It's one of those shows (like Dark Blue) that never made it onto a season pass but ate up time I needed desperately to pass when I was jobless. I hope to be employed when it comes back on air, so I'm not even tempted. He's...nice enough. But his appearance distracts me. He's not as goodlooking as the show insists.

I liked "Royal Pains" but I'm not sure why. I was entertained every week, but I couldn't stand the main romance - those two don't have a heckuva lot of chemistry.

I do not like Ray Romano, so I am avoiding that TNT show like the plague. The only thing that could possibly draw me in is if the show suddenly became a procedural and Ray Romano dies in the 1st or 2nd episode.

Unlike Vortex, I like that actor. Totally don't remember his name. Didn't he play Ally McBeal's bi sexual almost boyfriend? But I couldn't get into Royal Pains.

Mark something. Last name has a wierd spelling. Feurish?

Feuerstein.

The presence of a financial manager for a company makes sense, since the doctor brother has no financial concern whatsoever.

That motivation makes sense to me too. What does not make sense is the annoying brother tagging along on medical visits. Why the hell would he be there? There's no logical reason whatsover for him to be riding along on housecalls. Sitting back at the bungalow crunching numbers, fine. Maybe attending an occasional cocktail party and networking. But not going along while the doctor is treating people.

especially since he faints at the sight of blood. WTF?

But the doctor refuses to bill or talk money with anyone. He'd be running around for free if the brother didn't come along with contracts and bills.

Making the doctor like this might have been dumb, but they did.

Does anyone know anything about this new TNT show, with Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula? I like them both (so long as I ignore the existence of Enterprise), but the advertising makes it look kind of meh.

Heh. I did a focus group survey a few weeks ago on ads for that show--they had some stupid, "Guys, you know how hard yet wacky things are at this point in our lives, and the little lady and the rugrats aren't making it any easier, amirite?" ads, some abhorrent, "Ladies, those big overgrown boys you're sleeping with and raising teens with are just such big confused kids themselves, aren't they? Wanna understand them and have some laffs? Check us out!" ads, and some reasonably decent ads featuring actual dialogue, the voices of both male and female characters, and highlighting of Braugher's and Bakula's names.

So I voted good and hard for the third and told the surveyors that the first two were pretty near guaranteed to turn off not just me but most of the people I know, and we're all pretty sturdy Braugher and Bakula fans.

Did it work, or did they go with the awful ads, or did they go with the decent ones but it still sounds "meh"?

It still sounds meh, but . . . Andre Braugher! OTOH, Ray Romano (ptui! let us never speak of it again!)