“Gossip Girl” Season 4 (8 p.m. Central Mondays, The CW)
1. The actors who play Dan and Vanessa continue to look like they punch a clock, sleepwalk through their scenes, punch out and go home. What’s particularly strange about this is that I thought both Penn Badgley and Jessica Szohr were good actors when “Gossip Girl” started.
2. The actors who play Chuck and Blair seem the most engaged, and their relationship — if it wasn’t broken up at the end of last season — would be my main reason for tuning in. Instead, I might stick around for a while to see where this bizarre “Chuck has amnesia” plotline goes.
3. Nate seems to be dating the mysterious Gossip Girl, seeing as how she has a wall of photos of the main characters in her apartment. But she’s not played by Kristen Bell, who plays Gossip Girl’s voice. So either this new girl isn’t Gossip Girl, in which case she’s pretty stupid to stalk all the main characters since she could simply follow them on Gossip Girl; or she is Gossip Girl, in which case the show is snubbing Bell. I don’t like either outcome.
Verdict: I kind of want to see what’s up with Chuck. That’s the only reason I’m hanging on by a thread with this show.
“Life Unexpected” Season 2 (8 p.m. Central Tuesdays, The CW)
1. The best actor on this show filled with talented actors is Britt Robertson as Lux. When she tells Bug that asking her to marry him is an unfair question for a 16-year-old and then he storms off, you can see the tears welling up in Lux’s eyes. I could understand the emotions of Lux throughout an episode with the sound muted, and I can’t say that about every character.
2. I kind of wanted Baze to be the guy who doesn’t get his first love (Cate) but still makes a good life for himself. Instead, the writers have set up a bunch of reasons why newlyweds Cate and Ryan won’t work out — she gets fired from their radio show, he has a mysterious ex, she still kind of loves Baze, he kind of hates Baze. So Baze and Cate suddenly seem like a real possibility. I kind of dread watching the impending shake-up, though.
3. The storyline where Lux hits it off with Eric, whom she meets in Baze’s bar, and then they later find out that — whoops! — he’s a teacher and she’s a student, is almost identical to a thread from “Pretty Little Liars” this past summer. Even the understandable misunderstanding (she’s tending bar, so you’d think she’d be older; he looks young and she suspects maybe his ID is fake) is almost the same as in “PLL.” I think Robertson will do a great job with this storyline, but it knocks “Life Unexpected” off its pedestal slightly when it borrows so liberally from another show.
Verdict: Still my No. 1 show, and although I can’t say I love all the plotlines, I also can’t predict where they’re going, and that makes for compelling viewing.
“Parenthood” Season 2 (9 p.m. Central Tuesdays, NBC)
1. Just because young Max is a sympathetic portrayal of Asperger’s doesn’t mean that he’s lovable all the time. When he tears apart his room after learning his sleepover is canceled, it’s hard to watch. I guess it’s a necessary scene, though, so we can sympathize with his family and his social worker, played by the girl who played Lyla Garrity on “Friday Night Lights” and Autumn on “(500) Days of Summer” and now might be a love interest for Crosby.
2. At the moment, the most compelling actor on a show full of proven actors is Sarah Ramos as Haddie. It’s amazing how, when complaining to her dad, she imitates her mom in a way that makes her look almost exactly like her mom (played by Monica Potter). And it’s not just a case of casting look-alikes, because it’s almost impossible to remember that Ramos played Patty Prior on “American Dreams” when watching her on “Parenthood.” Amidst this large ensemble, I hope the writers never lose sight of Haddie.
3. “Parenthood” continues to be the elite show when it comes to portraying the recession. Joel fixes Zeke’s roof and then talks about how, yeah, he used to be an excellent construction contractor before the recession hit and he couldn’t afford to pay his team. Now he’s chafing under the “stay-at-home dad” job, especially when Julia suggests they have another kid. No TV melodrama here: This is real-life drama, and it’s quite watchable.
Verdict: Still my No. 2 show on TV, neck and neck with “Life Unexpected.”
Share your thoughts on the new seasons of “Gossip Girl,” “Life Unexpected” and “Parenthood” in the comment thread below.