Dollhouse Dollhouse, Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku

It’s Thursday, so that means the usual quandry: what do I watch in real time, what do I tape? Usually, I’d watch the comedy combo of The Office and 30 Rock, and DVR Supernatural and CSI to watch at least one of those at 10 pm. But Office and Rock are in reruns tonight. So I’m tempted to watch my new addiction, Supernatural, at 9, since it’s a new episode and Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are going undercover in their old high school to solve a case. Sounds like scares and laughs there.

CSI I’m monitoring especially closely to see how Laurence Fishburne is going to mesh with the forensics crew after William Petersen’s departure. (I liked Fishburne last week, but I’m already a bit tired of his mild-professor persona–I’d like to see him do what few CSI characters except maybe Nick have done: lose his temper, as a new guy who’s not yet as cool-cat-controlled as the other team members, and just pop a suspect in the jaw.)

Oh, yeah, and there’s–ugh!–Grey’s Anatomy. It’s a rerun, but I wouldn’t watch this anyway. In fact, I haven’t watched this weepy, corny drag of a show regularly since its first season.

And will anyone be watching the season premiere of Hell’s Kitchen? Gordo’s ranting are getting a bit stale for me–how ’bout you?

What do you watch at 9 p.m. on Thursdays? What do you tape for later watching?

So did you watch Fringe last night? When Joshua Jackson first mentioned the “giant, slimy, spiky slug,” I thought he was referring to Simon Cowell. Just kidding: This was at once the freakiest and most satisfyingly complex edition of Fringe to date. Let me count the ways I’m loving the show: (1) the new twists in the series’ overarching FBI conspiracy plot; (2) the elbows Anna Torv used in smashing Mitchell Loeb’s wife (good offense-fighting, and hello, Trini Alvarado, I remember you from the 1980 movie Times Square!); and (3) the detail that the giant slimy spiky slug was one cell from “the common cold.” Oh, and the fact that Walter is still dousing lab specimens with LSD.

Consider my mind blown. How about you–did you watch? Did you like?

Today’s challenge to the poet Elizabeth Alexander was even greater than previous poets who’d been asked to write verse for an inaugural day. After all, Barack Obama has written some pretty good poems himself, one of which can be read here.

Alexander’s poem proved to be a sturdy one, a steady march of free verse iambic pentameter that spoke of national resolve through the metaphor of “repairing the things in need of repair” and, in a nice image, confronting our current problems as “the figuring it out at kitchen tables.” Her one dip into sentimentality — “What if the mightiest word is love?” — was balanced by many other attractive turns of phrase, such as rendering this sunny, snowy Washington D.C., afternoon as “today’s sharp sparkle.”

What did you think of the inaugural poem, and President Obama’s speech itself?

Happy Inaugural Day. Now back to pop-culture world: there’s a new episode of Fringe on tonight! After far too many weeks, Fox has relented and is offering up what could be a doozy for fans: We meet the sister of Anna Torv’s agent Olivia, and a “formal investigation of the Fringe Division” is promised. I am very psyched for this. I’ll even say a grudging good word for American Idol: If having Idol as its lead-in helps Fringe in the ratings, all–well, much–is forgiven, Simon Cowell.

How about you? Pleased to see Fringe return to the night’s TV schedule?

Yes, it’s that time again: come on, get it out of your systems–what did you watch this week that bored you silly, that irritated you with its insipidness, that annoyed you with its sheer insult to the intelligence?

Here, I’ll get you started.
If you dislike American Idol, speak up, will you? Consider this space on EW.com to be our own little Home Of The Idol Haters, where people who don’t think this show is the high point of musical inspiration can come and feel safe Speaking The Unspeakable aloud.

I watched the first two editions of Idol this week out of critic’s-duty, and am already sick of Simon’s slick put-downs (something about a voice sounding like dropping a cat off the Empire State Building? gee–not funny or constructive), and I almost became nauseous as the Idol judges put on their rare sympathetic faces in listening to the story and music of a blind man auditioning. And Ryan Seacrest then trying to high-five the guy, and being left hanging? Priceless… that is, if Idol wasn’t kinda worthless.

What else bugged you this week? Something completely different?

I’m looking at my network TV options tonight, and I see that I could watch Crusoe, NBC’s dull take on a dull literary classic, or two back-to-back episodes of CBS’ Game Show In My Head, a stupid gotcha-reality-show from that genius producer Ashton Kutcher, or a rerun on ABC of The Bachelor. Oh, yeah–followed on ABC by a rerun of True Beauty, another reality show so stupid, the drool practically drips out of your TV screen. I know: I could watch football on Fox, but I’m just not a football fan.

All of which made me think: Remember when Saturday night TV was great? Remember when you could watch All In The Family or The Mary Tyler Moore Show or The Bob Newhart Show, or in later years, Sisters or Walker, Texas Ranger or The Commish?

Even family-friendly stuff like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, or silly stuff like The Love Boat and Fantasy Island was better than the mix of reruns and non-scripted crap that now turns Saturday nights into a gravesite. I know there were economic reasons for the neworks to do this–not as many young people staying at home watching TV, so advertisers pulled away from the networks, which in turn left us high and dry.

But do you remember when Saturday night tv was good, was a great time to say, “Y’know, I think I’ll grab some popcorn and sit on the couch all evening?” What shows do you think worked best on Saturday night?