Two new Wednesday shows that are on the bubble – that might not return when/if the writers strike is ever resolved – sent out fresh episodes for our consideration in hopes of keeping themselves in the game.

ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money” boasts a great cast, a premise promising lots of Schadenfreude and writing that has drifted a smidgen since its first episodes. In the other corner, NBC’s “Life” offers a charismatic star (Damian Lewis), a droll but underused supporting actor (Adam Arkin) and yet more crime-procedural sleuthing for a nation that refuses to be sated on same.

The two shows square off against each other at 10 p.m. Wednesdays, and both get roundly beaten by CBS’s “CSI: New York.” “Dirty Sexy Money” fairly decisively bests “Life” (which it could on the basis of their respective titles alone), but draws fewer than 9m viewers these days, a lot fewer than one’d expect given such a polished package. “Life’s” dying, but part of the problem is how badly its lead-in, the heavily hyped “Bionic Woman,” tanked. Compared to pre-season expectations, “BW” is far more of a disappointment than “Life” (which is not to say that “Life” isn’t disappointing but I think we’ve all established that).

Wednesday’s “Dirty Sexy Money” has a whole slew of subplots you probably won’t care much about, but it mainly concerns Karen Darling’s (Natalie Zea) impending four wedding, to a chipper golf clod; needless to say, she’s having second thoughts hours before the big event. Her mother Letitia (Jill Clayburg), suspecting this is because of her longtime unrequited pining for family attorney Nick (Peter Krause), implores Nick to tell Karen that they have no future together and she needs to get on with her life. Nick’s wife Lisa (Zoe McLellan), never happy with the Darling family’s encroachment upon her own, is none too happy about this.

I’m not one to divulge spoilers, so I’ll leave that task to the show’s producers, who sent a note along with the screener reading, “Peter Krause and Natalie Zea have both received a lot of attention for their chemistry on screen, and we believe this is their best episode together yet.”

Certainly, Zea’s character is the most entertainingly neurotic on the show, but she’s also a smidgen enigmatic: You get the sense that she’d actually be fairly well-grounded had things worked out between her and Nick. And not necessarily because she, as a powerfully wealthy Darling, had gotten her way, but because she really was (is?) hopelessly in love with him. Krause plays Nick close to the vest; if he has any residual feelings for her beyond a pitying affection, he hides it well, though Lisa’s jealousy could work against her.

As for “Life,” Wednesday’s episode features an eye-popping murder scene: A man is discovered in a stark apartment with the lower part of his body atomized in a gas explosion. The laws of physics pretty much insist that there’s no way this crime scene could look the way it does – the refrigerator door didn’t budge in the blast? really? – but it makes for an arresting visual nonetheless.

It only gets stranger from there – turns out the guy was leading dual lives, married to two different women, and was a mild-mannered IRS drone doing a little free-lance investigating of a series of bombings that had befuddled the Feds. Meanwhile, the episode almost distracts viewers from the unique A-story mystery with developments and revelations in Charlie’s (Lewis) exploration into his having been framed for murder all those years ago: The arresting officer in his case is found murdered in the police parking garage, and he’s once again under a cloud of suspicion. (Given the size of his last settlement for wrongful arrest, you wonder why the D.A.’s office is so gung-ho about persecuting him further.)

And there’s a fairly impressive plot twist at the episode’s conclusion, which’d make it a shame if they never got to resolve that story. Given the show’s ratings and the strike, however, that looks to be one of the casualties in this war over residuals.

- “Dirty Sexy Money:” 10 p.m. Wednesday, ABC (Channel 7).
- “Life,” 10 p.m. Wednesday, NBC (Channel 4).