The psychosis of Rush Limbaugh. - By William Saletan - Slate Magazine

Just a quick TV reminder as I enjoy this tasty Nevada Day:

Tomorrow night, be sure to catch either Viva Blackpool: Ripley's Return on BBC America, or Hellboy: Storm of Swordson Cartoon Network.

Viva Blackpool is a sequel to the fantastic musical murder mystery series starring David Morrissey, David Tennant, and Sarah Parrish.  Hellboy is the cartoon adaptation of my favorite comic and live-action movie.  Both promise to be fantastic.

The Waitress, the Maid and the Candidate - washingtonpost.com: "President Bush was asked this week about how the Iraq war has lasted nearly as long as the U.S. involvement in World War II.'This is a different kind of war than a war against the fascists in World War II,' he answered. 'We were facing a nation-state --,' He stopped and quickly corrected himself: 'Two nation-states.' Then he tried again: 'Three nation-states in World War II.'Don't forget the junior Axis members, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania!"

Still in a bit of a mood, Dad still being in the hospital, and having discovered that an ex girlfriend is a convicted sex offender. However, my day was considerably brightened when I found this page. Had me laughing out loud.

Torchwood debuts with 2.4 Million Viewers
: "The premiere of Torchwood on BBC Three attracted 2.4 million viewers, one of the biggest multichannel audiences of all time and the channel's largest ever audience.The opening episode 'Everything Changes' was the third most show in its slot beaten by ITV's Prime Suspect and Channel 4's showing of the The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.The episode equalled the audience for BBC One's Wide Sargasso Sea and secured a 12.5% share of the total audience which is believed to be a record for the channel.The second installment, 'Day One', held on to almost all of the audience attracting 2.3 million viewers."

So, despite one being a sitcom and one being a drama, it’s easy to compare 30 Rock and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. They’ve both got numbers in the title, and they’re both set behind the scenes at a Saturday Night Live-style sketch comedy show. And they’re both doing pretty poorly in the ratings. TV Guide says that Studio 60 is being buoyed up by its lead-in, Heroes, but I believe since that report was published, its audience has eroded even further. (Clearly, the plan to try a new episode of Friday Night Lights in the post-Heroes time slot is a vote of no confidence for Studio 60.) And 30 Rock lost a third of its audience between its first and second episodes. I was one of those who came back for the second episode, but I won’t be back for the third.

The thing about 30 Rock is, I just didn’t think it was funny. I use a fairly sophisticated tool for critical analysis of sitcoms: if I laugh at some point during the show, it is probably funny. If I laugh multiple times, it is probably funny more often. And since the “com” in sitcom stands for comedy, and comedy—in the modern sense, anyway—is meant to be funny, then a show that has me laughing more often than not is a successful sitcom.

And I don’t believe I laughed once during 30 Rock’s second episode, so I am showing it the door. This is the first time this season that I have decided to stop watching a TV show, following Desperate Housewives.

And, for those keeping score at home, I did not weaken tonight. I neither watched nor recorded Desperate Housewives; instead I watched Thursday’s episode of Six Degrees. When I finish watching an episode of Six Degrees, I find myself wanting to see the next episode, to find out what happens next and to learn more about the characters. I don’t feel that way about Desperate Housewives any more, so Six Degrees, a show I am not home to watch when it airs, is a better fit in that slot.

And while it is sort of heartening that almost every new show that I’m watching is in danger of being cancelled, I don’t want to find myself with nothing at all to watch. So, I decided to give Jericho a try. Since, you know, it has been picked up for a full season and all. And I liked what I saw. In some ways, it’s a thematic companion to Friday Night Lights. They’re both shows about small towns reacting to disasters that rock them to their cores. In one, it’s the paralysis of the star quarterback in a town where high school football is the one thing that gives the town meaning. In the other, it’s World War III. Or something. And the football one is better made, but languishing in the ratings. But still…

COMICON.com: TIM KRING, ALI LARTER & SANTIAGO CABRERA TALK HEROES : "Basically we are using the sort of comic book or graphic novel nature of the visuals to allow us to push that a little bit. Although we are experimenting internally with how much we want to try and push the gore factor. The truth is, we found the limit there and are backing off of that a bit. "

Heroes creator/producer Tim Kring, talking about the surprisingly graphic visuals in recent episodes of the show.

Mirror.co.uk - TV & Film - TV Land - LIFE ON MARS - BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT: "GOOD news for all Life On Mars fans - BBC bosses have ordered a spin-off of the time-slip cop drama. And the new show will be set in the 80s...The series will be called Ashes To Ashes, after the David Bowie song which topped the charts in August 1980, fact fans."