Where Have All the Bad Boys Gone?

You know I tend to root for the TV bad boy.

It's why I prefer Dylan over Brandon. Spike over Angel. Pacey over Dawson. Logan over Duncan. Sawyer over Jack.

Well you get the idea. I wouldn't necessarily want to date a bad boy (the drama would be exhausting) but they sure make for good television.

I don't quite know if Patrick Verona on "10 Things I Hate About You" (Tuesday, ABC Family, 8 p.m.) is exactly fitting the bad boy persona. Like Kat often accuses him of, I think he's just pretending to be a bad boy. Plus, he's a little too reserved and off-standish for me to actually start rooting for him.

You know I don't think Liam, a late addition to "90210" last spring, exactly fit the bad boy mold either. Male characters who behave terribly aren't bad boys they're just jerks. And since you have to be able to act to be a bad boy, that pretty much rules out anyone on "The Secret Live of the American Teenager."

I've come to the conclusion that we have dearth of credible bad boys on TV right now. So I thought I would take a look at the bad boys coming our way this fall:

Mark Salling as Puck on "Glee:" We saw him in the pilot as the football player friend of Finn's who wanted him to decide between football and glee club. I've seen two more episodes of "Glee" and Puck's character becomes more and more involved with some key characters. So far he's brash and a jerk but we begin to see behind his brazen bravado -- a key reveal to any good bad boy. I have high hopes for Puck.

Ian Somerhalder as Damon on "The Vampire Diaries:" I know what you're thinking how many more vampires do we need in pop culture. And sure the show is capitalizing on our current love affair with all things vampire but the pilot came to life once Somerhalder's Damon hit the screen. I had a delayed reaction to realizing this was the same actor who played nice guy Boone on "Lost." He's the bad vampire to his brother, good vampire Stefan (Paul Wesley). Let the sibling rivalry begin. If my television viewing history is consistent, I'll totally be rooting for Damon over the soulful Stefan.

Shaun Sipos as David on "Melrose Place:" Remember how much fun it was to hate Michael Mancini on the original "Melrose Place?" Well Thomas Calabro is back and, with any luck, back to his old nefarious ways. And I'm fairly confident Sipos will become the Michael Mancini for the next generation. Think of that apple/tree cliche. 

I'll keep watching to discover what other potential bad boys might be heading our way this fall. Until then, we'll always have Chuck Bass. Who is your favorite bad boy on TV right now? Talk about it below.

Highlights of the Week Ahead

All times listed are Eastern Standard Time for August 24-30

A slew of shows end their seasons tonight. We already talked about "The Closer" (Monday, TNT, 9 p.m.) and "Make It or Break It" (Monday, ABC Family, 9 p.m.) on Friday. "Raising the Bar" also finishes out its much-improved second season at 10 p.m. on TNT. Like "HawthoRNe," this series is stronger when the good guys don't win every case. In each episode I don't know whether or not the public defender will prevail. And, often, I guess wrong. I thought for sure that there was no way the man who attacked a gang member in prison would be found guilty. If he were on "The Practice" or "Boston Legal," he totally would have been found not guilty. I don't quite care that Bobbi and Jerry finally got together. They weren't exactly a star-crossed couple I was rooting for, but, in general, I think "Raising the Bar" is ending its season in a much stronger place than it was when it started two seasons ago. It's true, as Mark-Paul Gosselaar's hair goes, so goes the series. Tonight, Jerry defends a pregnant woman addicted to heroin and Roz defends a carriage driver accused of abusing a horse.

"Nurse Jackie" brings its first season to a close Monday at 10:30 p.m. on Showtime. The season finale left me wanting more which is a good thing but mostly it left me wanting more because I think I was expecting more to be revealed by the time we got to the end of 13 episodes. I still don't feel like I know Jackie or understand how her life got to be as complicated as it is any more than I did during the opening minutes of the pilot episode. Plus I'm not really buying Coop's sudden crush on her, are you? I love Falco's performance and Merritt Weaver, Paul Schulze, Peter Facinelli and the rest of the cast are fantastic so I'll definitely be tuning in next season, I just hope I know a little more about Jackie by the end of the second season.

Okay I know I'm beating a dead TV complaint, but I just can't believe that yet another woman on "Rescue Me" (Tuesday, FX, 10 p.m.) is enamored with Tommy. Sure Maura Tierney is playing a less needy version of the typical "Rescue Me" female but she's just as mentally unstable (let's not forget she ran into a burning building). And the show really suffers the more embroiled it gets in Tommy's completely ridiculous love life. We just don't get to see enough of the rest of the crew when the show becomes "The Many Loves of Tommy Gavin." We only have one more episode until the season finale and I still say Candy is going to end up hurting Lou. This week, Franco heads into the boxing ring to fight a woman and my guess is it's definitely going to be somebody we know.

So this was supposed to be the "summer finale" of "Leverage" (Wednesday, TNT, 10 p.m.) but then TNT decided to add two more episodes to the season. Now the finale, which will introduce Jeri Ryan in a recurring role as a grifter named Tara, will air Wednesday, September 9. This week Wil Wheaton and Griffin Dunne guest star as part of a rival merry band of thieves which Nate and his crew must outsmart.

Yawn. Oh I'm sorry I was just thinking about the two-hour "Project Runway: All-Star Challenge." When did they all become such boring designers? I partly blame the challenges -- they probably needed one more innovative one in addition to the restaurant challenge.  I was totally rooting for Korto to win. I liked her designs the best. How about you?  And once I saw the missing minutes of Thursday night's premiere of the new season of "Project Runway," I still wasn't that excited for this season. How about you? Will you be tuning in this week. Of course, I'll be tuning in, I'm just not as excited as I thought I would be.

"Royal Pains" ends its first season Thursday at 10 p.m. on USA. While Hank treats a patient suffering from hallucinations, Divya and Raj prepare for their engagement party.  As so many of you have pointed out, Jill and Hank do not have a lot of on-screen chemistry. Therefore like Bobbi and Jerry, I'm not rooting for them to get together. I'm fine if Jill wants to get back together with her dastardly but charming not-so-ex-husband. How about you?

I think it's time I issued a little warning to "Army Wives" (Sunday, Lifetime, 10 p.m.). No more children are allowed to die. I was getting so nervous watching Jeremy talk about how happy he is that his parents got back together in the last episode and Denise talk about how much she has to be thankful for. Talk like that is usually code for: somebody is going to die very soon. I know I've complained about the show being too boring this season but killing off characters is not the way to go. This week Pamela begins to worry that Chase hasn't returned from his assignment.

That's all for today. I'm back on Friday with this week's familiar faces and quotes of the week. I also have thoughts on the season finales of "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and "Weeds" (I'm not going to lie to you. I'm a little afraid of both.) Have a question? Seen a familiar face? Want to nominate a topic for discussion or a quote of the week? Write me at