Advancement in Corporate America, and The Return of Good TV

After 6 glorious months working for Starbucks, my manager has decided it is time for a promotion. This decision has nothing to do with two of our shift supervisors deciding to cut back their hours, and my manager's disdain of morning shifts, I'm told. (Opening shifts begin at 5:30am.) He would also like to train me as a "Learning Coach" and "Coffee Master." I am really, truly, living the dream.

This new appointment is slated to take effect no later than September of this year. Do you know what else happens in September? If you guessed the new season of Showtime's Dexter, you guessed correctly.

Season 3 of this critically beloved, gritty yet glorious crime drama will premier on September 30, and this fan is counting the day. Especially since Jimmy Smits is joining the cast as Assistant District Attorney, Miguel Prado.Michael C. Hall, who plays the title character on Dexter, is a perfect fit for the show's noir-esque tone. Playing a psychopath isn't easy, but Hall has the perfect mix of boyish charisma and terrorizing intensity.
I'm also re-watching FX's epic sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in preparation for season 4. For those of you not following this particular program, it's likely the funniest thing on television today. Yes, I'm saying it's funnier than NBC's The Office.
It's Always Sunny found its way to television back in 2005 after writers, creators, and stars Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney wrote and shot a pilot episode in Day's apartment for less than 200 bucks. They entered it in a contest FX was having, won, and completed their first season.

The series has been so successful, that Dany Devito joined the cast in the second season, and it's attracted guest stars like Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville) Autumn Reeser (The O.C.) Stephen Collins (7th Heaven) and Brittany Daniel (Joe Dirt, White Chicks), and Judy Greer. I can't sum up Greer's career in parenthesis, so please just google her. She's fantastic.

Also returning this fall is ABC's Pushing Daisies, whose debut season was cut short last year due to the Writer's Guild of America strike. I, for one, am greatly anticipating the direction this unique offering, from creative television vet Bryan Fuller (Wonderfalls), is heading.

Good thing my office hours are 530-1pm... My television schedule is filling out nicely.