standoff

• At 8, ABC has A Charlie Brown Christmas (and it's not even December yet), followed by the premiere of Big Day, and new episodes of Help Me Help You and Boston Legal.
• CBS has a new NCIS at 8, followed by new episodes of The Unit and 3 Lbs.
• NBC has new eps of Friday Night Lights, Law and Order: CI and Law and Order: SVU.
• There's a new Standoff on FOX at 8, then a new House.
• The CW has a new Gilmore Girls at 8, followed by a new Veronica Mars.
• ABC Family has Bill Murray in Scrooged at 8.
• At 9, USA has the new movie The Great American Christmas.
• There's a new Road Tasted on Food Network at 9, with holiday gift ideas.
• At 10, FX has a new Nip/Tuck.
• TBS has the premiere of My Boys at 10 (another new episode airs at 10:30).

• At 8, ABC has a new Dancing with the Stars, followed by the premiere of the new William Shatner game show, Show Me The Money.
• CBS has a new NCIS at 8, followed by a new episode of The Unit and the premiere of 3 LBS.
• NBC has new eps of Friday Night Lights, Law and Order: CI, and Law and Order: SVU.
• There's a new Standoff on FOX at 8, followed by a new House.
• The CW has new episodes of Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars.
• PBS has a new Nova at 8, then a new Frontline.
• TLC has a new Overhaulin' at 8.
• At 9, Food Network has the holiday special Ham on Turkey.
• At 10, FX has a new Nip/Tuck.
• There's a new ECW on Sci-Fi at 10.
• At 10:30, Food Network has a new episode of The Hungry Detective.

You might have noticed that I didn't review last night's episode of Standoff. It's not because of election coverage. I'm just super bored with the show. Here's why.

1. It's like Mad Libs. Seriously, all you have to do is fill in the blanks with each episode's set up, confrontaion, and resolution. The two hostage negotiators are called in, Matt gets on the phone, Emily figures out what's going on in the hostage-taker's life that would make him do this, Frank wants to shoot them instead of talk to them, Matt and Emily banter about their relationship, their boss stands around and looks concerned, and then Matt or Emily talks the person out of doing anything else. Noun-adjective-adverb. Yawn.

• At 8, ABC has a new Dancing with the Stars, followed by new episodes of Help Me Help You and Boston Legal.
• CBS has a new NCIS at 8, followed by a new episode of The Unit, then a repeat CSI: NY.
• NBC has a repeat Friday Night Lights at 8, then new eps of Law and Order: CI and Law and Order: SVU.
• FOX has a new Standoff at 8 and then a new House.
• Over on The CW, a repeat Gilmore Girls a new Veronica Mars.
• PBS has a new Nova at 8, then a new Frontline.
• ABC has The Sixth Sense at 8.
• AMC is showing a bunch of Halloween films as part of their Monsterfest.
• Emeril cooks up Halloween treats on a repeat Emeril Live, on Food Network at 8.
• Cartoon Network has a bunch of Halloween-themed shows tonight, including Scary Godmother: The Revenge of Jimmy, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Ed, Edd, 'n Eddy, Camp Lazlo, and The Life and Times of Juniper Lee.
• TV Land has a Halloween Little House on the Prairie at 8.
• At 9, TLC has a new Overhaulin' at 8, followed by a new Miami Ink.
• Bravo has Even Scarier Movie Moments at 9.
• HGTV has a scary 25 Biggest Decorating Mistakes at 9.
• There are two new eps of The World Series of Poker at 9, on ESPN.
• At 10, FX has a new Nip/Tuck.
• Also at 10: A&E has a new Criss Angel Mindfreak, then the Halloween special, then another episode.
• On Lifetime at 11, two Halloween eps of Will & Grace.

It's Halloween, and even though I'm going to be handing out Halloween candy all night (translation: I haven't gotten a trick or treater in 10 years so I'll be eating all the candy myself as I sit on the couch), I'm going to find some time for TV watching.

I think I'll start off with something funny, so I'll put in that NewsRadio episode where Jimmy doesn't want to invite the WNYX gang to the annual Halloween party because nobody (except Matthew, of course) gets into the spirit. Then after that I'm thinking of watching either Fright Night or the original Night Stalker movie with Darren McGavin. Oh, and there's a new Criss Angel Mindfreak that might be worth checking out.

Of course, I have to squeeze in Standoff in there (new time, 8pm), since I'm reviewing it, but am I the only one who is losing patience with this show?

What is everyone else watching tonight?

(S01E04) I hate it when TV shows or movies are really "predictable" in how "unpredictable" they are. Case in point, tonight's Standoff. Have I just been watching too much television the past 40 years or were the two "twists" at the start of this episode pretty easy to guess? Yeah, it was kinda obvious that the first team assault on the house was just a training exercise, and it was equally obvious that the girl was in on the bank thefts with the serial bank robber, just wearing different wigs.

That's not to say that there are worse ways to kill an hour than watching Standoff. This was actually the best episode so far.

• At 8, FOX has a new House, followed by a new Standoff.
• ABC has a new 90 minute Dancing With The Stars at 8, followed by the series premiere of Help Me, Help You and a new Boston Legal.
• CBS has a new NCIS at 8, followed by new eps of The Unit and Smith.
• NBC repeats the Heroes premiere at 8, followed by new episodes of Law and Order: CI and SVU.
• There's a new Gilmore Girls on The CW at 8, followed by a repeat of the Runaway debut.
• ESPN has two new episodes of The World Series of Poker at 8.
• At 9, Sci-Fi has a new Eureka, followed by a new ECW.
• Dog The Bounty Hunter and his wife speak on A&E at 9 about his arrest. It's followed by two new episodes of Inked.
• At 10, FX has a new Nip/Tuck.

The new FOX hostage negotiation drama Standoff has stopped production for a week, but not because the show is being shelved. It's actually a "writer's break," so they can get caught up (since they start the new season before the other networks) and new consulting producer Tim Minear comes on board to help out.

So, those of you who had Standoff in our contest can stop jumping up and down now and go back to watching television.

(S01E03) There were two great things about this third episode of Standoff. One was a joke at the start of the show, when Matt says to Emily that he "feels like Lindsay Lohan," and Emily replies "oh come on, you're not that drunk." Matt was actually talking about everyone looking at him.

The second great thing about the episode was the commercial for a new Victoria's Secret bra. Something called the "Infinity Edge" bra. Awesome commercial. The rest of this episode? Meh.