Seems like I do this every year, after the TV season has (mostly) ended. And year after year I seem to be watching the same damn shows. What’s up with that?

Lost was better this year than it has been, but that’s still not saying much as they’ve continued to veer into left field for no discernible reason. Time travel, Egyptian mythology, the sudden retcon of Jacob into everyone’s lives… I swear they keep making this stuff up on the fly, don’t let any talk of a "master plan" tell you different. At this point I feel like I’m slogging through the show more out of inertia than anything. And sometimes it is a slog.

24 started out strong but after the first four or six episodes it jumped the rails somehow. Actually, I have a theory about that: those first few episodes were first written and filmed last year, just before the writer’s strike shut down Hollywood and canceled the season of 24. So they were off to a good start, got shut down for a year (or six months, or whatever), then came back in (possibly with new writers? Not sure) and tried to pick up where they left off—but they’d already lost it. It was just a chore to watch, not unlike Lost.

And what’s with the way it ended? Way too many loose ends and plotlines left dangling. It felt like it didn’t end, actually, which is a problem—not like a cliffhanger, which is a different beast, but like they had another couple of episodes to film and got cut short. Weird.

I was not at all an Adam Lambert fan on American Idol this year. I’m glad Kris Allen won. That’s all I’ll say about that, other than having my faith restored in the collective good taste of the voting American public.

The Office was probably my favorite show again this year. It’s just brilliant and hilarious, outstanding really.

I loves me some Law & Orders, and though I’m a bit tepid on SVU, I’m loving this season’s plain-vanilla L&O and since Criminal Intent is finally back on with their new episodes, it’s one of the few shows I actually look forward to watching. (I know, the "new" CI episodes already aired on the USA channel before the NBC "season" started this month. I don’t watch USA, okay?)

Scrubs was "back" on ABC this time around and it was good… but not as good as before. Just wasn’t feeling it as much. Though I thought they handled the series finale really well.

I started watching The Unusuals and was rather enjoying it, so naturally ABC decided to cancel it. (They were probably sick of my bitching about Lost.) Quirky characters, fast-paced, no overall "mystery storyline" that would require three years to unravel… just a decent cop show.

Speaking of decent cop shows (or not), one thing I simply do not understand is how CSI: Miami can continue to be on TV. It’s the most ridiculous show I’ve ever seen. The only redeeming quality is the opening one-liner. And it seems like even that is starting to consume itself lately.

Of course, when all else fails there’s always Cartoon Network.