Tonight on the Tube: Vampire Diaries, Grey’s Anatomy & Burn Notice

News & Notes

Tonight, ABC has the series premiere of The Deep End.

Over on cable, History has the series premiere of Food Tech, MTV has the first season finale of Jersey Shore, TV One has the first season finale of Love That Girl, and USA has the third winter premiere of Burn Notice

In late night, MTV has a Jersey Shore reunion special.

On Episode 56, “Better Off Chuck,” of the TV times Three podcast, Amrie, Rae and I talk about some TV related news items, including the Leno/Conan/NBC debacle and some show cancellation and renewals. Then, we talked about some of the best TV episodes from the previous week in primetime including the first three episodes of Chuck season three, the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother, and a couple Better Off Ted episodes.

Enter our White Collar giveaway and you could win a prize pack that includes a cashmere scarf, flask, t-shirt, and more.

Prime Picks

The Vampire Diaries (The CW): New. Damon comes across someone that wants him to pay for his past. Stefan attempts to help Bonnie deal with her powers. Still find it hard to believe how much I like this show. Do you watch?

Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): New. Derek gets in Richard’s face about his drinking. Izzie is back. Things are in a weird place for Teddy, Cristina and Owen after how last week’s episode ended. Runs 61 minutes. Are you looking forward to having Izzie back or not?

Burn Notice (USA): Winter Premiere. Michael picks up a new client through Fiona. The person that killed Michael’s CIA contact is trying to get his attention. Guest stars Tyne Daly. Plays again later. This is a great episode, not so much for the case of the week, but for what develops around it. Michael needs his mother’s help with an asset, Daly, which puts the former Cagney & Lacey stars onscreen together again. Yet, it is the story that develops out of this between Michael and his mother that is so good. The whole episode builds really well, as we get a payoff for the story of the week, the Michael/mother storyline, and a launching forward of what will be the overarching story for the remainder of the season. Can’t wait to see what happens next week. The previous nine episodes of the season replay leading up to tonight’s return and a few season two episode replay before that for a total of 17 episodes today.

Solid Selections

Community (NBC): New. Jeff has a new girlfriend and wants to keep her a secret from the rest of the study group. Britta and Troy share some secrets.
Parks & Recreation (NBC): New. Leslie is trying to impress Justin with a dinner party at her house. I had given up on this show, even though I had kept hearing good things about it. Mostly, cause they had been saying that all season and I wasn’t seeing the improvement they were talking about. Yet, with Will Arnet’s guest appearance last week, I decided to watch. And, would you believe it, I actually laughed three times, plus found a few other things amusing. So, have put it back on the list and will give it another couple episodes to completely win me back over. Have you been watching, what do you think of this season?

The Office (NBC): New. Everyone is trying to impress a potential buyer for Dunder Mifflin that is visiting the office.
30 Rock (NBC): New. Liz takes the show on the road in hopes of boosting morale, but everyone ends up blaming her for his or her problems.

The Mentalist (CBS): New. A mayoral aide is murder and the team has the case. Van Pelt and Rigsby have an announcement. Anything good happen last week, I totally forgot to set the DVR and missed it?

Other Options

• Ace of Cakes (Food Network): New. Duff and the gang are hired to make a New York Stock Exchange cake. A repeat episode follows. Both play again later.
• Bones (FOX): New. The team is tasked with investigating the cause of death for an unidentified body that is highly classified. If you’ve seen the promos, then you know what and who they think they are investigating.
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS): New. The team is searching for the killer of a golf legend during a tournament.
• The Deep End (ABC): Series Premiere. Five first-year associates, who are supposed to be the best and the brightest, are hired by a top law firm, and well, thrown into the deep end. I like a lot of the cast, especially Tina Majorino (Veronica Mars) and Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight), but they cram way too much into this episode. While a “Pilot” episode is supposed to introduce a show, it doesn’t have to try and setup absolutely everything. This one tries to do just that and in an hour, it is just too much. It might have been too much for two hours. I didn’t totally hate it and will probably give it one more episode, but if it doesn’t slow things down a bit, I’ll be out, as there is already too much really good TV on Thursday nights. As of right now, it would be my fourth pick on the networks in its timeslot.
• Fringe (FOX): New. Peter gets exposed to a deadly virus and Walter, Broyles and Astrid are racing the clock to help, as Olivia may be in trouble too.
• Private Practice (ABC): New. Sam and Naomi are shocked to learn about what their daughter told Addison last week. Pete puts forth a challenge. Starts a minute after the hour and runs 59 minutes.
• Supernatural (The CW): New. Sam and Dean check-in to a mental hospital looking for what is attacking the patients there.

Sports Notes

• ESPN has doubleheader college basketball action.
• ESPN2 has Australian Open tennis coverage and a college basketball game.
• TNT has doubleheader NBA action with the Los Angeles Lakers at the Cleveland Cavaliers followed by the Los Angeles Clippers at the Denver Nuggets.

Late Night

• White Collar (USA): Repeat. Tuesday night’s third winter premiere episode, “Hard Sell,” replays.

TV Marathons

A&E has five episodes of The First 48.
Bravo has nine episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange County.
Discovery Channel has six episodes of A Haunting….
MTV has eight episodes of Jersey Shore.
Oxygen has 20 episodes of Snapped.
Spike has nine hours of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Syfy has eight episodes of The Sentinel early.
USA has 17 episodes of Burn Notice, which includes some season two episodes and all of the previous nine season three episode leading up to tonight’s winter premiere.
WE has five episodes of Bridezillas early.