A friend with a similar job decoding the TV industry for folks too smart to waste the time, brought it up first.

This may have been one of the most unpredictable TV seasons in recent memory.

Sure, ABC and NBC's bold move to craft network TV ripoffs of Mad Men -- a show everyone talks about but almost no one actually watches -- failed as expected. And Zooey Deschanel's way of hiding her beauty with a near-dorky earnestness has turned Fox's The New Girl into an expected hit.

But few other bits went as expected. Fox's highly anticipated sci fi family drama Terra Nova -- touted before its debut by TV Guide as TV's hottest new show -- is fading; fairy tale drama Once Upon a Time is clicking on Sundays, while well-publicized remakes of Charlie's Angels and Prime Suspect have also died on the vine.

So it is with some trepidation that I pronounce the last fall series to premiere on network TV, Fox's I Hate My Teenage Daughter, a formulaic waste -- a predictable effort filled with talented actors trying too hard and lazy scripts which don't try hard enough. Which means it will probably be successful.  It bows at 9:30 p.m. tonight.

As a parent, one of my biggest pet peeves is commercials and TV shows where adults act as if they’re afraid to supervise their children. So imagine my delight to discover Fox has cast Emmy winner Jaime Pressley (My Name is Earl) and Tony winner Katie Finneran (Wonderfalls) as two mothers who act powerless as their daughters become the kind of mean girls who tormented them in high school.

Extra points for wasting The Wire alum Chad Coleman as the dad who divorced Finneran’s character but still hangs around cracking Tiger Woods jokes. In this world, adults are clueless and ineffectual, stumbling through situations like parents in a Nickelodeon sitcom. 

When the moms let their girls go to a school dance after locking a kid in a wheelchair in a bathroom at school, I decided to bail.

I suggest you do, too. But given how things have turned out this season, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't follow my advice.