You have to admit, we’re living in a brave new world when it comes to television. Between all the original programming on cable, and the quick DVD turnaround for collected episodes of just about every television series on the air, there’s ALWAYS something new to watch. Gone are the days of viewers being bored out of their skulls during the summer, while waiting for their favorite network shows to return. Most viewers even prefer the cable shows to anything the major networks have to offer. It’s all the lovely cursing and profile nudity! Nothing says “edgy” like PG-13 level cursing a little side-boob. But even with all that in mind, I can’t help but be a little excited for the fall television season. The success of shows like Heroes and Lost continue to influence the shows we’re starting to see more and more on the big networks, and I couldn’t be happier. Cop and medical dramas are a dime a dozen, so if it ain’t Law & Order: SVU or House, I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about it. So what new show is going to be this season’s Heroes or Lost? What new shows are going to be big hits for genre programming?

NBC

Bionic Woman: Can I assume that some of us have at least seen repeats if the original Lindsay Wagner series? Was I the only one who caught the team-up movie with her, The Six Million-Dollar Man, and a pre-Speed Sandra Bullock from the early 90s? In any event, the new show revolves around a young bartender named Jaime Sommers, who survives a horrific car crash only to be enhanced with bionic technology from a secret government agency.

Why I’ll Be Watching: First and foremost, I’m a sucker for female ass-kickers, plain and simple. To elaborate, the show has the team responsible for the revamped version of Battlestar Galactica, easily one of the best shows on television, sci-fi or otherwise. I’m looking forward to a strong balance between the sci-fi/action elements, and character-driven drama. Speaking of Battlestar, Katee Sackhoff will be appearing as an “evil” Bionic Woman. I’m working up a serious “Homer drool” as I write this.

Chuck: A computer geek is recruited to be a spy after all of America’s intelligence information is mistakenly downloaded into his brain.

Why I’m On The Fence: Jake 2.0 meets Johnny Mnemonic. Two concepts I didn’t necessarily care for to begin with, amalgamated to create a sitcom, in a day and age when creating a sitcom that’s actually good is increasingly difficult. To be fair, NBC’s been reliving their late 80s/early 90s heydays with the success of shows like The Office and My Name is Earl. And even with as great as those shows are, according to the people who watch them regularly, I’m not one of those people. I’ll catch an episode here and there, but that’s it. I fear this will be the fate of Chuck, especially when scheduled against Prison Break, as I have no choice but to watch it religiously, to know what the schmackus is going on.

Journeyman: Dan Vasser finds himself inexplicably traveling back in time, and possibly affecting the present should he so choose. The prospect of changing the past becomes even more tempting when faced with the opportunity to save the live of his former fiancée, who died in a plane crash ten years earlier.

Why I’ll Be Watching: The whole what-if aspect and the morality tales that have spawned from the idea of time travel have always intrigued me. Granted, the execution of this concept is usually not without glaring flaws, but it’s so fluid and open to interpretation, that you eventually just stop over-thinking it. In the case of Journeyman, specifically, I’m intrigued by the idea that he seems to have no real control over these time jumps. It’s just something that happens, and it’ll be interesting to see how he deals with that. Is he ever going to jump to a place and time where he encounters his younger self? Will there be a paradox that destroys the whole universe, as theorized by Doc Brown in Back to the Future? Will both him and his other self melt into a screaming mass of goo, like Ron Silver in Timecop?!? Who knows?!

ABC

Caveman: Inspired by the Geico commercials, a group of Neanderthals, living in present day, try to prove to the rest of us homo sapiens that they’re not just a bunch of. . . . .Neanderthals.

Why I Won’t Be Watching: You have to ask?!? Okay, maybe I’m being a little unfair, but is it so hard to just let certain things be? Yes, the Geico caveman commercials are great. My father finds them positively hilarious. But do we really want to stretch out these 30-second nuggets of comedy gold into a weekly sitcom? That’s like saying, “Hey, let’s build a house on toothpick stilts, below sea level!” Man, the pilots for Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Football Wives must have really sucked if this is what ABC decided to greenlight.

Pushing Daisies: A man who can bring the dead back to life by touching them, solves murders by bringing the victims back to life and asking who killed them. Touching them again returns them to the great beyond. This poses a problem when he brings back his childhood sweetheart, and the only way she’ll stay alive is if he never touches her again.

Why I’ll Be Watching: Series creator Bryan Fuller was also responsible for Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls, two shows that were way ahead of their time, and were cancelled far too soon. Plus, this has Chi McBride! The man’s been on fire since they cancelled The Journal of Desmond Pfieffer!!

CBS

Babylon Fields: Citizens try to re-adjust after their town is overrun by zombies.

Why I’m On The Fence: First and foremost, I don’t really watch anything on CBS. I’m sure they have some great shows, but I just have no interest in finding out about them. Plus, I kind of boycotted the network after they cancelled the brilliant sci-fi/spy show, Now and Again. On the other hand, I’m interesting in seeing how the show plans to balance drama and comedy with a zombie epidemic as the backdrop.

Moonlight: Stop me, stop me, oh stop me! Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before; A vampire out to do good works as a private detective in a big city. (Just for the record, I don’t normally reference The Smiths, so don’t get used to it!)

Why I’m On The Fence: While the more casual television viewer will most likely draw comparisons to Angel, I’m gonna dig down into my inner geek and bring up Forever Knight. For my money, it’s a lot more straightforward and adult in terms of concept and execution than Angel. And despite the lovely ambiguity of Angel’s finale (which is gonna be nullified by the upcoming “season six” comic, anyway), Forever Knight’s ending is as poignant as it is positively soul-crushing, and easily one of my favorite series finales of all-time. Between these two great, and dare I say, ground-breaking shows, I can’t help but wonder what Moonlight can bring to the table that we haven’t already seen before.

CW

Reaper: A lot of kids grow up blaming their parents for screwing up their lives. But at least their parents never sold their souls to Satan against their will. Such is the case for Sam, who discovers on his 21st birthday, that his parents have done just that. To save his soul from eternal damnation, he’ll have to become Satan’s bounty hunter, capturing escaped souls from Hell.

Why I’ll Give It A Chance: While the potential for comedy is definitely there, I can’t help but be reminded of a show Fox had, and completely screwed the pooch on a while back, Brimstone. It was basically the same premise, but without the comedy. Seeing that show fail really broke my heart, and I can’t help but feel like wanting Reaper to fail out of pure spite. To say nothing of the fact that I just can’t see Ray Wise doing even half as good as John Glover when it comes to playing Satan. However, should it work as a comedy, I’m willing to stick with it. Plus, I’ve got a teeny tiny crush on Missy Peregrym (Heroes, Stick It).