Dave on Demand: Most aptly titled show award goes to - 'Lost'

It's great to have

Lost

back, isn't it? - although with the characters suddenly ricocheting around the past and future, and all the talk about the space-time continuum, maybe the show should change its name to

Quantum Leap

.

As the crash-taways ponder their temporal displacement, one asks, "Who can stop it?" The screen jump-cuts to Locke (Terry O'Quinn). Get it? Locke is the key. He had a classic line in the season premiere: "When am I?"

Just checking: Was it my imagination or did Sawyer spend the entire episode shirtless?

And how about Hurley (Jorge Garcia) trying to explain to his mom what happened to him: "We did crash but it was on this crazy island. . . . and then there was a smoke monster. . . . We stole their helicopter and flew it to the freighter. Then it blew up."

I can relate. My wife is not a regular watcher of the show. Every once in a while she'll sit down when

Lost

is on and ask, "What's happening?"

About three sentences into summarizing the latest plot jumble, I can see her eyes glaze over. Oh well, I'm not sure I know what is going on on

Lost

, and I watch every episode.

What a tool.

Was this week's episode of

Desperate Housewives

the sappiest ever?

We met - on his last day on this planet - handyman Eli Scruggs (guest star Beau Bridges), a kind, compassionate man who was apparently ubiquitous on Wisteria Lane, the shoulder that all the housewives cried on in desperate times.

You mean to tell me that in five seasons we've never seen this guy or even heard his name mentioned?

When did

Desperate Housewives

turn into a bad road production of Thornton Wilder's

Our Town

?

Sing out, sister.

I was more than a little surprised when a familiar face walked into the room in Louisville, Ky., to audition for

American Idol

.

Joanna Pacitti is a strikingly talented young singer from Philadelphia. I profiled her for the paper in 2006 (

» READ MORE: http://

go.philly.com/pacitti), interviewing her in the family home above her father's barbershop in the Mayfair neighborhood.

Pacitti is more than this year's Carly Smithson, i.e., a ringer among the vocal rookies. This girl can really sing. She even made a Pat Benatar song sound good on Wednesday. Watch out,

Idol

. As Randy Jackson would say, "We got a hot one!"

Losing its thread.

Fringe

was one of the only promising freshman series of the 2008-09 season. But it's really going off the rails.

Olivia (Anna Torv) is being transformed into a supremely unlikely action hero, this week disabling three men while she's in restraints and knocking out another burly guy with one punch. Torv doesn't look strong enough to tear a sheet of carbon paper.

Joshua Jackson's character, Peter, was set up in the pilot as a fascinating, whip-smart con man. Over time he's become a droll, lovesick foil.

And the show's MacGuffin, a spooky conspiracy, is growing murkier and more unwieldy by the week.

Fringe

is rapidly turning into

Millennium

, a Fox stinker from 1996. (Coincidentally, it was the previous major TV role for Terry O'Quinn.)

Where do we go from here?

Although I love Tim Roth, I can't see the new Fox series

Lie to Me

enjoying a long run.

OK, the guy can tell whether people are lying just by squinting at them. Kind of a one-trick pony, isn't he? The premise was getting a little old by the end of the pilot, which, by the way, had a pretty creaky and obvious plot.

The show's concept is kind of like a guy who can play the trombone with his nose: Once the novelty wears off, you probably won't want to stick around for the whole concert.