"Dallas meets The OC," you said?

The above quote was on the DVD for Wildfire's first season and all I can say is "Yes please." Just when Instant Star was making me wonder if I had grown too big for the kiddie table, I'm back for seconds. I quickly burned through the first 13 episodes and purchased the second and third seasons on iTunes.

Sure, I've got lingering questions: How old are the kids? In the first season they seem to be about to begin their senior year of high school, but we've never seen them darken the door of an educational facility and by season three they're drinking legally (?) in bars and moving in with stuffy British girlfriends. Also, how much time has passed? Has each season been a year or are we entering Lost/Grey's Anatomy/One Tree Hill territory, in which time is malleable and several seasons encompass a single year?

Questions aside, I love this show. The Junior/Kris/Matt love triangle is reminiscent of Logan/Veronica/Duncan, wherein no one’s rooting for the wooden nice guy, but he's still okay to have around. Lilly Kane herself pops up to play Junior's romantic foil for a stint in season two. Not shockingly, she's great. Other guest stars include Amy Jo Johnson of Felicity as a bitch on wheels jockey, that Aussie dude from the second season of One Tree Hill as a slick sports agent, Joe Lando from Higher Ground as a wayward father with a gambling problem and the thin London twin as a scary bookie with a gold-plated heart.

Against the high stakes backdrop of thoroughbred horse racing, former juvie inmate Kris Furillo and a failed racehorse named Wildfire struggle to overcome their sad lots in life and thrive in a world of beauty, privilege and familial loyalty. Genevieve Cortese stands out as the star of a near-perfect cast, but all the characters are well drawn and fallible. Bitchy, villainous Dani is startlingly three-dimensional and Matt’s gambling problem was dropped in early on and simmered to a dangerous boil over an entire season. You won’t find subtly like that on Instant Star…

Season one is out on DVD; season two is being uploaded weekly onto abcfamily.com; all three are on iTunes

What I'm Watching: Battlestar Galactica on DVD

Battlestar consistently appears on Top 10 TV lists. I don’t love sci-fi, but I do love good TV and if I learned anything from Firefly, it's that I can get over the whole space thing. I also learned that Nathan Fillion is super pretty, but that's neither here nor there (honestly, it's everywhere).

So I borrowed the miniseries and first season DVDs from a friend and so far I'm pretty hooked. Also, you know who I totally want to get together? Apollo and Madam Prez. Am I the only one? I'm trying to avoid reading anything about the show on the internet since while just looking for this picture, I accidentally came across three fairly significant spoilers. Damn my curiosity.

Here's where I am so far: Starbuck kinda bugs me, I have a big fat crush on Chief Petty Officer Galen Tyrol and I'm very intrigued by the cylons (even if Number Six has crappy taste in men).

Everwood Season One

The great thing about TV on DVD is instant gratification. Episode after episode is right at your fingertips. Want to know what happens next? Done. Can’t get enough of the characters? Great, you’ve got 20 odd episodes to burn.

The bad thing is that it's easier to spot flaws in the storytelling when you’re racing through the episodes. Spaced out over weeks it's a little easier to forgive errors in timeline and jumps in character motivation.

That said, the first season of Everwood is beautiful, flaws and all. Almost every episode had me on the verge of tears at least once. What’s not to cry about? It’s about a brilliant brain surgeon who, after being widowed, moves his precocious daughter Delia and angry son Ephram to a small town to start over. Once there, Ephram falls for Amy, a girl with a boyfriend who is in a coma. Colin’s journey from comatose to sensitive amnesiac to unpredictable jock is heartbreaking, especially if you already know the next chapter of his story.

Reading over the last paragraph, I realize that it sounds like Everwood is a melodramatic soap opera. It’s not. It’s funny and moving and filled with vibrant characters. Aside from a few missteps (Colin’s magically appearing/disappearing sister, “Everwood Confidential,” etc.) it’s compulsively watchable. If Season 2 were available on DVD, I’d be watching it right now. Or as soon as Friday Night Lights is over.