Buffy/Angel Fans Beware---Ripoff Alert! Ripoff Alert!!

For anyone who watches much television (guilty at some points), this week and the ones around it are very important weeks. This is the time for all the new shows to premier. Either new seasons of our old favorites, or totally new shows. This week, we enjoyed premiers of season two of "Heroes," season three of "How I Met Your Mother," a new season of "House," a new season of "Bones," and last night (thanks to the miracle of DVR), a brand new show called "Moonlight." Not "Moonlighting." That one died when Dave and Maddie finally got together. Which brings to mind a very important rule in television shows. NEVER (hear me?) EVER let the two main characters make that connection. It ruins the show. Let it stay just at the edge of what we all know could happen. Never cross that line. It makes for better tension and occasional comic relief in the show.

Okay, that said...the best of the returning premiers was far and above "House." He has fired all of his team at the end of last season (at least the ones who didn't quit), so he is all "Alone," which is the title of the premier. House can't function without someone to bounce ideas off of, so his boss and associate docter are begging him to hire a team. Meanwhile, he bounces ideas off of the janitor, going to the extreme of suiting him up in a white jacket and stethoscope. Wackiness ensues. He won't leave Cutty alone, and Miller kidnaps House's Gibson Flying V guitar. It's great.

"Heroes" was pretty good. Hiro has transported himself back to the 17th century and comes face to face with his own personal hero, the guy with the sword that he stole in the present day. Imagine his surprise when his "hero" from all the Japanese legends turns out to be an Englishman (David Anders--"Alias" fans will recognize him immediately as the infamous Sark) who fights dirty and really isn't very honorable at all. Claire and her family have relocated from Texas to some little town in California, and she is instructed to act normal. We'll see how long that lasts.

"How I Met Your Mother" was pretty much more of the same. Not that that's bad. It was pretty good, and surprise guest star Mandy Moore starred as a kind of biker chick. That was weird.

"Bones" was also good. We love the tension between David Boreanaz and Deschanel. They are a great team, and their forensic team at the "Jeffersonian" institute is complete. Hodgins and Angela are trying to track down the guy that she is allegedly married to, which interrupted their nuptials at the end of the last season.

Ok. Now to the last one. "Moonlight" premiered Friday night and we watched it last night. This is a brand new show, featuring a vampire in L.A. who fights crime. Ok, now, let's put our thinking caps on, boys and girls. Where have we ever heard that idea before? I'll give you a second.

Who said "Angel?" Did someone say "Angel?" Bingo! You get a cookie!

This show is one of the biggest ripoffs I have ever seen in my life!! I'll admit I liked it ok, I mean it was entertaining and all, but...C'MON!! Someone has spent a little too much time in "Whedonverse" to be trying to write an original tv show. They even had "Dracula" from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 5 premier, "Buffy Vs. Dracula." And guess what...he played a vampire. Or at least a vampire wannabe. Aaaaand...the plot of the premier involved a cult of people who kind of worshipped the concept of vampirism. Hm....lessee they never did that in Buffy, did they?? Hmm??

The premier also featured a guy named Kevin Weisman, whom "Alias" fans all love to death as the adorable geekster named Marshall. He plays a camerman to Beth's reporting.

The show might actually make it. I don't know. But it is truly a humongous ripoff. We could still have Angel. It would have been better, because, well...Joss Whedon, you know? 'Nuf said.

The one premier that I recorded but have yet to watch is Stargate Atlantis. I'm going to try to watch that this season because I found out Jewell Staite is in it (she played Kaylee in Firefly/Serenity).

TTFN, y'all!