It was definitely Steve DeKnight.

indeed. Ultimate Drew didn't join the staff until season 7, which seems hard to believe.

"Aim for the horsies"

meeeeeeeeeeemories...

I'm an IN Joss I Trust Enough To Give It A Fair Shot sort of Joss fan. Joss has a new series? I make grabby hands. I won't stay just because it's Joss, though. I agree that the premise sounds really, really icky, but I know that's sort of Joss's point. Eliza's character is all about awakening to exploitation. I expect Joss to manage the incoherent text well -- if I'm disappointed, I imagine it will be because of that expectation.

I'm with Cindy! (Also, HI!!! and [link]

I never watch any of the Law and Orders or CSIs so I guess I missed that.

I mean, does early (possibly mistaken) perceptions on subject matter turn people off to the point of not even giving it a shot even if the creator has made enjoyable stuff in the past?

I mostly decide whether to watch something new based on subject matter unless the creator is pointed out to me (here or in EW, basically. I don't seek out the information) - though once it's been pointed out, knowing that a new thing has so-and-so who also did Thing I Liked behind it is good for at least one watch.

That said, I'm less likely to be turned off by skeevy subject matter than to be just uninterested a premise. Dollhouse has an interesting premise.

I love BSG so Virtuality has me for at least 6 eps.

you're pretty generous. I give a new episode three tries. The pilot, if the premise still interests me at the end, because often things change between the pilot and the first ep. First ep, to see if they fixed the things that were wrong in the pilot. Second ep, because that's the most representative of how the rest of the season's going to go.

I think the first three eps are likely to be heavy on exposition, especially if the world of the show has rules that need to be explained (ie ghosts & monsters are real, inanimate objects talk, characters leap through time, etc). It the 4th or 5th episode before a show can just be what it is.

I agree with Vortex. By the third episode you can really get a sense for whether the show's going to be your cup of tea. If they haven't damped down the heavy exposition by the third hour 42 minutes, they probably have issues.

Occasionally, shows will fit in that gray zone where they aren't quite good enough, but I'm not ready to give up on them yet. Those shows will last a few episodes longer before I quit (e.g. Saving Grace), but if I let them linger too long I end up watching regularly albeit with morbid reluctance (e.g. Dirt).

Kristen, have there been strikes?

There was the one on House. There was the previously mentioned one on L&O, which BTW included a dramatic reenactment of Rene Balcer's real life picket line incident. There was at least one other but I seemed to have blocked it out now.

Supernatural had an episode that mentioned the actual writer's strike as part of the framing of the thing. Don't know if that counts, though.

I'll give Dollhouse a shot. Obviously, as I watch Supernatural weekly, I have a fairly high tolerance for skeevy gender issues.

I could only give The Wire two tries.