It’s December rerun season, which meant that last night was time for me to rediscover the fact that NBC programs TV shows on Monday night. Having fallen out of touch with Heroes—which from a casual viewing seems to have evolved into some kind of quasi-Carnivale with T-Bag from Prison Break—it’s probably not fair for me to judge; maybe the show’s made some kind of renaissance I haven’t invested the time to notice, but you’ll have to prove that to me.
A more interesting case is Trauma, still hanging on at 9 p.m. I don’t think Trauma is bad, exactly, but it does a remarkable job of looking, on the surface, like a much better show than it is. It also boasts what may well be the highest quality-of-soundtrack-to-quality-of-show ratio on network television: last night, for instance, a goofy subplot about a missing helicopter[!] was scored to the guitar intro from The Dead Kennedys’ Holiday in Cambodia. I’m not sure that I want to watch Trauma, but I don’t mind listening to it. Any other shows out there with surprisingly good soundtracks?