The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Part IV+.

Ah, Week 4 of the new TV season. Week 3 had some bril starts (HIMYM, bien duh; and Cougartown, quel surprizze!). Let's see what's on tap next:

• The Simpsons. Look, I get it. The Simpsons isn't as good as it was in the '90s. That doesn't mean it's terrible. It's still better than most crap that's on TV (and trust me, I know, I watch a LOT of crap). So I watch it. Although, I wish that Comcast (*spit*) would fix its DVR programming so that when I tell it to record only new episodes, it ONLY RECORDS NEW EPISODES. And not like every syndicated run that isn't tagged with a "Repeat" tag. Come on you idiots. And while you're at it. Fix Bravo and Lifetime and USA, too.
  
• The Cleveland Show. I like Family Guy. Sue me. At least I know that Family Guy is a rip-off of The Simpsons. I know my history -- good and proper.
  
• Family Guy. Sue me.
  
• The Middle. The previews looked good, but the time slot (8:30 on Wednesday -- really?) is killer. I probably won't end up following it, but the vibe is very Malcolm in the Middle's first season -- you know, the only good season it had.
  

And after Week 4, the intensity of newness sort of dies down. So scattered about like the remnants of Britney's career (and Whitney's voice -- have you heard her new album? Miss I Need a Bodyguard needs a lozenge) are the following:

• 30 Rock. "I was just thinking about how weird it is that we eat birds." I can't wait to watch for more antics by Bobby Jindal's brother from anotha motha and Liz Lemon.
  
• White Collar. I started watching Psych after a year in, and it was painful trying to catch up on it. So this time, I have my eye on another show that I hope is more Psych and less Monk, and I'll try and keep with it from the beganning.
  
• V. Back in the '80s when I was a young spring chicken in my forties, I was freaked out by this show that my brother loved. And now they're doing a remake with Scott Wolf (long live Bailey!) and Juliet from Lost. I think that now that I'm a sturdy septagenarian, I should be able to handle the creeps. But word has it that ABC is futzing with the scheduling -- doing little mini-batches of episodes. I fear that V will fail.