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Since our new production schedule rendered October and November as The Months That Ate Leisure Time, I'm barely keeping up with all the new and returning teevee I must see. All praise the 421-hour dual-tuner TiVo. Thy will be done. Herewith a few notes (may be spoilers here and there):

The premiere back-to-back episodes of Torchwood kicked major ass. Yeah, Captain Jack is back and leading a band of Earth-bound (for now?) alien-hunters in a smart, sexy new series. Definitely keeping my eye on Ianto Jones (played by Gareth David-Lloyd). Yum! And you just know there's more going on there than he-who-fetches-the-tea. And all that Welsh-talking. BBC3 hit this one out of the park.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: Finally found its groove this week, I think. The Sorkin rhythm and poetry are there, although if they insist on continuing to show us snips of the sketches, they need to find someone else to write them. Let Sorkin be Sorkin, but he can't bring the sketch funny. Loving Amanda Peet! Every actor in the cast is stellar and, even so, Eli Wallach came in this week and brought nine decades of experience with him to work circles around 'em.

30 Rock: The "other" show about a show...I'm not feeling it. Alone among my friends, I seem to be the one who can't stand Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey feels wasted here. I've only got two eps down, so maybe it'll grow on me.

Desperate Housewives: Welcome back. I was a latecomer to this party, but thanks to DVD and BT, I've caught up and drunk the Kool-Aid. The season opener with Bree rushing to the doctor after feeling a strange new sensation had me on the floor, and I've a feeling this season is going to be all about the VanDeCamp-Hodges for me. Not sure how I feel about pseudo-sympathetic Andrew yet. And my theory about Orson: I don't think he killed his wife. I think Alma will be back, because she was the mystery woman he was visiting in the psych hospital from which Bree escaped.

Heroes: Two weeks behind on this one. Like everyone else, I'm loving Hiro. I'm not terribly invested in any of the characters, but I am interested in how the story arc is going to come around.

The Nine: Glad I added a Season Pass for this one, if for no other reason than weekly doses of Scott Wolf puppy-dog eyes. But it's off to a pretty smart start and, if I can get beyond thinking of Egan as Dr. Phlox (curse of Trek casting), it's a keeper.

Jericho: Plot holes a'plenty, but I can't stop watching. Skeet Ulrich (who is my very favorite actor named Skeet, from a field that is admittedly not wide) is the hometown outcast that intrigues me, and Hawkins ("I was a cop in St. Louis") is the season's most mysterious character. There's something perversely interesting about the post-apocalyptic setting; I can't stop watching for, I think, some of the same reasons I couldn't stand to watch and couldn't look away from The Day After.

The Class: If only for Jesse Tyler Ferguson and hometown gal Heather Goldenhersh (yes, that's her real voice). Gay Kyle and not-gay Perry (riiiiiight) annoy the hell out of me, and Jason Ritter's character reminds me way too much of an ex, but he's starting to grow on me and you can't argue with the cute.

Smallville: If the season follows a typical pattern, the first four episodes and the final four will be pretty sweet (so far, so good) and everything in between will be meh. Hey, Oliver Queen ain't hard on the eyes though.

And, of course, there's Battlestar Galactica, which remains the best damn show on television. Period.

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