"Reno 911!" (Comedy Central)

If Jon Stewart can do a great job giving us fake news, then this dysfunctional (and fictional) Reno sheriff's department does a great fake "Cops"-type show, which turns out to really be a mock soap opera, as Lieutenant Dangle, Deputies Travis Junior, Trudy Wiegel, Clementine Johnson, and the rest of the team get into one self-created ludicrous situation after another.

"Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" (Bravo)

Vanity Fair writer Christopher Hitchens doesn't think women are funny, but it's probably no use asking if he's ever seen this quasi-reality program about comedian Griffin, whose mercilessly caustic and amusing celebrity-baiting humor makes her something of a younger, sexier, wittier Joan Rivers. Blending bits of her stage act with improvised "real life" set pieces, "D-List" is also not afraid to get serious, as it did in the recent season, which chronicled the death of Griffin's father.

"My Boys" (TBS)

This urban comedy about a Chicago sportswriter, P.J. (Jordana Spiro), and her posse of male poker buddies is best with the banter at a fever pitch, especially when the droll Andy (Jim Gaffigan), P.J.'s brother, complains about married life. "My Boys" is less successful when it strays into various romantic subplots, because, like P.J., the show doesn't know what to do with them.

"Chuck" (NBC)

We may soon have our fill of nerd culture, what with all the new movies and other shows celebrating it. But "Chuck," a sort of "Greatest American Hero" for computer geeks (Chuck has accidentally downloaded otherwise inaccessible government secrets into his brain, suddenly making him a national asset), is promising. Zachary Levi as Chuck Bartowski does a candid and fresh turn on the culturally well-worn role of a nerd.

"The Business" (IFC)

The most inward of in-joking shows, "The Business" requires that the viewer know the ins and outs of movie production and even more so care about how films are made in the first place. A sort of "Office" for personal assistants and other drudges of the movie industry, who are probably the only people who really appreciate it, the show follows the misadventures of mediocre industry types who keep failing upward. Kathleen Robertson as Julia Sullivan, the new producer on board who has turned the sleazy porno-supplier run by Vic Morgenstein (Rob deLeeuw) into a player, steals the show.

"Californication" (Showtime)

Its main character is an admitted "walking cliché," a blocked Los Angeles novelist named Hank Moody who is drinking and wenching his way into detox, as manifested by David Duchovny. But Hank is really a modern fantasy figure, never at a loss for hilarious words when it comes to dealing with others, from his beautiful ex-girlfriend Karen (Natascha McElhone) to the annoying guy with a cell phone two rows ahead of him in the movie theater. He should just hunker down and write a "Life According to Hank." When we think about our reaction to the louche humor of "Californication," we can only echo what his daughter Becca (Madeleine Martin) says when Hank asks her if he made Karen laugh: "A little. Inside."