Andrew Eccles, ABC From top: Smith Cho, Khary Payton, Nadia Dajani and Heather Graham star in ABC's "Emily's Reasons Why Not." Click photo for larger image.

How you feel about "Emily's Reasons Why Not" (9 tonight, WTAE) will probably depend upon how you felt about "Ally McBeal." If you've missed her neurotic prattling and bug-eyed reactions to, uh, everything, then you'll be charmed by the giggle-prone Emily Sanders (ever-cute Heather Graham).

However, if you found "Ally" insufferable, that's reason No. 1 why you should not tune in to ABC's newest single-camera comedy.

"Emily's" is also a slighter show than "Ally." Where "Ally" had a real pathos that made the series part of cultural conversation, that's unlikely to happen with this cute comedy that's lightweight and unaffecting.

Emily, who works as a book editor, has just ended a romantic relationship with one of her authors, and she's determined to put herself on a better path when it comes to men. She remembers "the reasons why not" that she adhered to as a child and decides if any guy gives her five reasons she should not date him, she'll kick him to the curb.

	TV Reviews 'Emily's Reasons Why Not' When: 9 tonight, ABC. Starring: Heather Graham. 'Jake in Progress' When: 9:30 tonight, ABC. Starring: John Stamos. 'The Shield' When: 10 p.m. tomorrow, FX. Starring: Michael Chiklis. 'South Beach' When: 8 p.m. Wednesday, UPN. Starring: Vanessa Williams.

In tonight's premiere, it's not long before she's purring to best friends Reilly (Nadia Dajani) and Josh (Khary Payton) about the new guy in marketing, Stan (guest star Victor Webster), whom she thinks is perfect. Of course, he's not, but that doesn't stop her from flaunting her new boyfriend in front of co-worker/nemesis Glitter Cho (Smith Cho), who has her own theme song: the John Williams score from "Jaws."

(This is another "Ally" echo: Ling Woo always entered to the Wicked Witch music from "Wizard of Oz." I can't imagine this is what Asian advocacy groups have in mind when they call for more representation in prime time.)

Graham, with her doe-eyed innocence (even after that turn as porn star rollergirl in "Boogie Nights"), is a ready-made TV star (this is not her first stint on ABC -- she played Agent Cooper's girlfriend, Annie, on the final episodes of "Twin Peaks"), and she fits this role to a baby-doll T.

'Jake in Progress'

Last season's biggest long shot for renewal, ABC's "Jake in Progress" (9:30 tonight), returns with an episode that resets the stage. If you've never watched "Jake," you won't be lost. If you're a fan from last season, you may wonder what happened to the Julie Bowen character (she's unmentioned and gone without a trace, a mystery for another show on another network to solve).

The appeal of "Jake" has always emanated from star John Stamos. Even when he's playing a player, he's likable -- a hugely important quality for a TV star. It helps, too, that Stamos is surrounded by wilder and crazier characters, from determined boss Naomi (Wendie Malick) to weirdo friend Patrick (Rick Hoffman) and ordinary-guy best bud Adrian (Ian Gomez). They're all back, but they take a little bit of a backseat to new characters.

Jake is now pining over an ex-fiancee, Annie (Charlotte Ross), who returns to his life just as she's about to marry another man. Next week, Jake also reacquaints himself with college friend Mark (Dondre T. Whitfield).

Tonight's premiere is a little too over-the-top in some of its comedy (we believe Naomi is a bad mother, but would she really smack her newborn's head into a door frame?), but next week's episode does a nice job of resurrecting old conflicts between Adrian and Mark that believably simmered for 20 years. If subsequent episodes are as strong as next week's, "Jake" will continue to make progress toward becoming as good a TV show as Stamos is a TV star.

'The Shield'

FX has not announced that the fifth season of "The Shield," premiering tomorrow at 10 p.m., will be the show's swan song, but I sure hope it is. I'd much rather see this gritty cop drama go out on top than run longer than necessary.

The writers are planning for the series to come full circle, given this season's story arc: Internal affairs Lt. Jon Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker) investigates Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and his strike team and their role in the murder of a fellow cop that opened the show's pilot episode. Kava-naugh does it by targeting the team member with a conscience, Lemonhead (Kenneth Johnson), and by getting close to Vic's estranged wife, Corrine (Cathy Cahlin Ryan).

Kavanaugh is an odd duck, perpetually offering people a stick of gum with the promise that, "It's a fresh pack." I've watched the first four episodes, and I still can't figure out if Kavanaugh repeatedly underestimates Mackey or if he's pulling a Columbo, acting overly cheerful and slightly out of it to put his prey at ease before pouncing.

Elsewhere, ineffective detective Steve Billings (David Marciano) has been promoted to captain, the identity of the father of Danny's (Catherine Dent) baby has become a betting pool, and Julien (Michael Jace) takes on a headstrong trainee (Paula Garces).

If this isn't the last season for "The Shield," I fear that the Wile E. Coyote-Road Runner routine that pits Aceveda (Benito Martinez) and Kava-naugh against Mackey will start to grow stale.

Eleven episodes will air beginning tonight, and another 10 are ordered beyond this batch. Neither FX executives nor series creator Shawn Ryan are ready to say if that will be the end.

"Later in this process we'll figure out if at the end of these 21 it seems like the proper ending or whether we want to go on," Ryan said in a teleconference last week. "But the path we're on is certainly one that's heading toward a conclusion."

'South Beach'

UPN struck out in the ratings with "Sex, Love and Secrets" this fall, but the network will give the prime-time soap genre another shot with "South Beach" (8 p.m. Wednesday, WNPA), a humorless sudser that pales in comparison to the enjoyably cheeky "Secrets."

Good guy Matt (Marcus Coloma) and shady best friend Vincent (Chris Johnson) leave Brooklyn for warmer climes in this week's two-hour premiere. They land in Miami, where Matt looks for his model ex-girlfriend, Arielle (Odette Yustman), who's now dating club manager Alex (Lee Thompson Young, "The Famous Jett Jackson"). Alex's mother, hotel owner Liz (Vanessa Williams), has an attraction to younger guys, and quickly targets Matt.

"South Beach," which will normally air from 8 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, seems like an odd lead-in to the brainier "Veronica Mars." With a teleplay by Matt Cirulnick (Jennifer Lopez is listed as an executive producer), "South Beach" is filled with terrible dialogue ("Seeing you there on that stage, this is what you were meant to do," Matt tells Arielle), and it's populated by beautiful babes and buff hunks -- and not a brain to share among them.