'Surface' Heats Up! Plus, Allison the Time Traveling 'Medium?'

It was another riveting night of television last night! Am I the only one who thinks the young creature is adorable on Surface? Am I the only one still watching this show? I just love the whole concept of it. As I've said before, it makes up for the stereotypical characters and cliche dialog. I guess I just enjoy the show for its entertainment value alone. I admire Laura's (Lake Bell) determination despite the impressive show of force against her, including pulling her grant and now this week, setting it up to make it look like she plagiarized her thesis. Now, she's back to waiting tables in order to keep the power on at her house, but it all seemed worth it when she finally ascertained the sound of the creature on an audio recording. She has new hope and more determination. It seems Creepy Evil Doctor and his shifty sidekick (both characters are straight out of an Austin Powers movie) will have to try harder to force Laura to backdown. It was interesting to find out that these creatures have been living in the molten lava inside the Earth. And what happened to poor Rich? He thinks his brother is alive! The show has definitely caught my interest, so I just keep hoping that the characters and dialog evolve like the fascinating creatures that provide the interesting premise that keeps me coming back.

Speaking of interesting premises, Medium stayed true to the moniker I like to give it - The Most Original Crime Drama on TV - last night. Now, you guys know I love my Cold Case, but I've got to hand the originality prize over to Medium. The writing and producing staff come up with the best concepts and idea for their episodes. It never ceases to amaze me. This show could have been really lame, but they made it a kick-butt show with a strong female lead character. What more can you ask for? So, Allison saved Beverly's daughter because she knew her real family. This sets up the whole chicken or the egg scenario because Beverly had to see in the future (she was a medium) that her daughter would become ill, and that there would be a woman named Allison Dubois and she would have a family and so on. She then had to tell all of this to Allison through her dreams. In one dream, she had Allison go through a similar situation that she went through so she would understand. I totally missed the clues that the lawyer would turn out to be connected to the dreams. It did seem odd to me that the two cases seemed unrelated and there was so much talk about the lawyer, and yet, I still didn't realize she was the daughter until right before it was revealed. Anyway, another strong episode for this show.

About Last Night... ABC claimed the first hour of the evening with its combination of Wife Swap and football (on the west coast), followed by CBS's comedy block of King of Queens and How I Met Your Mother. NBC landed in third with Surface. At 9, ABC won the hour with Monday Night Football , followed by a tie for second between CBS and NBC with Two and a Half Men/Out of Practice and Las Vegas respectively. The final hour of the night belonged to CBS's CSI: Miami, followed by the second hour of Monday Night Football on ABC. NBC found itself in third with Medium. For more information on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
Catch a new episode of Gilmore Girls tonight at 8 on The WB. Lorelai learns that she isn't privy to certain aspects of Rory's life anymore. Over on ABC, it's the season premiere of Rodney. At 9, the remaining teams become part of a Civil War reenactment on CBS's The Amazing Race. The final hour of the night is filled with riveting television tonight. CBS premieres the new Bruckheimer crime-caper Close to Home. ABC's Boston Legal once again features Heather Locklear. And NBC features a tour-de-force episode of Law & Order: SVU that has many critics saying to go ahead and hand next year's Emmy statue to Mariska Hargitay now. Her Det. Benson races the clock to find a missing girl whose only link to the detectives is through a cell phone. For more on this unconventional episode (it doesn't have the usual set format), visit The Futon Critic. For night owls, you can catch the first season of Cold Case on TNT tonight (and every Tuesday night) at 11 p.m. Check it out, and you'll see what I mean about Lilly and how much she used to carry the show. In tonight's episode, Lilly investigates the case of a young mother killed by a homemade bomb packed in a laundry detergent box.


QUICK CUTS

*Bad news for the UPN drama Sex, Love and Secrets. UPN has halted production on the series after its miniscule opening of only 1.4 million viewers. The show will, however, continue to run in its Tuesday night slot until UPN makes a final decision. Better news for Fox's Reunion - the network ordered four more episodes of the series despite its lackluster viewer retention rate from The O.C. For more on both of these stories, visit The Futon Critic.

*NBC is making a few temporary changes to its Friday night line-up. Reality show Three Wishes will expand to two hours this Friday and will run from 8 p.m. - 10 p.m. Also this Friday, a rerun of Law & Order: Criminal Intent will replace Inconceivable, which has been suffering from low ratings and more than a 27% viewer drop off from its premiere. Inconceivable and Dateline will return with new episodes on October 14th.

*And finally, wondering how all the new shows and some of your returning favorites are doing? Click on over to USA Today for a full report. The biggest winners so far this season - Lost and Desperate Housewives. ABC, overall, is up 12% compared to CBS and NBC, which are both down this season so far. NBC has the most new shows in jeopardy with E-Ring, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, and Inconceivable. Overall, all of the new programs lost audiences in their second airings.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for The Amazing Race and what looks like an awesome Law & Order: SVU! Plus all the latest television news. Be sure to leave a comment with your thoughts on last night's programs.