Ennui

I've noticed the L & N Line has been quiet for a couple of weeks now. I think I understand why.

Tennessee Titans: Not a good team.

Nashville Predators: Will not play, as the NHL cancels the season.

NBA Basketball sucks. And so do the Grizzlies thus far.

Baseball is over.

You can say only so much about fantasy football.

Any Vandy or MTSU fans in the house? If so, got anything to say? And how 'bout them Vols? Pretty unimpressive.

The landscape of Nashville sports and general activities in Nashville right now are dull. There isn't much for a forum like this to discuss. Maybe we need to discuss music more often, or TV shows. I, as always, am not up on the ultra-alternative scene of music, and you can discuss pop music, whether it's good or bad, but pop music reeks of overexposure. TV shows are better than ever right now.

In TV, there are several shows I watch and adore. The best of the year so far is ABC's "Lost," the series created by "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams. What makes "Lost" such a great experience is the number of characters on the mysterious island, which in of itself could make a decent series, but the inaugural season of this show has taken, one-by-one, major characters and is telling their back stories before they were marooned. The ultimate reward is seeing how these characters, who all have had star-crossed lives, begin their lives anew. All of the episodes have been stellar so far, but the best one belongs to Terry O'Quinn's John Locke character episode, where before the plane crash he was wheelchair-bound, told that he couldn't do certain things, and afterwards, where the most touching symbolic action nearly moved me to tears, his life on the island becomes one where people depend on him.

"The Wire" is HBO's cop show, and it is unlike any other cop show in that it plays a political game from the Mayor down to the beat cops. The method is entertaining and frankly, expects a lot from the viewer to stay with it the whole series, because the way to bag criminals requires patience. There are tons of characters, but all of them are inhabited by lesser-known actors who are downright incredible to watch. I have been unable to see the 1st season of this, but I watched the 2nd season and the reward for your patience is getting to see a case getting built, despite all the tangles involved, and then, the tricks used to finally nail the bad guys. The thing about critically lauded and popular shows such as "Law & Order" and "CSI" is that the form is for mass-consumption and everything tied neatly in an hour. The detectives get a lucky streak of witnesses and clues and rarely much red tape. Those shows are good, don't get me wrong, but when compared to "The Wire" they aren't a match.

"Arrested Development" on Fox and "Scrubs" on NBC are the funniest comedies going right now. "Scrubs" is slapstick, pure and unabashed slapstick, and the jokes hit often. "Arrested Development" has the feel of an HBO comedy, like "The Larry Sanders Show." It's a series of misunderstandings that lead to heightened situations, which beget more outlandish scenes. Everyone plays their characters dryly, and no one is mugging or putting an exclamation point on their jokes.

Reality: I watch "The Apprentice." I didn't see the 1st season but I have been watching the 2nd every week. The reason it's good is that it's something concrete. A team trying to win more business than another, and with roles that put them in the hot seat. The boardroom finales are often tense, mainly because Donald Trump asks questions that are hard to duck. I like "Survivor" although this year it's been old people vs. young, and men vs. women, and old people outnumber the young so you can see where it's going.

Guilty pleasure: A show that I now watch in lieu of "Survivor" because unfortunately they play at the same time this year, is "The O.C." mainly because it's not all soap-opera crap. It's got good, funny moments especially when Adam Brody is on the scene. There are the usual soap trappings of melodrama, but that's why it's a guilty pleasure.

Last season's "Simpsons" was the best batch of episodes since the mid-90s, and this season just got kicked off by the weirdest Halloween episode ever. Talk about throwing everything including the kitchen sink. I hope the new season will be better than that, but I'll watch no matter what. Although I hadn't been keeping up until recently, "South Park" remains a hilarious show, and last season's episodes offered some huge laughs.

All this, and then there's "Alias" and "24" to look forward to in the midseason. Then there's the historical revival of a show that never got a chance in its early run and has been bolstered by Cartoon Network's Adult Swim and DVD sales, "Family Guy" returns to Fox for another try. And hell, I watch "American Idol" too.