Where Did All The Fun Spy Shows Go?

It's June 2007. Gas prices have fallen slightly to $3.32 a gallon.

The USA Network is about to air the pilot episode of Burn Notice. 4.0 million viewers will tune in to watch spy Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan) discover he's been "burned"—summarily cut off from his contacts, money, and resources—setting him on a seven-season quest to find out who, and why. It's classic USA Network goofiness from start to finish, a soon-to-be-beloved dramedy with all the double crossing, explosions, and former spies with a heart of gold you could ask for.

It's September 2007. Following a brief dip from the summer high, gas prices are $2.92 a gallon.

After a summer sneak peak at July's ComicCon (they know their audience), 9.2 million people are tuning in for the television debut of Chuck, watching Buy More employee Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) get subliminally blasted with a merged database of CIA and NSA information that turns him into the spy world's most valuable asset. The subsequent hijinks feature the expected technological handwaving, aw shucks geekery, and forbidden romance one might expect from a show that pitched itself as The Office meets ALIAS and 24.

Meanwhile, a liquidity crisis caused by mortgage-backed securities is starting to snowball; Illinois Senator Barack Obama is fighting it out with New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination; support for the United States' wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is dwindling as both become obvious quagmires; and I've just moved back to my hometown, living in a converted carriage house in an alley two blocks away from a crumbling Superfund site.