TV Times

Southland - How frickin' stupid is NBC? Well if that Jay Leno (now complete with Sarah Palin doing stand-up comedy - good lawd!) debacle wasn't enough they also let a great show like 'Southland' go to TNT after only one season of pitiful support. This show is terrific. It could easily have been an anchor show and 'appointment TV' like E.R. was. But no, they had to roll the dice on Jay and his tired act. How is that working for you?

Frankly I am quite happy to see the 'Big Three' die out. They haven't been interesting or innovative for years. Sure we get the odd gem like 'Modern Family' or 'Lost' but we sure are shoveling through a lot of crap to get there.

Southland is the story of the cops who work the streets of L.A. The stories are compelling and the actors are as good if not better than anyone has ever been on television. Think 'The Wire' without the blood or the swearing. The first episode of season number 2 was on tonight and I was gripped from the beginning.

Criminal Minds - I can no longer watch this show. Tonight's episode about child abductions over years if not decades with grieving parents and one particular parent whose life stopped the minute her son was abducted eight years ago was one of the most gut wrenching things I have ever watched. I will have nightmares about it. It was so bleak yet so full of hope that I was emotionally abused just watching it. I can't imagine where the show goes from here and frankly I can't view it anymore. I know its just a made up piece of theatre but it is based in reality and I can't endure a world where families are destroyed in that way. A world were such evil DOES exist.

The Ricky Gervais Show - I so needed to see something like this after 'Criminal Minds'. Canadians have the luxury of enjoying the best of both British and American comedy. I believe that is why there are so many good comedians what come from Canada. We have the best of both worlds.

The situational comedy and slapstick of America combined with the extremes of what the Brits find funny.

UK comedy is either very silly like Benny Hill or Monty Python or very cerebral and heavily language based. Nobody riffs on the insanity of everyday life like the British. It's their survival mechanism and the way they relate to each other. It's very culture specific. Like most of their television they do the joke or the show and then they move on.

Americans like to hit you over the head with the same thing over and over again which in it's own way is funny. How many times did we laugh seeing Kramer come up with new ways to come through Jerry's apartment door?

Ricky Gervais is a comedy genius to me. He is funny in so many ways be it making us cringe in the original 'Office' to improvising with Elmo of 'Sesame Street' or his new cartoon version of the popular podcast he has been doing on the Internet for years.

Ricky and Steven Merchant have been having these conversations with a 'unique' fellow name Carl Pilkington for years now. Carl never laughs or seems to realize that he is being laughed at. He has many strange ideas and observations on life that he is absolutely serious about but who to the rest of the world are very strange. ENDLESSLY strange and hysterical.