I don’t watch a lot of TV, especially not a lot of fictional TV. I watch some ESPN (baseball and football games, PTI, bits and pieces of SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, etc.), some Discovery (MythBusters, Dirty Jobs), A&E (Flip This House), CNBC (Mad Money), CNN (Lou Dobbs Tonight). Most of those I don’t watch regularly, but those are the shows I tend to stop at when I’m channel surfing.

I only watch a few fictional prime-time shows:

LOST: The one show I try to really watch every week. It’s been up-and-down this season, and the spring season will probably determine whether I keep watching this or not.

STUDIO 60: New this year and also up-and-down. Lower-than-expected ratings, but it looks like it’ll at least make it through a full season. Seems to be getting its footing now, though I don’t know that the new plot twist (the loose-cannon network president is unmarried, unattached, and now pregnant) will be good for the show in the long run. Firing the writing staff (on the fictional show-within-a-show) was a good move, as that conflict was going nowhere. I can’t stand hey-look-at-us-we’re-in-NY-or-LA-and-we’re-SO-COOL shows, and Studio 60 has avoided that trap so far. It’s on my weekly watch list - for now.

30 ROCK: The other Saturday Night Live take-off, and it’s looked pretty terrible from the commercials. iTunes had a free download this week, so I watched an episode. The commercials were accurate. Lame.

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: Recommended by a friend, so Gretchen and I watched it this week. The good: it stars Doogie Howser. The bad: everything else. Lame.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: Also up-and-down so far in its first season, but starting to be consistently excellent. The cinematography and production are outstanding, and the character development has been good-but-not-great so far. Last night’s episode, though, may have been the tipping point where character development has become very good - and maybe even great. The good guy coach, the guidance counselor wife, the crippled star QB, the bubblegum-sweet cheerleader-slash-QB’s-girlfriend (who’s now sleeping with his best friend), the sullen kid with the crappy family situation (who’s now sleeping with his crippled best friend’s girl), the brash legend-in-his-own-mind who’s ‘roiding now to get the speed and strength needed for a college scholarship, and my favorite character, the overmatched but real-good-kid new QB, Matt Sarasin. Highly recommended. It’s at the top of my weekly watch list now.