"Heroes" withdrawal...and other shows I miss...

I've promised that I would try to add some pop culture posts in the past. (I've also promised to post more....oh freakin' well.)

With the arrival of the dog days of summer, one starts to miss new episodes of their favorite tv shows. One of my new favorites from last year is "Heroes." I was deathly afraid when I watched the premiere that this would be some kind of "Misfits of Science" (Courtney Cox was in that, I believe) derivative. And anyone who actually watched and remembers "Misfits of Science" can probably imagine how bad that could be.

Fortunately, "Heroes" was intelligently written from the start and remained strong throughout. While the 1st season finale fell a little flat, the acting of Masi Oka, Jack Coleman, Nathan Pasdar (I'll give him a pass, even though he's married to Natalie Maines) and Zachary Quinto were top-notch.

More importantly, the show treated "comic-book" concepts like superpowers with a respect typically unseen with new properties of this genre and the characters were allowed to grow and change in a mature, logical manner.

The first season DVD will most likely be a Christmas gift, so, outside of an occasional foray into NBC's "Heroes" website to check out the original graphic novels, my "Heroes" fix will have to wait until the season premiere.

As for other shows I've been watching:

"The Office" - The worst thing about this show was that I had to change the name of a concept I came up with for some friends a couple years back. Always funny, the writers have found a happy medium between zany and downright uncomfortable situations. Rainn Wilson is consistently brilliant.

"My Name is Earl" - Somewhat overshadowed by "The Office", the most amazing thing about this show is Jason Lee's complete departure from all of his previous roles. Occasional recurring roles by Giovanni Ribisi and Beau Bridges are the icing on the cake.

"Scrubs" - I came late to this show, which at times can be quite schmaltzy. But the schmaltz is more than mitigated by the presence of John C. McGinley as the acerbic Dr. Perry Cox. I always think of Dr. Cox when I come across irrational bleeding hearts or crappy music on the radio.

"Family Guy" - So loaded with references, you can watch each episode multiple times. While the left-wing bias is a little overbearing at times, the Bill Clinton episode makes up for it.

"No Reservations" - The one show on this list that some folks probably haven't heard of, it's also one of the most interesting and varied. Anthony Bourdain's meat-loving, damn it all to hell attitude is great. His love for experiencing the people, the actual culture of a place is infectious. The producers also do an excellent job of picking locations that are both unfamiliar and interesting.

That's it for now, but I'll revisit this issue with the one new show I've discovered this summer: Flight of the Conchords. Until next time.