The CW's Tuesday line-up

I want to like the new regime over at Gilmore Girls. I really, really do.

But yet, tuning in last night I found my interest slowly waning over the course of the hour. I watched the show on videotape last night and there were moments I just desparately wanted to fast forward through, hoping that we'd get to something, anything happening. Or maybe we'd get to the part where the characters snapped out of it and started acting like themselves.

There were so many things happening here that just didn't make any sense. How did Luke go from three days earlier being totally in love with Lorelai to the scene in the grocery store where he casually dismisses their relationship as them not being "meant to be together" doesn't make one lick of sense. Oh sure, it could be the man trying to cover up the pain he's feeling, but it honestly felt more like one huge honkin' reset button being pushed. We're back now to where we were before season five with Luke and Lorelai unrequited but oh so cute in their banter. What's next? Rory goes back to Chilton because she didn't pass some minor class?

And while Kirk setting up an open air diner across the street was funny, the timeline again makes no sense. Does Kirk just have a million hair-brained schemes ready to go at any given moment and can easily have one come to fruition like this? And he got his liquor license in 24 hours?!? Come on now, Gilmore Girls. I know you've not been the most grounded in reality show to start with, but at least pretend like you're going to follow your own internal rules of storytelling and logic. Because it's things like this that take me completely out of the episode.

All of that plus the fact that you were just trying too hard with the pop culture references. The banter felt forced and didn't flow as well as it has in previous years.

Meanwhile, over on Veronica Mars, we had the best show the CW has showing why it's earned that title time and again. Mars is back and reinventing itself in a good way. The show is still rewarding to Veronica Mars geeks like myself who have been in the game since episode one but it is accessible enough that new fans can drop in and not feel too lost.

I saw this one on free MSN preview last week and loved it. I will give you the mystery of the week was kind of not the greatest, but the rest of the show was just sheer Veronica Mars genius that it didn't bother me as much as it normally would. The thing with this show is that it's all about the characters. Outside of Battlestar Galactica, there's not a show on TV where the character dynamics shift and change as much within not only a season but an episode. Watching how the characters constantly evolve and move foward, backward and sideways is a delight.

And then Veronica is able to throw is pop culture references and make it feel like part of the world that is Veroncia Mars, not just "oh look at how brilliant I am." For example, the genius incorporation of the word "frak" into the show's lexicon. Loved it.

Two shows on the CW, both of which should be flagship shows for the new network. One is earning that distinction and the other is fumbling it...badly.