If you haven’t seen USA Network’s The Dead Zone, you’re missing out. This series is of course based on Stephen King’s novel “The Dead Zone” (however loosely) and stars Anthony Michael Hall as Johnny Smith. Like most Stephen King works, it doesn’t completely translate to the screen, but Anthony Michael Hall looks great and is doing a great job with his character. The supporting cast is mostly forgettable, but the plots are relatively interesting. At least it breaks the monotony in a positively horrible summer television schedule.

I wonder what the TV schedule has in store for us in the fall. I wonder how many reality shows Fox can squeeze into their schedule, and I wonder how many shows will be cancelled halfway through the season to free up airtime for new reality shows. Do I sound bitter about Fox? Good, cause I am. They were never better than questionable but they really hit a low point last fall. As a Joss Whedon fan I’ll never forgive them for killing Firefly before its time even though I wasn’t enamored with the series. The only thing I will be happy for is the fact that since Buffy is no longer, I’ll never have to tune into bloody UPN again. What a miserable channel with a myriad of forgettable shows and talent. Blah. The highlight of the upcoming season will be the revamped Angel on The WB. Joss will be paying more attention to Angel so I expect the writing to be top notch this season. I don’t know what else will be worthy of my time. Even though it pains me, I am curious about the Rachel/Joey union on Friends. I always wanted Joey to get a good girl and anything that results in Ross getting screwed over is always amusing. But anyway, I babble. What are you guys looking forward to watching this fall? I know the pickins are slim with all the reality crap but there has to be something in prime time that’s worthy of a watch.

Out of sheer boredom, I decided to visit Stephen King’s site and to my amazement, he finally finished the Dark Tower Series. Three more books will be released starting later this year. The other four volumes are being re-released in hardcover (WOOHOO) and The Gunslinger has undergone an editorial facelift. If you want to know more about the facelift, visit www.stephenking.com and you’ll find a link to an interview he did with Amazon.

I’ve been obsessed with this particular series of books since I was 12 years old. I’ve got 14 years of my life invested in these books so I am both relieved and on edge that Mr. King has finished them. I’ll be delighted to finally see Roland find some peace (one way or another) but I’m hoping that this won’t be a let down. Books in a series, especially a series of such high acclaim and popularity, tend to get more and more overhyped as the series progresses. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time continues to degrade as each book comes out and it seems like he’s writing himself into a nice corner. The last book got a lot of attention and I still haven’t finished it because it’d make a better doorstop than a piece of literary entertainment. I hope that the Dark Tower series doesn’t degrade in the same manner. I’ve waited too long and read them too many times to suffer a let down of the magnitude of Matrix: Reloaded.