News & Notes
Giveaways: Two Boston Legal – Season Five DVD sets and two Prison Break – Season Four – The Final Season DVD sets.
Note: I probably keep mentioning this for a few more days. It was time to change the Tonight on the Tube posts up a bit. Cable and network best bets will be combined in the Prime Picks and Solid Selections sections and the separate Cable Choices section has been dropped. The two sections will continue to be made up of the best bet for each hour of primetime. Since during the summer, most of the good stuff is on cable, it just seemed weird for those shows to not be part of the Prime Picks section, like The Closer tonight. The Other Options section will continue to be a combined listing of cable and network shows that play during primetime, which also might be worth checking out.
Prime Picks
Greek (ABC Family): New. It’s the Kappa Taus and the ZBZs against the Omega Chis and the IKIs in the annual float building competition for Homecoming Week. Plays again later.
The Closer (TNT): Season Premiere. Brenda and the squad are investigating a quadruple homicide, which brings some twists and turns. This is one of my favorite shows and this is another great episode. Plays again tomorrow night. There is a marathon of episode that plays all day leading up to tonight’s season premiere episode.
Weeds (Showtime): Season Premiere. For some reason I usually only make it through about half a season before giving up on this show, but this is the type of episode that gets me to come back. Nancy tells Estaban that she is pregnant and Celia is held hostage. Neither of which sounds all that funny, but both are handled with a dark comic bite that really works. The Celia storyline is just too funny. Plays again later.
Nurse Jackie (Showtime): Series Premiere. A take no nonsense nurse that is addicted to painkillers who does whatever it takes to take care of her patients. I am not nearly as enamored with this show, as many others seem to be. I haven’t read the reviews, but the headlines all seem to indicate that this is the best new show of the summer or year. I have the first six episodes, but stopped after one, so I could write about it without subsequent episodes coloring my opinion of the premiere, but maybe it gets better. One of the problems may have been that I watched the premiere episode of TNT’s new nurse show HawthoRNe, which has a similar take on the nursing vs. doctoring and was only an okay episode. If you watch Weeds, you may want to stick around and check this out. I will be watching the next few episodes before next Monday, so I’ll let you know if it gets better, but so far it just doesn’t do it for me. With all that in mind, the acting is really very good. Plays again later.
Solid Selections
Good Eats (Food Network): New. Alton tries to sneak some veggies into some tasty treats and then a repeat episode about molasses follows. Both play again later.
Unwrapped (Food Network): New. Marc checks out some “Fun Drinks” and then repeat episode about “Frosty” desserts follows. Both play again later.
Raising the Bar (TNT): Season Premiere. Jerry is defending a barber whose nephew was caught selling drugs out of his shop. His hair plays into the story. This is a good show even though I gave up on it part way through season one. Not because it was bad, but because it played during the fall and there was just too much to watch and something had to go. Will probably watch over the summer, if the quality remains at the level of this return episode. It’s worth checking out if you don’t have Showtime. Plays again later.
Other Options
- Army Wives (Lifetime): Repeat. Last night’s season three premiere episode, “Best Laid Plans,” replays. Plays again Sunday before the next new episode.
- Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives (Food Network): New. Guy checks out some places that serve “All Kinds of Classics” and then a repeat episode about “Family Favorites” follows. Both play again later.
Sports Note
- ESPN has Monday Night Baseball with the Tampa Bay Rays at the New York Yankees.
Late Night
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent (USA): Repeat. Last night’s episode, “Folie a Deux,” replays.
- Royal Pains (USA): Repeat. Last Thursday’s series premiere episode, “Pilot,” replays. Runs 90 minutes.
TV Marathons
Bravo has 12 hours of Kathy Griffin specials and D-List episodes leading up to tonight’s season premiere.
Oxygen has 12 episodes of America’s Next Top Model.
Sci Fi has eight episodes of Dark Angel early.
TNT has The Closer episodes all day leading up to tonight’s season five premiere.
I ordered Showtime today just for Weeds. And I will watch Nurse Jackie only because everyone is raving about it. But pilots are usually crap (my opinion only) so I will probably stick around afor a couple of episodes of the later. Or your reveiw.
Patty, A lot of times pilot episodes are crap. You just hope they give you some small glimpse of what a show could be and then you watch at least a couple more episodes to see if it does develop into something worth watching. Sometimes it can take more than that, which is what happened for me with In Plain Sight and The Middleman. It took half a season, for different reasons, to get into each of them.
I liked Nurse Jackie. Didn’t LOVE it but enjoyed it enough to keep watching. Interesting thing tho – since it’s On Demand, i am even more likely to watch it. Is that what networks want?
I have never watched In Plain Sight but am interested. Do I need to put it in my Netflix cue?
Patty, In Plain Sight would be a good one to add to the old Netflix que. If you are annoyed by the family storyline at the beginning, like many including me were, keep watching. It gets better and has really turned into something in the second season.