Programming notes

I have unsubstantiated plans to preview the new fall TV season in a future entry. Maybe next week, by which point some media source like Entertainment Weekly will actually print the schedules on a nice little grid. Then I can make cute little comments like "I think Thursday is going to be the new Wednesday, and Monday will be the new Thursday." Whatever that means.

But I'm not in the business of providing content whose sole purpose is promising future content.

1. I watched the 2-hour premiere of Prison Break last night. Once you suspend some disbelief -- there's no way the governor's daughter works as a doctor in a death row prison -- it can be quite fun and, um, escapist. Comparisons to 24 are apt; I can already tell from the first two episodes that this show is going to keep trying to top itself. It's always nice to see a show that tries to do anything.

2. I caught a rerun of Jeopardy! this morning that featured Max Corrick, a former law school classmate, as a contestant. He's not the first person I've known to appear on the show, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he, too, is a lawyer here in Las Vegas. (Unlike me, though, he is gainfully employed, here.) He had the (mis)fortune of making his appearance in the middle of Ken Jennings' remarkable run, but at least it was the episode where Ken broke $1 million. Though Max supplied a little drama of his own: he was stuck with a negative score and was a victim of Ken's quick draw technique until the very last clue, where he answered correctly ("Who is Willie Nelson?") and earned a berth into the final round. He was the only contestant to write the correct answer, but unfortunately it was not legible enough to be counted. Poor guy.