A great surprise last week: Dirty Sexy Money.

Peter Krause makes everything look interesting, and the cast of wackies they’ve pulled together for the crazy rich family, the Darlings, are all compelling in their own way. Parts of it reminded me vividly of Arrested Development, actually, especially the family meeting at the beginning where everyone’s drunk and arguing. Of the troubled Darlings, I think the philandering, hate-filled priest, Brian, is particularly fascinating. The whole thing is very promising, and I can’t wait to see where they’re going with it. Let me know if you agree.

Of course, I haven’t seen Pushing Daisies yet, so in all likelihood, I don’t know what a good pilot really looks like. Basically, you must watch Pushing Daisies, or you will go to TV Hell, which only shows repeats of According to Jim. And oh my god, the pilot is called “Pie-lette.” He makes pies, get it? Seriously, though, I am pretty excited about this.

Oh man, Bionic Woman. I had so many problems with the pilot I barely know where to start. The writing was sloppy, everything happened so fast so we didn’t care about any of the people, why was anyone doing anything, and so much more I’ve already blocked out. I’m giving it another week or two to get on track, because I really want to like it, but it’s not looking good.

Casey, Hung, and Dale face off in the finale of Top Chef, which I egregiously omitted from last Wednesday’s TotT. Will Casey’s food with soul triumph over Hung’s technically mastery? Why is Dale still in this competition?

Gossip Girl continues. I actually think I may have to put this one out to pasture. My Wednesday can only hold so many absurdly rich people from the Upper East Side, and Dirty Sexy Money has a slight edge right now — and some great actors (Dan Humphrey, you are not forgiven. Especially because they keep showing that one line in the “previously on…”).

South Park premieres its 11th season, and in case you haven’t seen the incessant promos, Cartman is diagnosed with Tourette syndrome. Helpful TiFaux hint: with the Top Chef/Dirty Sexy Money time slot conflict, Kyle is ingeniously taping the midnight rerun.

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming: Memo to Kid Nation: I’m not taping you, but I’m hoping everything’s going all right in your crazy manipulative ghost town. Someone will let me know if Sophia gets a crush on Greg, right?

We’re elbow-deep in the new season of Heroes and the gang has, unsurprisingly, gotten themselves mixed up in all sorts of shenanigans. Claire and fam have relocated to another anonymous suburb, Mohinder is still wandering the earth in search of the meaning of it all and the writers have used the creative crutch of amnesia to give Peter’s adventures some more depth.

And Nathan has a beard.  Yowza!  Swarth-o-riffic!

I wish I had watched Alias so I could be as excited as the rest of you.

I suppose I’m digging Hiro’s new storyline in ancient Japan. It reminds me of two forgettable movies. The first is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Part III (not the first one and not the one with Vanilla Ice. The other one.), which set its story in a similar time frame. Sadly, the knowledge I gleaned from TMNT3 is really all I know about ancient Japan. And that knowledge is limited to: they wore funny hats. The other movie the storyline reminds me of is the Heath Ledger lead balloon called A Knight’s Tale. Admittedly, one is medieval England and the other is old school Japan, but David Anders reminds me of Paul Bettany’s character (in personality and looks) and they both seem to have an anachronistically tart sense of humor. Zany, some might say.

While we are all happy to welcome back our old friends, we do have some new super-powered friends. There’s Mohinder’s friend, the Golden-Fingered Nerd played by Stephen Tobolowsky. You might remember Stephen from his role in everything ever filmed. I also really like the plot with the Spanish Wonder Twins of Death. Although subtitles are hard to read when you’re sleepy, this seems like a mystery that I would enjoy seeing unfold over the season.

I’m in yr window. Lookin at yr toez.

It’s not all rosey, though, as far as new characters. I’m not necessarily sold on Flying Stalker Emo Boy. He’s like a gaunter, straighter, less dorky Zach (remember him?). If all he can do is fly and not be able to stay out of other people’s bee’s wax, then we may as well just strap wings on Nancy O’Dell.

Actually, that sounds terrifying.

Other things I would like to see addressed in the coming episodes:

• D.L. is dead, isn’t he? Come on. We can take it.
• Sylar? Presumably hanging out in the sewer.  Getting stronger.  Eating some rats.
• Nikki/Jessica. Will we grow to care?
• Where is our Kristen Bell?
• What’s Irish girl’s superpower? And will the Irish accents improve over time or continue to be moderately distracting?

Last night, I realized that my original opinion of Chuck and Reaper had reversed. I knew it was too soon (and is still too soon) to really know how a show is going to pan out, but the internet makes it so easy to spout an opinion. So here I go again, no doubt in preparation for completely changing my mind again next week.

Since I find it impossible to think about these two shows independent from one another, there must always be a “winner” in my head. This week, the winner was resoundingly Reaper.

Reaper seems relaxed and unhurried compared to Chuck’s manic MUST ENTERTAIN! WHEEE! pace. Sam struck me as charming and sweet whereas Chuck seems increasingly idiotic and hopeless. Though they’re both utterly ridiculous, the premise of Reaper is a heckuva lot easier to grasp in one sentence than Chuck’s brain-computer-image-thingy. I started to feel a — dare I say it? — Buffy-ish vibe from Reaper’s calm look at the sometimes silly face of evil, whereas Chuck’s vibe can only be described as desperate.

In next week’s match-up, I’m hoping both shows figure out that they are in need of a b-story. Just a little something for Captain Awesome and Sam’s brother Kyle (if I got to choose) to do on their own, because the weight of the whole plot is crushing Chuck and could very well get to Sam, too.

What do you think?

I should get an ambiguous job in consulting.

• You Ain’t No Picasso compiles songs for Heroes. Two seasons worth, in fact.
• Jane Seymour’s future on Dancing With the Stars is uncertain after her mother’s death.
• Which Hero are you? Take this quiz. It’s a throwback to the late nineties.
• There won’t be a Deadwood movie.
• House won’t be available anymore on iTunes.
• Reaper’s Ray Wise talks to USA Today.
• Athiests everywhere say “I told you so” as .
• MSN does a TV geek survey.
• CBS is going to air a Lonesome Dove prequel.
• T.R. Knight has learned a lot by coming out.
• Hulk Hogan will host American Gladiators.
• The makers of Cane are defending their choice to cast non-Cubans.
• An interview with the dude who plays Raja on from Aliens in America.
• The mother of the pack on Meerkat Manor .
• In housekeeping news, you should read the two comments that are up on the Greys Anatomy mad lib post. Pretty funny stuff.  Also, you can enter our Nip/Tuck giveaway! Click here to read all about it.