I've watched a few episodes of each of the three new "Alien Invasion" type shows this season:

Threshold, Invasion and Surface.

A promo for Threshold quotes someone (I'm assuming a critic) who proclaims it's the best of the new shows of this type. I'm being narrow here and only including the three obvious ones.

What kind of bad crack has this person been smoking? I'd be surprised if the show lasts until January. I thought the other two shows would likely suck as well and thought Surface would likely be the worst of the three. In fact I think it's by far the best of the three with Invasion in second spot. I can't even put Threshold in the same league though because it just stinks so badly.

I'm sure all the Star Trek fans will try to hang on to this one - because of Brent Spiner's role in the show and one of its producers/writers, Brannon Braga. But it's just a loosely tossed together ride from set to set with hints of the X-Files, CSI and NCIS. Nothing new here. This one has been purged from my PVR.

Bruno

FWIW, most of the Star Trek cognoscenti, if you can call them that, roundly hate Brannon Braga for turning ST into a stink-fest. That said, I like and have liked all of the actors on the show (except for the squirrelly math guy, who I've never seen before, and lantern-jawed guy, who seems like every other lantern-jawed guy on every damned TV show this season) and have mostly enjoyed the show. Yeah, it's X-Files-like, but there was episodic TV with long term story long before the X-Files. For now, I'm happy to see monster-of-the-week stories. It honestly feels more like the Andromeda Strain to me. A bunch of scientists who don't really want to be there. I also like the seeming interest in touching on civil liberties.

Invasion I'm kind of luke-warm about. It seems, for one thing, too much like the last evil-sheriff show, American Gothic, which was also created by Shaun Cassidy (I wonder why he hates sheriffs so much) plus some Lost, minus some interesting. Also, I get the impression that the brunette lead character is pregnant. It may have to do with the fact that they make sure and tell us ten times every time she's in a scene. Plusses for this show include William Fichtner, who I've always liked, and the fact that the two female leads are hot. (Did you know that the brunette one is pregnant?) This one feels more like the X-Files to me because of what feels like a not-well-developed backstory. It feels thin at any rate.

Surface I haven't watched. It looks putrid. I feels like it should be some random teen drama on the WB.

So, once again, I think we're complete opposites. You probably hated this week's episode of Lost, too.

I liked this week's episode of Lost - I don't think there's been an episode I "disliked" (some are slower than others of course). Threshold stinks of low budget to me. And the story just isn't there to hold my interest. It's about the same as the show "Numbers" and not as good as NCIS. I watched tonight's episode from start to finish and it was a strain. There's just something very forced and cliche about the whole thing.

Like I said, I thought Surface would stink, but I've been pleasantly surprised. I was also quite surprised by Prison Break (I thought that one was going to be terrible based on early commercials/previews). It doesn't hurt that Surface also has a hot lead actress. Who isn't pregnant. The only WB-esque segments in the show are the ones surrounding the kid who's raising one of the water creatures as a "pet." There better be some payoff to that part of the story line down the road.

Maybe I'm leaning toward shows with a lot of location/outdoor shooting. They just feel more natural - even though the subject matter may be complete BS.

And I didn't expect everyone to agree with me. I was curious though. I thoroughly disliked Firefly, Buffy, Angel, the new Battlestar and a bunch of other shows I've seen many others say they quite enjoyed. Though I'll probaby give Serenity a shot and then decide if I'll try Firefly again on DVD.

Bruno

Oh man, my wife was watching invasion, and I was just sitting on the computer here listening to the dialogue. Oh man, that show needs to win an award for the worst rape of physics of any show on TV. I literally cringed more than 5 times.