As I sit on my couch being happily mesmerized by the Summer Olympics in Athens, I know they won’t last forever, much as I might wish that to be the case. So, once the closing ceremonies are over and the flame has been extinguished, what’s a girl to do? I have too many years of centering my television viewing schedule around ANGEL and BUFFY. It just became habit, I suppose. Sure, I have my DVDs of both shows and of FIREFLY handy, and I’ll be first in line to pick up producer Tim Minear’s WONDERFALLS when all thirteen episodes are released on DVD in December, but what’s left to watch on television now?

Luckily, television might not be a complete wasteland this season.

ALIAS (ABC) - This emmy-nominated show won’t return until January of 2005, but it will indeed be back with (mostly) uninterrupted episodes and with the extra added bonus of Jeffrey Bell and Drew Goddard, both formerly of the ANGEL staff, on board as writers. ALIAS is one of the few bastions of complex, season-long arcs in this age of unending reality television, and it is a welcome reminder that a good cliffhanger or plot twist is still a thing of beauty even while it makes us scream in frustration. Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is queen of the butt-kicking roost in these post-BUFFY days, and the show is just plain fun to watch.

DEAD LIKE ME (Showtime) - Don’t have Showtime? That’s no excuse. Grab the DVDs of the first season or mooch off of your Showtime-having friends like I do. The second season has already started, but don’t let that dissuade you from getting sucked into this very well-written show with an incredible ensemble. It might seem odd that a program about Grim Reapers should be so entertaining, but when you think about it, what is more human than death? The Grim Reapers that we follow in DEAD LIKE ME were once regular people who have to forge new undead lives, but the show also deals with the people that are left behind. DEAD LIKE ME is a show about living your life. It is one of the best things going on television right now, and you’ll never look at a Post-It quite the same way again.

LOST (ABC) - I watched the pilot episode at Comic-Con in San Diego last month and was impressed, and not just by the sheer volume of the Dominic Monaghan fangirls that were present. Created by J.J. Abrams (ALIAS), this new show also stars Matthew Fox (PARTY OF FIVE) and many others, and it has the added benefit of former BUFFY and ANGEL producer David Fury serving on the staff. The premise? A plane crash-lands on an island with little hope of rescue, and something sinister is out there. Scary. They’ve been clear that the "something" isn’t a dinosaur, which was a huge relief, as I personally didn’t want to tune into what would amount to Jurassic Park: The Series. Considering the people involved both behind and in front of the camera, I’m quite optimistic about this new show. The downside? As of this writing, it’s slated to air against...

SMALLVILLE (WB) - Admittedly, the main reason that I’ve tuned in to this show lately was because it was the lead-in to ANGEL on Wednesday nights. Will I keep watching, even without a certain souled vampire’s show following it? Probably. The season finale was engrossing, former ANGEL writer Stephen DeKnight has joined the writing staff, but mostly, I tune in to watch the Luthor clan. Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex and John Glover’s Lionel create the main reason to check out SMALLVILLE, and the development of Lex Luthor from pal to adversary is fascinating. Lois Lane will be in the mix this season, which strikes me as odd. On the other hand, there’s only so much we can take of Clark and Lana making googly-eyes at each other. The bad news is that it will be up against LOST in its Wednesday time slot, and this might be the show to tape while the other is on. Thank goodness for modern technology.

TRU CALLING (Fox) - Somehow, this show made it to a second season. I watched a preview of the pilot last summer and was unimpressed, although at the time I was still a bit miffed that Eliza Dushku wasn’t doing a "Faith" spin-off. I’m petty. Then I watched the show when it began to air and continued being unimpressed with the show as it started to get off the ground. The structure was a little repetitious: have a bad day, a body talks to you, you go back in time and save them from certain death and fix what went wrong in your day at the same time, lather, rinse, repeat. But I have to say that it did improve, and the addition of adversary Jack (Jason Preistly) is a big part of that. He’s coming across as the bad guy, but you have to admit that the character has a valid point about what’s happening here. Tru is messing with fate when she goes back in time to change events. Isn’t that usually considered a very bad thing? I’ll be tuning in this season, both to see how this progresses, and also because former BUFFY writer Jane Espenson is now on staff.

It looks like I will have a few reasons to continue vegging out in front of the television after the Summer Olympics. Either that, or I’ll just camp out outside a nearby theater until April when SERENITY is released so that I can see FIREFLY on the big screen.