it was a big moment when Dave and Holly finally meet, things don’t work out quite the way we expect.

Rob Thomas’ writing was stamped all over this show. The dialogue was clever, the characters clicked (you could almost see the magic happening when this week’s couple were singing karaoke, even as you hoped he would find his “true love” Holly), the story progressed, we had our moment of worry and our moment of relief. There were some awkward moments, but they were not overly so and were only slight distractions in the grand scheme of things. I know, because I’m a sucker for this stuff, that I had an emotional reaction when Madeline sees the travel agency at the end. That, to me, is vintage (can you say vintage for a concept (RT’s writing) less than 10 years old) Rob Thomas.

I didn’t think I would like Bobby Cannavale as Cupid, but I was sure that I would like Sarah Paulson as the psychiatrist. I think it will be fun watching them fall in love, watching Cupid get his Psyche. In the end, I did like Cannavale. It almost didn’t happen, but when the peg moves at the end… yeah, we had an actor/viewer moment. It was beautiful. The chemistry between the two are just right. I think we feel as if we know Paulson’s character, Dr. Claire McCrae, will eventually hook up with Cannavale’s Cupid, but the start now, being in contention, growing into friendship, leading into love… it’s being done well. By the time they move into the love category, if Thomas decides to give this show a shelf life (if it’s not given one for him), we will be ready for it and it will be a moment to finally exhale for us. Yes, I think Thomas is that good.

I have to say that I loved the story, from the “Holly I’m Here” in lights on New Year’s Day to Cupid convincing the psych ward (nurses and attendants included) to join in a rousing rendition of the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love”, the show was fun and lighthearted while at the same time tackling some serious issues, issues that face most of us. So many of us are dealing with the concept of finding true love and the fear that we will never find it. Cupid is about hope that it can happen, it will happen.

I’m not one hundred percent sure about his boss or the sister (although I like the actress), but if the romances are like the one from the first episode (not in exactness, but the heartwarming, gut-twisting, hoping the right people get together way) then I know I will be fully on board.

I know some people don’t like Sarah Paulson, but I enjoy her acting. I cared about what she cared about. If I were a psychiatrist and had worked hard to get people to be honest about love (in my opinion), then I would behave like her if someone like Bobby Cannavale’s Cupid showed up to wreck all the concepts I’d grown to know worked. Surprisingly, I like the intermingling of Claire’s ideas and Cupid’s ideas working together.

I hardly ever fawn this much over a show, but I’m a sucker for a love story and if you keep giving me one, I’ll keep watching. I’m excited about the next episode and if this keeps up, I’ll have another Rob Thomas show to add to my DVR.

Every Monday, I watch House on Fox before switching over to NBC for Heroes then to ABC for Castle. I hate that I miss 24, but it’s a show that’s easy to catch up on the next day. Once again, I don’t watch Chuck because the writer’s strike cut me short and I never got back into it. I finally caught up on Life, maybe I’ll be able to do the same with Chuck and find out why Tricia Helfer was such a bitch last night!

It was nice to see Mos Def on House. I think I’ve grown to like him as an actor with his lazy voice. He always does such a great job. I like the way this story was told, from the voice over from Mos Def’s head to the “virtualization” in his head. Almost makes me mourn going back to normal storytelling.

Heroes has been getting really good. This week finds Silar and Danko teamed up, searching for a shape shifter. This ends up being a very convenient storyline. Angela Petrelli and Peter are holed up in a church as god is brought into the fray (ultimate superhero?) and Claire and Nathan are having daddy/daughter time in Mexico. I have to say that although the last couple of episodes have been very exciting and this one was just okay, the thing they succeeded in doing was making me anticipate next week’s episode, something that hasn’t really happened since the first season.

Castle is fun as ever in this case about a philandering politician who is found dead, rolled in a rug in a couple’s new apartment. Castle and Beckett solve the crime at the release of his newest book, the book that contains the death of his most famous and popular character. My favourite part is the end, when he’s reading some pages for his weeping, adoring, female fans, and Beckett walks in looking smoking hot and he can’t finish reading. Also, when she finds out the name of the character based on here. Nikki Heat. Ha!

