The television scene has been changing a lot in the past couple years, due in large part to the advances we’re seeing on the Internet. But program modeling has changed as well—many of the most linear and sequential shows have decided to forego repeats this year in favor of breaking the show into two “seasons,” a fall and a spring. Heroes, Veronica Mars, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, you name it. Thus, instead of one twenty-two episode series, we get two eleven-episode installments. While the idea of taking a two month break off from my favorite shows is irritating, it’s better than the old days, when one new episode might surface between the end of November sweeps and Christmas, interspersed with a host of reruns. Given the intensely serial nature of many of these series, it makes the shows easier to follow. And since you can always catch up on DVD or iTunes, there’s little point to rebroadcasting earlier episodes.

Either way, seeing as we’re about to hit this new “season” break, I thought I’d share my thoughts on the television offerings this year thus far. Follow along, if you dare, though I warn you: it does get messy.

Monday
How I Met Your Mother – In its second year, this show has earned its spot as one of only two network sitcoms I watch, thanks in large part to Neil Patrick Harris’s performance. The cast has gelled well and there’s just enough continuing storyline to keep me hooked to the next episode.

Heroes – By all accounts, the fan favorite of the year, and co-winner of my “can’t wait to see the next episode” award (tentatively dubbed “The Cannies”). Though its first few episodes were fairly predictable, its propensity for cliffhanger episode endings has gotten me hooked, along with Masi Oka’s standout role as Hiro, who somehow manages to handle everything thrown at him, from goofy to serious. The D.L./Niki plotline is still largely a snoozefest, but Claire’s storyline picked up decidedly after Bryan Fuller (Wonderfalls, Dead Like Me) took over the reins—most importantly, Mr. Bennet (aka Horn-Rimmed Glasses) has ceased to be merely the black-and-white “face of evil,” instead becoming a fully three-dimensional character in his own right. The recent episode dealing with the origins of Sylar was, I thought, one of the strongest so far, in part because it finally started answering some long-held questions, thus, hopefully, avoiding the attitude that have frustrated many fans of Lost.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip – If Heroes is this year’s fan favorite, Studio 60 was positioned to be the top earner on the critical side. Despite the creative talent of Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing, Sports Night) and an all-star cast featuring Bradley Whitford, Matthew Perry, and Amanda Peet, the show started off very slow. If I had to attribute one problem to the program’s first few episodes, it’s that it relied too much on telling us about the characters, rather than showing us the characters. Starting with the two-part “Nevada Day” episode, Studio 60 finally began coming into its own, and the last episode before the Christmas break set up a number of tantalizing plotlines to deal with in the latter half. The show has been picked up for a full season, and I think it will only continue to improve.

Tuesday
Veronica Mars – The transition from high school to college is a difficult one to make on TV. Buffy had problems with it, and so has pretty much every other high school-oriented drama. Veronica Mars is no exception thus far. Among its problems in its third season have been a decided lack of the supporting characters who have always been one of the show’s strongest points (though I’ve heard that one of the subsequent arcs this season will focus largely on Wallace and Mac). I hated the retooled theme song/opening credits at first, but it’s slowly grown on me as the season progresses. The conclusion of the first arc was solid, but not “gee whiz!” like the first and second seasons, and the setup for arc two seems to be quite solid. My only concern is that since UPN has decided to order only twenty episodes total, instead of the expected twenty-two, creator Rob Thomas is considering dropping the last arc in favor of standalone episodes. Hrm.

Wednesday
Lost – ABC’s flagship show has had a strong start in season three, terminating with an excellent cliffhanger. That said, a number of the characters have been given short shrift in this first arc, which has focused on Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Also (special inviso spoiler text follows) killing Mr. Eko was kind of a bummer. They must really hate those Tailies. A number of people I know disliked the second season, though I quite enjoyed it. I’ll be interested to see where season three goes.

Thursday
Scrubs – The other sitcom in my schedule is, to my mind, the best sitcom on television for the last several years. Having only seen two episodes of this season (reputedly its last—or at least, star Zach Braff’s last), there’s not much to say so far, but I hope they wrap up the show with aplomb.

Friday
Battlestar Galactica – After last year’s somewhat bland season, followed by an astonishing what-the-fuck? ending, B*G (as I am now legally obligated to call it) took the premise of the show and essentially flipped it on its head. Everything dealing with the occupation of New Caprica was fan-frakking-tastic, in my opinion, but since they’ve gotten back to the fleet, my enthusiasm has waned somewhat. The shows are still solid, but Gaius’s interactions with the Cylons have left me cold (despite the fact that he appears to be sleeping with two hot robots). By the end of the fall arc, it seems that they’ll be right back to where they were prior to the WTF scenario, the only casualty really being Tigh’s eye and his wife. We’ll see what next week’s fall season cliffhanger brings.

Supplementary Shows
British television seemed to me to have an exceptionally good year. Season five of Spooks (aka MI-5 in the US) continued its take-no-prisoners attitude, dealing in fascinating detail with the gradual breakdown of team leader Adam Carter; season two of Dr. Who may have lost Christopher Eccleston (who is rumored to be joining Heroes), but David Tennant has fully made the role of The Doctor his own; the BBC’s new Robin Hood series is light, but enjoyable, campy fun, bolstered largely by Keith Allen’s over-the-top performance as the Sheriff; Hustle had a par third season; Dr. Who spin-off (and anagram) Torchwood seems to be finally getting its act together, with a focus on much darker plot lines, and the personal relationships between the characters, though Captain Jack was more fun when he was traveling in the TARDIS; and the big winner of the year, for me, was Life on Mars, which managed to meld sci-fi, police procedural, psychological drama, and humor into one bell-bottomed package. Season two has some big shoes to fill.

On DVD, I’ve been watching The Wire—I’m about halfway through season three, which, while not as good as seasons one and two yet, is still among the best television seasons I’ve ever watched. Everything I hear about season four (which is just concluding now) is top marks, and I look forward to watching that soon.

I caught the first half of Psych‘s season and I enjoyed it a lot, though I’m not sure how long the show can survive on its admittedly charming wit alone. James Roday is a charismatic lead, and Dulé Hill an excellent straight man, but the show lacks the kind of continuing storylines that keep me riveted. We’ll see how the rest of season one goes.

The first half of Entourage‘s third season ended with a bang, as Vince’s showbiz life seemed to go belly up. The show remains escapist and fun, but if Jeremy Piven leaves, as some have seemed to suggest, I think it’ll pretty much die.

And arguably my favorite new show of the season (and “Canny” co-winner, along with Heroes), Kidnapped, merits a post all its own, having won my heart by being axed after episode five (the rest has been airing online on NBC.com, and I’ve been filling in the gaps with YouTube).

The only show I think I’ve left off the list is The Shield, which aired its fifth season in January. I haven’t had a chance to watch that yet, though it’s in the old Netflix queue.