“Six Degrees” (Thursdays, ABC): There are these six strangers, see, and they all live in New York, and they don’t know each other at first but their lives sort of intersect. And then some of them meet each other. And, um, stuff happens. This is essentially a Generic TV Drama with no premise. It’s not about a particular family or business or place. It’s about six people who sort of know each other, and the things that happen in their lives. I like Hope Davis and Campbell Scott and would watch them in almost anything. But this show is boring. TiVo verdict: zzzzzzzknkk- Wha? Huh? What happened?
“Runaway” (Mondays, The CW): One of the new CW network’s few brand-new series is this drama in which a man is wrongfully accused of murder and goes on the lam — taking his wife and three children with him. They arrive in a small Iowa town in the pilot episode, with new names for everyone and fake backstories to throw off curious locals, while the FBI scours the country looking for them. The idea of a family version of “The Fugitive” is interesting, and I like the characters well enough. (Donnie Wahlberg and Leslie Hope — Jack Bauer’s wife on “24” — are the parents.) But I don’t really BUY it. Jumping bail and fleeing the jurisdiction are not things innocent people do, and bringing the wife and kids along seems even more dubious. How long can this go on? They’re apparently going to be in this Iowa town at least for a little while. So what will happen? Every week someone will ALMOST find out who they are, and then not? TiVo verdict: It’s a nice show. I won’t personally be committing myself to it, but you might give it a whirl if you have room in your schedule.
“The Game” (Sundays, The CW): Another new show on The CW. It’s a sitcom about the wives and girlfriends of the players for a fictional NFL team. I watched for 10 minutes before realizing that I’d known within five minutes that it wasn’t any good. TiVo verdict: If you love “Girlfriends” and other crappy “urban” sitcoms left over from UPN, then this is the show for you.
