Tonight on the Tube: Pretty Little Liars, Warehouse 13 & Covert Affairs Series Premiere

News & Notes

Tonight, FOX has the 2010 MLB All-Star Game.

Over on cable, Discovery Health has a Big Babies special, MTV has the series finale of The Hills and the second season finale of The City, and USA has the second season premiere of White Collar and the series premiere of Covert Affairs.

Enter to win a Saving Grace: The Final Season DVD set and a White Collar: Season One DVD set. Both of these DVD sets arrive in stores today.

Prime Picks

Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family): New. It’s homecoming and secrets may ruin it for the girls. Plays again later and next Tuesday before the next new episode. The first five episodes of the series replay leading up to tonight’s new episode, so you have a chance to catch-up, if you haven’t jumped onboard as of yet.

Warehouse 13 (Syfy): New. Someone is using an artifact to help them clean up an area of Detroit. Plays again later. Last week’s second season premiere episode, “Time Will Tell,” replays right before. Review: I loved this episode. Even more than last week’s season premiere. As I’ve mentioned before, this show can have fun with just about anything. In this episode, they have a whole lot of fun with the comic book superhero genre. The humor of the episode is great. Eddie McClintock’s (@thereeleddiemcc@EddieMcClintock) Lattimer gets is comic book geek on. Plus, Firefly fans will enjoy seeing @JewelStaite and @Sean_M_Maher together again onscreen, as they guest star in the episode. Speaking of things you’ll want to see. Guys, I’ll just say two words: Joanne Kelly.

Covert Affairs (USA): Series Premiere. A trainee for the CIA gets bumped up to active duty with a secret group within the agency to retrieve some data from an informant. Runs 76 minutes. Plays again later. Review: USA definitely has another hit on their hands with Covert Affairs. Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly) is great as the lead and the rest of the cast is just outstanding as well. @Chris_Gorham (Ugly Betty, Harper’s Island), @annedudek (House), @petergallagher_ (The O.C.), and Kari Matchett (Invasion). Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) joins the cast after the “Pilot.” These These are all people I like from other things and nothing here does anything to change that. Many want to compare this show to Alias. Which makes sense I guess, but other than having a beautiful woman running around playing spy, the comparison doesn’t really hold up for me much past there. But, given the genre, you’ll be able to compare this show to lots of spy shows and movies. The origin story is compelling and will help to drive the overall story arc going forward. This puts you in the familiar format of getting a mission of the week and an ongoing storyline for the season to follow. The action is believable, as are the characters and situations. While it probably falls more in the action-drama category, there is plenty of humor. This is one of those premiere episodes where a lot of it works so well that it’ll leave you wishing you could watch the next episode immediately.

Other Options

• Life Unexpected (The CW): Repeat. The sixth episode, “Crisis Unaverted,” replays, where Baze and Ryan are both competing in a radio station contest.
• Make It or Break It (ABC Family): New. When Olympic champion Austin Tucker begins training at The Rock, it causes problems between the girls and the guys for training time and space at the gym.
• Memphis Beat (TNT): New. Sutton gets put undercover as a ladies man, as they investigate the attempted murder of a barbecue king. Plays again later.
• Rescue Me (FX): New. Tommy’s first day back on the job is a hectic one, leaving everyone exhausted. Plays again later.
• White Collar (USA): Season Premiere. After dealing somewhat with the events of the first season finale, Peter and Neal are looking into a series of bank robberies. Plays again later. Don’t forget to enter our White Collar: Season One DVD set giveaway, if you haven’t already. Review: This season picks up soon after the explosive ending to season one. Searching for who was behind the plane explosion will drive much of the overall season arc, but this episode’s case of the week is a good one with guest director and star Tim Matheson (Burn Notice, The West Wing) as the suspect in a string a bank robberies where the perpetrator leaves a calling card before the heists. But, one of my favorite parts of the episode is Agent Burke trying to talk to Mozzie about Neal. While I like Natalie Morales (The Middleman), she was severely underutilized in the first season and will not be missed in season two. But, bringing Marsha Thompson (Las Vegas) back at the end of last season and for this season is a great move. Never quite understood why they decided to excise her character from the series following the “Pilot.” The end of the episode will leave you, well, I just let you see for yourself.
• Unnatural History (Cartoon Network): New. A martial artist is suspected after some samurai artifacts go missing. Plays again Sunday and again following next week’s new episode. This move seemed to escape my notice until today, but apparently it will now play on Tuesdays going forward.

Sports Notes

• FOX has the 2010 MLB All-Star Game from Anaheim.
• Versus has coverage of the Tour de France: Stage 9. Replays multiple times.

Late Night

• Haven (Syfy): Repeat. Last Friday’s series premiere episode, “Welcome to Haven,” replays. Also play earlier in the evening.
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (USA): Repeat. This past season’s finale episode, “Three-in-One,” replays.
• Louie (FX): New. Louie finds is age to be an advantage and he sets up a play date for his kids with the kids of an attractive woman. Plays again later. The “Pilot” episode replays right after. Review: There are some funny moments, but the series became less compelling to me with each subsequent episode after the premiere, which I loved.

TV Marathons

A&E has 11 episodes of Gene Simmons Family Jewels tonight.
ABC Family has six episodes of Pretty Little Liars.
MTV has episodes of The Hills all day.
Nickelodeon has 16 episodes of Family Matters in late night.
Oxygen has 11 episodes of America’s Next Top Model.
Spike TV has six episodes of The Unit.
USA has 15 episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.