So they did it again. Some brainiac TV exec has pulled the best new show on TV, The Black Donnellys. Together with Day Break and Kidnapped, I have no qualms about stating they were the best three shows of the past 5 years.

I'm glad the creators of Day break and Kidnapped had back-up plans and managed to wrap the story line in 13 episodes (which had to be downloaded). Though a bit rushed, they did a far better job than most shows have done when they start a season already knowing it's their last.

Does American TV cater to Americans? Is the majority of the TV-watching country really made up of people with such poor taste they consider "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?" entertainment?

So great TV gets axed and we're left with theusualy crap: The aforementioned game show, Deal or No Deal, Nanny 911, Supernanny, Trading Spouses, Wife Swap, The Apprentice, Dancing with the Stars, America's Top Model and equally annoying, stupid and completely numbing reality TV. There are of course bad serials and series as well. This years 24 is arguably the worst hour of series television of the year. The writing is just so horrid it gets painful to watch. The lead actor is even barely in the show - and he's practically the only reason to actually watch it.

24 is actually a show I've followed. Another that I started from the begining with is Prison Break, and this season has also been a complete clusterf&ck. Where do they hire these writers? We have 2 too many Law and Order shows on TV, 2 too many CSI, Shark should go, Jerico is a joke and even with a few more shows deserving of the axe, the prime time slot is actually pretty empty. So empty one has to wonder WHY these other shows are being canned.

Why does ABC run 3 episodes of the horribly unfunny According to Jim back to back? Yet they have two new comedies that are much funnier in the form of In Case of Emergency and The Knights of Prosperity that should be filling that night's slots. They keep pulling one and showing only the other or neither on some type of random schedule. NBC pulls My Name is Earl and The Office from the air for the past two months for who knows what reason.

The Black Donnellys would likely have been better served as an HBO show with added swearing and less concealed violence. The pattern I see is that all these shows I consider good and of high production quality (with generally stellar casts and superb acting) are quite different than anything else on TV. They're not the same Crime, Law or Hospital show.

Which leaves me surprised that Lost has stuck around and that Heroes has made it this far. And there's another braniac move. Take the show off the air for a month. That will certainly help with audience retention. The multi-month break almost killed Lost this season.