Sunday is usually a day of rest or sleeping off a hangover so it's a big day and night of TV watching for me. For a while, it was a time for me to catch up on shows that I missed first time around as IFC showed "Arrested Development" and DirecTV's channel 101 aired "Deadwood" and "Oz". Sadly, I've now seen all of AD and Deadwood and Oz is limping through its final season. So are there any options for shows to help me waste time?

The frontrunner is "True Blood". I started watching this show in the second season and I like it although I do find it to be uneven. It doesn't seem like that's going to change this season as the show now has an almost ridiculous amount of storylines to follow and the show jumps back and forth between storylines (many of which aren't really going anywhere) like it was written by someone with ADD. Still, like "Entourage" which is coming back soon, I like the characters enough that I'll stick with it, although if "Blood" sinks to "Entourage" levels of lousiness, I might tap out.

ABC premiered two new summer shows and I'll probably give both of them a second chance. It's hard to judge a show based on the pilot alone because that first episode has to establish the characters, premise, setting, etc. The later episodes can settle into the actual story and format. This is especially true for Scoundrels; the show looks like it's going to focus on a mother trying to get her family of criminals to go straight but her newly incarcerated husband is going to try to keep that from happening. The pilot was OK but the premise seems inherently flawed. We're supposed to root for the mother to get her family to clean up their acts but, as viewers, we'll probably root against that since nobody wants to watch a bunch of people just acting normally. On top of that, almost all of the characters are mere caricatures so it's not like you could see most of them really succeeding in the normal world. Maybe the show will surprise me but I wouldn't be surprised if I stopped watching this show in a couple of weeks.

I have a little more hope for ABC's other show although it could completely fall apart. "The Gates" is basically "Picket Fences" with werewolves, vampires, witches, and a human cop and his family. Now the show could be very cool but I have a feeling that it's going to get bogged down in soap opera emotions and a thin mystery storyline. Also, the show has teen and adult characters and I think they'd be better picking one and sticking with it. It's tough to mix the two because childish connections don't carry the same weight as adult relationships. Prom King and Queen breaking up doesn't have the same repercussions as parents deciding to divorce. The bigger issue that the show has is tone; it feels like it should have a "Desperate Housewives" feel to it but instead it's fairly moody and too earnest. The main vampire family we meet is basically analogous to the hard working husband and the mother who never wanted to become a mom and move to the suburbs. It's an interesting turn, in theory, but it doesn't really play here. Again, it could be developed in later episodes but, already, it seems like the entire town is at each other's throats and there aren't any real friendly (or even frienemy) relationships. On the bright side, the show does feature the hottest Audrey Grizzwold, Marisol Nichols, as the wife of the new chief of police.

TNT's "Leverage" has also moved to Sunday and I tried that show again but I'm just not feeling it. The show is basically the Y2K A-Team with more of a focus on brains than brawn but I don't think it works because heists need to be more cerebral and this show's break-ins are usually laughably implausible. The actors are all likable so I can see how it's successful but it's just not for me. When the implausible is the norm, being interested in how someone will figure out a heist or double-cross just isn't interesting.

In the end, I should probably thank all of these shows because they are helping convince me that maybe I should go out and do something productive on Sundays. Well, at least until football season starts up.