Does anybody remember when the Fox network was perceived as an outsider? When they were edgy and format-breaking and maverick? Well, yes, I don't either. Fox was never anywhere near as transgressive as their ad department liked to believe, but one thing that has changed is they're not even trying to claim that role anymore. Aside from their Sunday night block, Fox is CBS. And what about those Sunday night shows? "Family Guy" never should have come back. "The Simpsons" hasn't been funny in recent memory. "The War at Home" is ugly and tiresome. And I still remain unconvinced that "American Dad" isn't a practical joke Seth MacFarlane is playing on the network. Nothing could be that unfunny on purpose, right?

"Bones" is back for a second season, which isn't a bad thing. I kind of like this show. If it starred David Boreanaz or Zooey Deschanel's sister and not both, I probably wouldn't like it. Neither on their own is quite compelling enough to make me keep tuning in to a blasé procedural show with a poor supporting cast and ho-hum computer effects, but the combo is much greater than the sum of its parts. The show is still laboring under the misapprehension that T.J. Thyne is funny (he's not) and that Michaela Conlin can act (she so can't). Jonathan Adams' prickly boss character from the first season has been replaced with a new younger, femaler prickly boss. Not a bad notion in theory but dumbly the actress cast, Tamara Taylor, looks far too much like Conlin for comfort. Since both characters spend large chunks of their screen time in identical white lab coats, it's a huge challenge trying to figure out which one is which. Booth and Brennan's Greek chorus came across as fairly generic in the first season, but at least you could tell the players without a scorecard. There was the bearded one, the black one, the woman one, and the one who was fourteen. Why try and fix what's not broken?

The producers of "Bones," judging by the first three episodes of the new season, have decided to increase the roles played by the supporting cast instead of focusing on what works about the show, which is the Mulder/Scully dynamic between Zooey Deschanel's sister and Boreanaz. At least the mysteries in the first two shows were twisty and surprising enough to hold a viewer's interest. The third one, "The Boy in the Shroud," was just boring. "Bones" is at its best when it gets really weird, like last year's episode set in post-Katrina New Orleans which featured amnesia and voodoo. Things seem to be going in the wrong direction, but judging by the all of the pilots I've seen over the last few weeks I don't think any other show is threatening to push "Bones" off of my TiVo season pass list. Now if they could just start making the no-nonsense episode titles a little sexier.

One of the freshman shows I'm not going to be wasting any more time on is Fox Tuesday's "Standoff." This show is going to get at least a few viewers, since it's on after "House," but I wouldn't set good odds on its lasting out the season. Ron Livingston from Office Space is in it. So is Gina Torres from "Firefly." I like both of those actors, but they just don't have the magnetic pull of David Boreanaz and Zooey Deschanel's sister. Casting aside, "Standoff" doesn't even approach the dizzying mediums of "Bones." It's about hostage negotiators, I guess, who negotiate hostage situations or whatever. Even after three episodes this seems like too narrow a concept. I mean, there were a couple of really good hostage-negotiation "X-Files" episodes, but that series was about so much more. And the chances that Livingston is going to rescue a hostage who turns out to be a giant mind-controlling bug seem slim. Without giant mind-controlling bugs, what's the point, really?

The major poor decision that "Standoff" makes is putting Livington's savvy veteran together romantically with his rookie partner (Rosemarie DeWitt) right from the beginning. The show clearly doesn't want to burn too much screen time on character study, and despite Livingston's best efforts the overall effect is to recall the vaguely familiar feeling of a random blend of about two dozen Bruce Willis movies. Like Striking Distance or Color of Night, I don't really have any strong feelings about this show. It exists. It isn't harming anybody, and while it doesn't tax Livingston's acting ability one bit, it's nice to see him in a leading role again. Anything that puts the regal Gina Torres on the screen can't be all bad. She comes away from delivering the bland dialogue required of her FBI superior character utterly without harm. She floats above it, like the goddess she is. (And if you don't recognize that as a reference tying Torres' presence in this show to Boreanaz's role on "Bones" then you're just not cool like me.)

One of the nice things about all of these corporations merging all over the place: instant reruns. I missed the first runs of "Jericho" and "Kidnapped" but both pilots are going to be on basic cable this weekend. Who's excited? Also, the worst thing about being an aspiring TV critic is actually having to watch TV. James Woods' new lawyer show premieres tonight. There is absolutely no way in hell this is going to be good. Seven of Nine is his co-star. And yet I feel compelled to watch it. The sacrifices I make!