my continuing love affair with bad television

Sadly, Jericho was canceled after its short-lived, fan-inspired resurrection of a 7-episode 2nd season. At least it allowed them to more or less wrap the show up and give it a fucking awesome send-off.

Moonlight was another one of those shows that were just terrible, yet I couldn't stop watching it. Mediocre writing, downright bad acting (Shannyn Sossamon making the bared vamp-teeth at a monkey will always be remembered), giggle-inducing vamp effects; it was like a little cookie of wonderful badness that sat atop Friday night like a cherry on top of a sundae. (Wow, mixed metaphors much?) So of course, it also got the hatchet. Sadface!

It's biggest fault was its obvious rip-off of homage to Angel: Not only the whole "Vampire with a soul solving crimes" (Although in the Moonlight-verse, vamps didn't lack souls. It was more like the Blade version of vampirism. The vamps were like humans: sometimes good and sometimes amoral jerks.) root story, but they even borrowed the "Vamp's crazy lover/sire, who he thought was dead, returns as a human" plotline. It was pretty blatant. I suppose if it had lasted another season, Shannyn Sossamon would have given birth to a son who eventually got sucked into a hell dimension. And there would have been a demon who could see your future when you did karaoke.

Speaking of Angel, my main bad teevee indulgence is now going to have to be Bones. I watched the pilot back when it started, snorted in disgust.... and several months later went back to it. Something about it sucked me in. And it's not all bad, it's got a pretty good cast and fairly decent writing; although they've kind of veered wildly off-character this season. Mostly I just like anyone with the last name "Deschanel" and David Boreanaz, who isn't my generation's James Dean or anything, but cute and seems to know what he's good at and sticks to it.

Check out this screencap from the season finale. Can you think of any non-verbal cue that would give you insight into a character more than this?

Why are you wearing a hat that dispenses beer?

He's taking a bath while wearing a beerhat, smoking a cigar, and reading a Green Lantern comic book. He was also listening to like, Cheap Trick or some similar band. Awesome.