New September Season

This week begins a new, very full season.  In addition to the return of Vampire Diaries, which surprised me with its decent acting and straight-forward story (versus True Blood), two new shows caught my eye.

--Terriers:  The FX network has a new addition Wednesday nights at 10pm ET/9pm CT.  Yes, it is the same old ex-cop, private eye story, but it could have a fun twist and good acting.   Variety magazine says "Tonally more similar to "Justified" than to FX's blacker-than-black crime dramas, and featuring a breezy chemistry between Logue and Raymond-James, 'Terriers' demonstrates it's possible to cobble together something worth watching without most of the usual bells and whistles -- or much in the way of sex and violence, although the language is pretty blue."  Given how much I like Justified, I will give it a try.

--Nikita:  The CW is getting into the assassination business starting Thursday nights at 9pm ET/8pm CT.  While I am not always thrilled with such thrillers, at least it is going beyond the typical cops and robbers.  It appears to have the typical "nice girl until they killed her boyfriend spin" we have seen in Alias and other shows, though I guess a career needs to start somewhere.  Slant Magazine was not impressed: "Nikita is just another bland spy drama, an excuse to put women in skimpy outfits—Alias without a heart, Chuck without the sense of humor, and Covert Affairs without the good casting."  Oh well.