If you like blood, then I have something especially for you. Dexter (Sundays at 9 PM on CBS) may be the best thing to air on network television this year. It did so only because of the now-settled writer's strike and had already aired on cable movie channel Showtime and I see that as a blessing.

I never thought I'd write those two names and have something good to say about the has-been songstress but when I heard about the former mousekateer appearing on a legitimate TV show I was amused. Or maybe impressed. Mostly curious. But somewhat depressed too.

It's official. The Writers Guild of America has settled their strike and is officially back to work today.

That is good news for couch potatoes everywhere but it won't mean immediate relief from the deluge of so-called reality fare that currently makes up the bulk of the primetime television schedule.

As always in the darkest of times, there is some light.

Golly gee, TV just continues to sink further into the depths of mediocrity this year. Whether it's the fact that people actually tune in to the mindless drivel geared towards unemployed teens living vicariously through the unemployed college-age folks who all seem to get the fifteen minutes of fame on the "reality" fare that MTV programs ad-nauseum or the fact that CBS's summertime "juggernaut" "Big Brother" is making a much needed winter appearance, we are in a period I will coin as "The Dark Times".