TV Week in review: A Bare Chest, Some Pills, and an Affair

There weren't that many surprises this week on primetime television. Other than the parade of Halloween-themed episodes (some already aired and some show next week), it was pretty much status quo.

So in honor of the weeks we have to wait until tv sweeps begin, I would like to present the Top 5 Non-Surprises of the past week:

1) Bret Harrison took his shirt off again on "Reaper." That makes a show of skin in every episode thus far. By now I'm not surprised, but I'm still certainly very happy.

2) Hunky vet Justin is addicted to pain killers on "Brothers & Sisters." None of us saw that coming. None of us. Not when we knew he'd overcome addiction last season. Not when he begged to forego pain medication for his war injury. Not when he was left alone with the bottle of pills. Not when we started to fall asleep as this storyline creep on and on and on and on…

3) Ellen made fun of the whole crying over the dog fiasco. And by make fun, I mean she tried to sweep it under the carpet by poking fun at herself. But not really, because that would mean actually addressing the issue. Those mad skills of laughing-and-skirting-around-the-real-issue could work well for her as President of the United States one day. Just ask Bush.

4) Elizabeth Reaser's character Ava came back to "Grey's Anatomy" to surprise her studmuffin Alex. Of course we’ve been teased about this for weeks and it was all over TV Guide. Oh yeah, did I mention that all the residents found out about George and Izzie’s affair?!? What a complete shocker! Just kidding...yawn.

5) And last but not least, "Viva Laughlin" was canceled after only two episodes. Even with the damn fine hotness that is Eric Winter, the show just couldn't cut the mustard for more than a week. But let's be honest, you know you're in trouble if television critics reference "Cop Rock" every time they talk about your show.

So to wrap up...though this television season is fairing pretty well so far, not that much made me jump up and down this week--either in frustration or joy. For me it was mostly kind of ho-hum. But there were a few exceptions: Kristen Bell finally showed up on "Heroes" to bring a bit of life into this season (let's have a moment of silence for the passing of "Veronica Mars") and "Pushing Daisies" got Kristin Chenoweth to belt out another song--though far too abbreviated--and had Swoosie Kurtz use a bedazzler to attach a wing to a pigeon. The bedazzler plot point, my friends, is sheer television genius.