I'm Back! And I Brought TV With Me!

So I’m back from vacation. (Yes, I was gone.) And better yet, TV is too, almost. Yes, it’s still staggering to its feet—last night we got servings of Million Dollar Password and the debut of Superstars of Dance—but this month sees the return, among others, of Damages, Scrubs, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Big Love and Flight of the Conchords. I’m even, well, curious about American Idol and its new judge.

Of course, I haven’t yet watched Item 1 on our list: Lost. ABC put it on their streaming press website last week; I got home from vacation and settled in to watch it New Year’s Eve. To discover that my password no longer worked. And that the ABC staff was out for a long weekend. (Hey, it’s not like I can complain about other people taking vacations.) I hope to see it sometime before season 6.

In the meantime, the new Big Love is captivating; the FOTC very funny (the scripts more so than the songs); Damages surprisingly suspenseful (I thought it would be a tall order starting from scratch on a new case); and the first BSG out-and-out mindblowing. (Wall-to-wall spoilerbait on that last one, so don’t bother asking for details.) I don’t even think I still hate Nip/Tuck now, though I want to see more episodes before taking it off probation.

Listen to TIME’s Fashion Week Playlist on Spotify!

It’s Fashion Week in New York City and Manhattan is crawling with eccentric designers, stylish socialites and hungry models looking for next season’s big trend. It seems that our invitation to Marc Jacobs’ show got lost in the mail, so to console ourselves we’ve put together a stylish Spotify playlist.

Bemused

I find myself really excited about Damages (and it’s interesting to see it getting very good reviews because I don’t remember that being the case last year, although the critics seem to act like they always loved it). I caught the two 10-minute backgrounders over the weekend–frankly, I could have used them at the end of the first season. There were definitely some twists and turns that I wasn’t sure about–probably because I tend to read the paper while I watch TV, and Damages require you to pay attention.

But I realized yesterday that that’s what I like about the show–it’s so different from other TV shows in that way.