Winter Watching

Cold weather got you inside? Think all your favorite shows are in repeats? Not so. Here are some new, returning, and still-going shows you can look forward to this winter.

CABLE DRAMA:

The Wire. HBO, Sundays

Lauded across the board as one of the best TV series ever, The Wire returns to take on the press. David Simon and his team bring us back to the mean streets of Baltimore and his searing look into what’s wrong with America’s big city systems in a town where there’s a blurred line between right and wrong.

Nip/Tuck

FX’s most kinky bad boys Sean and Christian have moved to L.A. with Julia (and a new girlfriend…) following behind. Matt is in all kinds of trouble (and bandages….) and rumor has it a major character is destined to die.

COMIC MYSTERIES OF USA:

Monk

Tony Shaloub returns as USA’s OCD detective who solves San Fransisco’s biggest crimes. New episodes begin in January.

Psych

Sean and O’Hara? When the season ended last summer, or the half-season, we were left wondering if the fake psychic detective was going to get together with a real one. Gus is back, too.

WOMEN AT WORK, AND PLAY

Cashmere Mafia.

Lucy Liu is part of a cast of women juggling careers, love lives, yadda yadda yadda

Lipstick Jungle

Brooke Shields is part of a cast of women juggling careers, love lives, yadda yadda.

HEADING TO THE FINISH LINE AND DOWN THE RUNWAY:

The Amazing Race

The number of competitors dwindles down each week as the worldwide trek counts down to the finale. A grandson and grandfather; a hippy couple; a father and daughter and two bickering daters. Who will be the first to cross TV’s most interesting finish line?

Project Runway

Heidi and Tim are back for another season of having designers make dresses out of weird stuff as they bicker amongst themselves. Who will win this year’s Elle spread? And will someone finally bitchslap Nina Garcia? Just kidding, Nina…

AND OF COURSE…..

American Idol.

It barely needs mentioning. The ratings juggernaut that has everyone talking (or mocking) is back this year to save Fox’s ratings for the fifth or sixth or seventeenth season. We lost track somewhere around Rueben and Clay…