In order to indulge my obsession, this week I’ve been watching Mysterious Ways. I’m four episodes in and so far I’m enjoying it more than I expected. Even the presence of Rae Dawn Chong can’t dull my pleasure in seeing Adrian Pasdar being somewhat goofy and sweet. His character, Declan, is quite charming and a big departure from playing Jim Profit. Since Mysterious Ways originally aired on the PAX network, a sort of generic Christian channel owned by NBC, I was expecting the religious elements of the show to be heavy-handed, but so far it is really just a sunnier version of The X-Files crossed with Supernatural and every other tv series that has ever explored the realm of mysterious and spooky events. It is no Touched By Angel and thank God for that.

Tomorrow I expect I’ll have thoughts on this week’s tv — Heroes, CSI, Supernatural, etc. I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to handle discussing spoilers. My preference is to generally not bother with a cut-tag of any kind, so maybe I’ll save my posts on current tv shows for a weekly round-up on Fridays.

With the exception of Joanne, I think all of the characters are great. I love Jim Profit and his step-mom, Bobbie. She’s nearly as diabolical as he is and I appreciate a lot that they both furthered each other’s ambitions, despite their acrimonious relationship. Also, it’s television’s most perfectly warped “meet cute” when Bobbie is introduced by having her molest Profit with her tongue, only for that to be followed up by, “Hello Mom.” If I’d been sitting on a couch I would have fallen off of it, but luckily I was lounging in bed with the laptop next to me. I love that they didn’t tell you until after she’d stuck her tongue down his throat that it was actually his step-mom. Seriously, best show ever!

Gail is another fun character and despite the fact that she’s trapped between a rock and a hard place, either do as Profit tells her to do or risk losing everything, she turns out one skilled role-playing performance after another at his behest. She’s a natural con artist, so it would have been fun to spend more time with this show and see whether or not she’d decide that Profit’s way of doing things is more fun than playing fair.

It’s also a hoot to play “hey, it’s that guy who was on one of my other favorite shows!” Look, there’s Holtz from Angel! Look, there’s Janet from Stargate SG-1! Oh Janet, you poor poor thing. You look so cute and adorable and you are being USED. Bobbie played her like Justin Timberlake plays with my emotions.

In fact, the show is so good that I’m already jonesing to watch it all over again. I don’t imagine I’ll be holding out much longer.