Monday has always been a good day for television. Let’s see what Tuesday brings!

I’ve come to realize that the only reason I still watch the American version of Life on Mars is because it is ending. If there were a possibility for a 2nd season, not only would I not be watching, but I would be more vocal about not watching.

I caught this week’s episode and the way they did the whole “mind trick” thing, at the start was good, but the follow up, on the roof, made me want to hit someone. I have to give it up for Gretchen Mol because she really does a good job with the Annie character.

The one thing they do that I like is make me wonder just what the frak is going on. I mean, if the last episode airs and he wakes from a coma, I think I will be a little disappointed. I mean, all this and you do the exact same thing that the original did? Of course, I don’t want it to veer into sci-fi either, not because I don’t like sci-fi (and god knows I like sci-fi), but because the story just wouldn’t be right.

So, the last episode showing Thursday, April 1, 2009 will “explain” it all. What do you think the ending explanation will be? What was the perfect ending for the British show may not be so perfect for this one. Do you care? With it being cancelled, do you think, why give it the time? What do you guys think when it comes to Life on Mars (US)?

Nanny McDead. With a bleach bottle. In the Laundry. Who can say no to that case? Not Detective Beckett and certainly not Richard Castle, who is signing paperwork which delays his entrance into the case, but not for long. This episode, unlike the previous episode helps us see Beckett and Castle as more of a dynamic duo. The mystery seemed ridiculously easy. To my surprise, the mystery is well and happily complicated. If you’re a mystery buff, maybe you did as I did and suspected the husband. He was pretty sketchy in that first scene after finding the body. Meeting the boyfriend and finding out the wife lied – you start going through the suspects one by one, just like in a mystery novel, letting their true stories cancel them out one by one. By the time you realize who the killer is (and at what point did you figure the best friend, Chloe, was the killer?), you’re right with the detectives, which is not where you want to be when it comes to mysteries. You don’t want it to be at the end, in the laundry room where the murder happened, watching the crazy girl cutting her leg, unknowingly, with a knife when you know who the murderer is. You want it to be in the the park watching the cops talking to the girl, knowing that something is off and she is probably the killer. If the remainder of the mysteries in the series goes as well as this one does, all of you murder/mystery readers will want to be watching this show.

I have to say that I like Castle a lot more this episode. He does a great job, don’t get me wrong, in the first episode. It is in this episode where we see how his mind as a writer works. He comes up with good ideas. He knows what words to weave that will cast a spell on those who read his works or listen to him. He knows that he can do this and that gives him the cocky self assurance that he needs to do this sort of writing over and over again. With that kind of self assurance, it’s easy to forget that he doesn’t know a damn thing about police work or police procedure. He doesn’t know the first thing about being in that situation where you’re trying to make sure everybody gets out alive, even the bad guy. Because the bad guy in real life is not the same as the bad guy in the books.

When Castle comes home and his daughter tells him he’s starting to act like a cop, his sheer delight at feeling comparable to the group is hilarious. Fillion has convinced us that his character sees himself as sort of a cop. He knows many cop like things from his research, but this episode, putting them into practice proves more than he realized. From questioning suspects to making the right call in the case, he finds himself a little out of his depth. It is especially telling in the final scene with Chloe in the laundry room, with his exhale, that he has gone deeper than he expected. If you watch Fillion in the scene where Chloe says, “But she didn’t get it!” and raises the knife, Fillion’s Castle makes a move as if he wants to do something. He holds his breath waiting for the knife to drop. When it does, his visible relief is real. It’s scenes like this as well as the comedic scenes, that makes me feel like this show will work. In the next scene, a more subdued Castle jokes about his inability to follow orders, but his ability to come out virtually unscathed. Here is a character that is growing.

Each episode adds a layer of depth for the characters. When we find out that Castle took care of his own child, we learn that his mother did no such thing for him and that whatever makes the daughter so darned good, Castle has a hand in that. We also learn that, outside of losing someone she loved that brought her to police work (from last week’s episode), we find that she’s gotten her heart broken before, and it was bad enough to colour how she sees men, in particular men like the guy sleeping with two nannies, taking all they had to give and promising lies in return.

This is just episode number two, but I like Castle and I hope it stays around.