So how do I feel about the two-hour second season premiere of "Huff?"

Short version: Disappointing, but I'm still in.

Long version: The second-season premiere of "The West Wing" was the two-part In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, which is commonly held to be that show's finest hours.

"Huff" did not meet that standard, and may satisfy people like me who have 13 episodes of experience with these characters under our belts more than the hoped-for new, larger audience.

Why? Well, first of all, let's get the bad stuff out of the way. I was surprised that they didn't change the percussive dialogue samples in the opening credits. I love them (I love the whole flippin' credits sequence) but they're all from the first season and I had assumed they'd mark the transition by changing them.

I feel that "Huff" really shouldn't be two hours. Taking more time and space than most shows would is a big part of the series' dramatic strength, but one-hour episodes seem to be just the right doses. With a two-hour running time, there was room for one too many speeches I would have trimmed, were I in the cutting room.

There's a period of adjustment to be reckoned with, when you come to a new season of a series-like dropping back into their world. "Gilmore Girls" handles this really well, actually-when time has gone by between episodes, they often make it that time has gone by for the characters, too.

It's kind of unfortunate that so much real time has gone by between seasons of "Huff"-this is supposed to be a week after the end of last season but Huff's son has, shall we say, gone through a growth spurt.

I don't know how "The Sopranos" does it-I don't watch, but don't they take something like four years between seasons? I used to think that was better than the treadmill of network TV, but there's a definite drawback if you're dealing with adolescents.

Plus there was a line referencing the hurricane. Trouble is, if the first season is set when it first aired (2004)and this is only a week later...topical references to the outside world should be avoided, is what I'm saying.

The episode also suffered from having to clear up the debris left at the end of last season. At one point Huff's assistant and friend Paula, trying to comfort his wife, Beth, tells her that all the angst the family has suffered is: "Just god trying to move a whole lot of shit out of the way at once." I can't help feeling that was the writer wailing as he cleared the decks.

And yet...my sympathies are still so wholly with the title character I almost found myself praying along with Paula tonight as she asked Jesus to show him the way.

Huff for me is the center of it. I take the opening credits, that end with a pullback to show the back and side of his head, semi-literally: It's all inside him. But I care about almost all the characters and I'm invested in what happens to them both physically and emotionally. I love to see the way they reach out for, sometimes connect with but more often than not miss each other.

In fact, I'd say, the biggest problem with this ep was that the writing needs to get out of the characters' way. There was a little bit of what I'll call "Kevin Smith syndrome," where you're acutely aware of the writer stopping the forward flow of the action for a pithy phrase.

But I loved what Beth's mother told her husband the first time she saw him (I'm being spolier-free).