Don't get us wrong. We totally dug "The Sopranos," but we must have suffered from some severe, Uncle Junior-level memory loss in the two years since the last season ended. We were...confused, to say the least. Anyone prepared to give us a complete history of all the characters that appeared in last night's season premiere, please, do so in the comments.

Two years is a long time, people. Wasn't "Seinfeld" still on back then? Maybe not, but haven't you missed Julia Louis-Dreyfus? Huh? Just us? Well, we're fans. As a matter of fact, we were big fans of her previous post-"Seinfeld" sitcom, "Watching Ellie," a show that was way ahead of its time, and therefore a major flop. To wit: It utilized a single-camera filming format, ala "Arrested Development," a "real-time" story structure, ala "24," and Steve Carrel as a creep, ala "The Office." Alas, no one watched it, and another entry into the "Seinfeld" curse was born.

So Dreyfus is back with a slightly less innovative sitcom, "The New Adventures of Old Christine", in which she plays a single mom, who, while friendly with her ex-husband, finds her life jarred a bit when he starts a serious relationship with a younger woman, also named Christine--hence the "new" and "old" Christines. We admit we're tuning in purely based on the presence of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, because everything else about the show screams "Stale!"; laugh-track, cute, precocious child, and Comedy Jokes (our term for sitcom one-liners that are said because they're funny, and not because it's actual dialogue a character would say because she's funny).

But, we'll give it a chance, and hopefully the "Seinfeld" curse will remain on the shoulders of Jason Alexander (and let's face it, he kind of deserves it). It premieres tonight at 8:30 p.m. on CBS. Another episode airs at 9:30 p.m., which is the show's actual timeslot.

Image of Old Christine from CBS.