TV Season, Part Deux (or is it Troix?)

I cannot tell you how excited I am about the return of Lost, in just 2 short days!  It seems like forever since season 4 ended, but now season 5 is almost here.  The show really picked up steam last season and started to answer some of the questions that have been out there for a while.  The show's creators promise a lot more answers will be forthcoming.  From an article in EW:

"Exec producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof say these questions will be 
answered within the first eight episodes: Where did the island go? When did the 
island go? How did Locke die, and how did he get back home? How will the Oceanic 6 get back to the island, and will they all go back?"

I'm excited to see how these last two seasons play out.  I'm also looking forward to the following series:

• Dollhouse - I'm not generally a big sci-fi fan, but this is from Joss Whedon, and I loved (most of) Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  The premise of a company that keeps agents on hand whose memories are wiped clean and who are imprinted to be whatever the clients want them to be is intriguing.   I also like Eliza Dushku, who plays an agent who starts to experience memories she shouldn't be having (Fox, Feb. 13, 9 pm).
• Cupid - I really enjoyed the original series with Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall and was so disappointed when it was cancelled early in its run.  I'm not sure how a redo will be, but it's from the same creator, Rob Thomas.  I want to give it a try and see what I think.  If I end up liking it as much as the first go-round, I'll have to hope it gets a fair shot this time (ABC, Mar. 24, 10 pm).
  
• Harper's Island - EW describes Harper's thusly:  "a 13-episode serialized mystery about hot young people (led by Ugly Betty's Christopher Gorham) at a weeklong wedding getaway who start getting picked off by a serial killer."  This sounds like an easy candidate for a quick cancellation, but if it survives, it could be very interesting (CBS [how is this not on Fox or the WB?], Apr. 9, 10 pm).
  
• Trust Me - I'm on the fence about this one.  I really like Tom Cavanagh, so I'm tempted to watch it just for him.  But I'm not that excited about the ad agency premise and I'm not a big fan of Eric McCormack, either.  (I saw McCormack play Harold Hill in a production of "The Music Man" at the Hollywood Bowl, and he made Hill into a really lecherous character.  If it was possible to turn something into a double entendre, he did.)  Still, there's the Cavanagh factor.  I still miss "Ed" and thought that "Love Monkey" got a raw deal, and he's just a likeable actor (TNT, Jan. 26, 10 pm).
• Castle - Nathan Fillion (aka Ada's #1 fantasy boyfriend) stars as a mystery novelist who finds the murders from his books being carried out in real life.  He teams with a female detective to investigate.  Romance,  mystery and, I'm sure, a good sense of humor (ABC, Mar. 9, 10 pm).
  
• Survivor: Tocantins - The Brazilian Highlands - I've watched every episode of Survivor that's aired (except the cobbled-together rehash filler shows), and the show still holds my interest and is something I look forward to.  Not every season has been great (Thailand, anyone?), but enough of them have been that it keeps me watching (CBS, Feb. 12, 8 pm).
  
• The Amazing Race 14 - I started to watch this show around season 4, then caught up with the past seasons in reruns on cable.  It's such an interesting study of how people work together (or don't) and doesn't involve the negativity that many reality shows do.  Sure, there are the bickery couples/duos, and sometimes the "villains" are the ones who win the race, but they go to so many beautiful and unique locations, and I like to see how the teams interact with one another and with the locals.  Last season seemed a little dry, I think because they didn't do a good job of casting enough teams that I wanted to see win.  There were a few teams I really liked who ended up getting out early, and one completely boneheaded team that stumbled their way into the final three (but luckily did not win).  I'm hoping for a better job with the casting this time (CBS, Feb. 18, 8 pm).

And on a side note:  why doesn't CBS start alternating Survivor and The Amazing Race, showing one season of Survivor, then starting up TAR in its timeslot?  I know that Survivor has much better ratings, but perhaps if people were kept in the habit of tuning into CBS on Thursdays at 8 pm, TAR would see a ratings increase.  Plus it would give me my Thursday reality fix on a year-round basis, instead of simultaneously starting both series and forcing me to start two reality shows at once.  I don't like waiting to watch reality competitions because I invariably get spoiled on the outcome, and I hate that.

So those are the time sucks that I will be starting with soon.  Plus the ones I'm already watching, like The Office, CSI, Leverage (great new show on TNT, you should watch it if you haven't), The Mentalist, etc.  How do I manage when I have two young children, you ask?  It's a difficult job, but if you have the dedication, you too can find that much time to waste.