Extra: What We're Watching but Not Covering

The coverage schedule on TV World is pretty heavy as it is and it'll probably take on at least a couple more shows in the next few months. That said, November is sweeps month when TV networks push all of their top-rated or most promising shows to viewers and advertisers looking for the biggest response. As a result, a few critically acclaimed but viewer-deficient programs will be warming the bench for the month, among them the quite likely doomed Dollhouse. Still, there are a number of good shows that will be getting a boost from their networks that, while they aren't getting weekly coverage on this blog, are still worth watching. Here are a few shows on the personal docket that haven't quite made the weekly coverage cut.

White Collar (USA, Friday)

In the past couple years, USA Network has significantly improved its overall image with a few really excellent shows. Burn Notice, if you haven't watched it yet, begs for a DVD-fueled weekend binge and the new detective-with-a-twist dramedy White Collar is brimming with promise. Matt Bomer brings a dangerous amount of charm to the role of Neal Caffrey, a con artist who strikes a deal with an sincere FBI agent played by the always awesome Tim DeKay in exchange for a little freedom. Caffrey helps agent Peter Burke in the white collar crime division take down some seriously nasty criminals while he serves the remainder of his four-year prison sentence on the outside with a tracker strapped to his ankle. The clever and frequently illegal con artistry is a fresh spin on the police procedural and I think Bomer and DeKay have the potential for some real buddy chemistry. We'll see where this one goes.

FlashForward (ABC, Thursday)

I missed the boat (or plane, as it were) when it came to ABC's notoriously twisty thriller Lost, so I decided to give its ostensible replacement FlashForward a chance. The show centers around a cast that is maybe too talented for its network and premise as they navigate the unique science fiction premise of Robert J. Sawyer's novel. One day, practically every person across the globe passed out for two minutes and seventeen seconds, during which they all had visions of the exact same date and time six months in the future. Naturally, a wide variety of catastrophes result as planes fall out of the air, whole highways wreck and everything temporarily goes to hell with the whole world asleep at the wheel. It takes very little time for a shadowy conspiracy to pop up surrounding the blackout and a special FBI task force to start the investigation. While not without its clunky scripts and head-scratching directorial decisions, FlashForward is still an entertaining show supported by a team of some of today's finest TV actors.

Modern Family (ABC, Wednesday)

ABC's latest and greatest comedy is something of a natural evolution of the American sitcom. Thanks to the unqualified success of the American adaptation of The Office the single-camera mockumentary has proven itself to be the standard for smart, irrevererent shows. But there's also a fair amount of Arrested Development in Modern Family as well. An multi-generational ensemble cast of newbies and TV veterans delivers a healthy dose of street-level but never mundane absurdity. Five episodes in and Modern Family has kept up its quality, so now NBC is no longer the undisputed king of comedy for the 2009-2010 season.