(It took me a few minutes to realize that's Jamie Rose of "Falcon Crest" fame with Charlie Sheen. She's looking well.)

I expected a better episode (with spoilers) …

(more…)

This from CBS today:

CSI was Thursday's Number One program in viewers on a night that included a special elimination edition of "American Idol," according to preliminary Nielsen live plus same day ratings for April 10.

CSI outdelivered "American Idol" in viewers (19.93m vs. 19.57m).

And here's next week's theme:

On Tuesday, April 15 (8:00-9:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed), the Top 7 finalists (Brooke White, Carly Smithson, David Archuleta, David Cook, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook and Syesha Mercado) will return to the Idol stage to perform songs by Mariah Carey.

Tune in the following night to see a live performance by superstar Mariah Carey and find out who receives enough votes to stay in the competition and who must go home on the results show Wednesday, April 16 (9:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed).

Notes after the jump on "Survivor," the return of "CSI," "Leatherheads" the latest from the Black Keys.

(more…)

Jorja Fox departs "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" tonight, and she is given a good send-off. …

(more…)

Notes and spoilers if you haven't watched yet, in series alphaetical order, after the jump …

"How many Emmys do you get for treating a deer?"

(more…)

"Saturday Night Live," "Friday Night Lights" and — even without a day in its title — "Grease," after the jump …

(more…)

I did like the twist in the middle of "Veronica" — when we found out she wasn't as innocent as we have come to expect from watching shows that aren't as well made as "Veronica." And it was a nifty way to tie up some storylines, while starting a new one for Wallace. But I set a high bar for "Veronica" and it didn't always reach it. The end suggested the FBI is all done with Veronica, when there seemed to be enough evidence to keep interrogating her as a witness if not as a suspect. And I hope that the settling of this story means that at some point we'll get back to the bus mystery.

"Earl" and "The Office" had good things. But I've also felt as if I'm trying to shake a bug today, and it seemed especially pronounced when I was watching TV. Have you noticed that, when you're even a little bit sick, TV feels slower? It's as if your brain has reduced the pace at which you receive images because you can't process them very quickly.

I checked on last week's "CSI" for a couple of reasons. One was that I wanted to see how scary-looking Faye Dunaway had gotten; she had looked bad when she did that WB reality series and I was hoping it was an aberration. No such luck. Age and what appears to be some cosmetic surgery have not been kind to her. In a strange way, though, the look fit her character; I think there's a real-life Vegas star who had a romantic connection to a mobster, and who in more recent years looked as overdone as Dunaway did on "CSI."

The other reason I watched was that this spring the bride and I are going to Las Vegas; she has been there before, while it's something I have just dreamed about for years. (The dream was very specific, too: Renting a convertible in L.A. and driving across the desert, hitting Las Vegas at night, with its lights a beacon out of the darkness.) So I have not only been reading up on modern-day Las Vegas — and watching cable specials about it — but thinking about the mythology I have accumulated from books and movies and shows like "CSI." Thursday's episode was awash in the mythology, from the lavish modern settings to the echoes of the city in the '60s. I'm really curious about how the real thing will measure up. For instance, will it look as startlingly colorful as "CSI" in HD?

I've started dipping into "CSI:NY's" first-season DVD, and I keep thinking that the box should have a big label saying "We're Not Like This Anymore."

That first season started with a blue color scheme and a lot of darkness — though less in actuality than what stuck in memory. CBS thought viewers found it too much of a downer so now, in the show's second season, the look is brighter, there's more sunlight and things move faster. If the first season was NYC as seen by its worst critics, the current season is something more tourist-friendly. Yes, some of the characters have an attitude bordering on rudeness, but that's part of the NYC of mass imagination, too: the swagger of someone certain he lives in the greatest city on earth and helps make it so. In other words, the attitude of a Yankees fan.

I'm more willing to give the new version some attention than I did the first-season model. The new one feels as if it is allowing me to use my escape time wisely. And as intense as the "CSI's" can be, they are fundamentally light entertainment. They may make you think a bit, but they're mostly there to give you a way to spend an hour that takes you out of your world but doesn't make you feel stupid for doing it.

Case in point: A recent episode of the original "CSI." It tracked two cases, one involving murder among Laotians, the other the death of "the next Brad Pitt." (His demise, as one character noted, instead made him "the next River Phoenix.") The serious subtext, underscored by the frequent use of split screen and by a nifty sequence moving up the floors in a casino, was that the huge economic and cultural divide between the characters still took them to the same place — a slab, and a CSI investigation.

But while that message was there, the reason to keep watching was the whodunnit, and the howdunnit, and the way the coolness of the investigators lets us have an emotional distance from the deaths onscreen. Yes, we occasionally get emotional reactions to cases — "CSI:NY" has had quite a bit lately — but we're still seeing everything through the eyes of people who deal with death daily. They have found a way to be emotionally removed, and then we are, too. And all that death is simply the basis for our amusement.

I suppose somewhere here I should talk more about "CSI: Miami," but I haven't watched it in some time. I'll probably catch an episode this season, since I try to watch some of every show on the air, but I won't do it eagerly. There have been some good things on "Miami," but they come in the context of David Caruso, a once-interesting actor reduced to a mannered stoicism.

Look at the "Miami" episode that set up "CSI:NY" and look at Caruso vs. "NY's" Gary Sinise in scenes. It's pretty clear who's doing the better job. In fact, I find myself watching "NY" and enjoying moments where Sinise is simply thinking. He's that interesting to watch.