Midseason Premieres: CBS

For a long time now, CBS has been at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to quality TV. Unlike NBC, which invests in terrible shows with great potential, CBS mostly doesn't even try to make shows that can compete with cable in terms of acting, writing and direction. After all. CBS is the network to bring us CSI, the most brainless police procedural in the history of television. The network scored an unlikely hit in How I Met Your Mother, which is really just another formulaic sitcom that got lucky with a strong cast, and recently it's tried to class up its schedule with new shows like The Good Wife, but that can't change the fact that it also harbors Two and a Half Men and The Ghost Whisperer. The network will be premiering two new shows this spring, neither of which seem all that vital but both have the potential to be something worthwhile.

Arranged Marriage

We've all done this song and dance before. A major TV network announces that it will be airing a new reality show with a patently absurd, or even morally reprehensible premise and we all generate buzz for it by pretending to be disgusted and outraged. As far as I'm concerned, CBS's upcoming series Arranged Marriage could only be a fake, secretly scripted program in the first place, so I'm not put off by its themes. The point of the show is to document the lives of three couples of various ages whose marriages were pre-ordained by their friends and families. The catch is that all the couples are home-grown Americans, not people from cultures who actually have a tradition of matchmaking. The sheer improbability of finding six photogenic people who are not only willing to be arbitrarily paired off but also let someone film it for national television says to me that anyone tuning in for Arranged Marriage this spring should know that they're looking at actors. Still, like so many reality series, Arranged Marriage could be a curious reflection of our modern cultural values. It still probably won't be worth the ratings it gets, but at least someone's getting this inevitable premise out of the way.

The Bridge

I have one reason and one reason only to believe that CBS's umpteenth cop drama The Bridge will be not only worth watching, but possibly even vital: It stars Aaron Douglas, the actor who played Galen "Chief" Tyrol on Syfy (nee Sci Fi) Channel's Battlestar Galactica. The title of the series refers to the bridge between two sections of town that Douglas's cop patrols. One side is the requisite poor part of the city where drug deals, thefts and murders happen, the other is the nice part of town where the higher-ups in the police department and local politicians are hopelessly corrupt. Douglas has proven his impressive range and especially his ability to be believably intense, so a paranoid crime drama resting on his shoulders might actually be really good. It's also worth noting that, for all the cop shows on TV, few of them even touch the theme of internal corruption and none of them do so with an eye toward verisimilitude. Previews for The Bridge look promising, so of all the new series to premiere this spring, it may just be top dog.

As for returning shows, Rules of Engagement came back this week and The Bridge's fellow Canadian import Flashpoint will be heading south again around the same time The Bridge premieres, likely trying to repeat last year's success with summer time slots.