News & Notes
Over on cable, A&E has the sixth season finale of Criss Angel: Mindfreak, Animal Planet has a Cat Ladies special, E! has an E! Investigates: The Curse of the Lottery II special, FX has the series premiere of Terriers, HBO has the sixth season finale of Hard Knocks, Showtime has the 34th season premiere of Inside the NFL, Spike TV has the fifth season fianle of Pros Vs. Joes, Sundance has the second season premiere of The Day Before and a Girl on the Run: Winter 2011 special, truTV has the third season premiere of Black Gold, and USA has the fifth summer season finale of Psych.
In late night, TV Land has a She’s Got the Look behind the scenes special.
Prime Picks
The Great Food Truck Race (Food Network): Repeat. This past Sunday’s episode, “The Big Uneasy?,” replays, where the four remaining teams have to deal with bad weather and very few customers. Plays again later.
Dark Blue (TNT): New. In the first of two new episodes tonight, the team goes undercover to stop a home invasion crew. Another new episode follows. Both play again later.
Psych (USA): Summer Finale. A U.S. spy asks Shawn and Gus for help to clear her name for an international crime she says she didn’t commit. Nestor Carbonell (Lost), Jon Gries (The Pretender), C. Thomas Howell (Southland), and Franka Potente (The Bourne Identity) all guest star in the episode. Plays again later. This is a great episode with lots of action, plenty of fun, and an ending that longtime fans won’t want to miss. I’ve gotten behind on my posting of stuff, but will be attempting to post interviews and photos from my set visit last month over the course of the day today, making this Psych day here at TVaholic.com. This was the episode they were filming while I was there. There is also a marathon on USA starting early with the “Pilot” episode, then the S.4 finale, “Mr. Yin Presents…,” and then the previous eight episodes from this season. Psych returns to finish out the fifth season as of Wednesday, Nov. 10th.
Other Options
- Hellcats (The CW): Series Premiere. A law student that finds out that her scholarship has been revoked too late to apply for any others finds out that there is one available to cheerleaders, so she decides to try out for the squad. This is a decent enough show, but I just wanted it to slow down. Yes, you want to set things up, but does every little thing have to be put in the opening episode? It’s at least better than the reintroduction of 90210, which hasn’t really improved much since then. There are a couple of cringingly bad moments acting-wise, by actors I wouldn’t expect it from. It may turn into a fun soapy drama, if it just slows down a bit in subsequent episodes. There was enough here for me to give it a couple more episodes.
- Terriers (FX): Series Premiere. A pair of unlicensed private detectives get involved in a big case revolving around corruption while trying to do a favor for an old drinking buddy. Runs 72 minutes. Plays twice and again later. While I haven’t seen HBO’s Boardwalk Empire or AMC’s upcoming The Walking Dead, I have seen almost every other new scripted fall series and Terriers is the best of the bunch. FX seems to just not falter on the drama side of things. Terriers is just an excellent show. It’s hard to come up with a show that is mostly original and it’s even harder to make good show that uses some combination of things we’ve seen many times before. Terriers is another show that proves you can take a well-worn idea, in this case a former cop that fell on hard times do to his drinking problem and lost his job and wife and is trying to repair his life by putting the only skills he has to use as a private detective, and do something great with it. With great writing and actors, you can turn that group of elements and put them together in such a compelling, engaging and thoroughly watch-able way. Now, the first half of the “Pilot” is a little slow, but by the end of the episode a fantastic storyline and some great characters have emerged that you’ll want to come back and watch each week. Donal Logue (Life, Grounded for Life) stars. If it wasn’t for tonight being the summer finale of one of my favorite shows on TV right now, Psych, this would most definitely be the Prime Pick and will be over everything else that will be airing opposite it, ABC’s The Whole Truth, CBS’s The Defenders and NBC’s Law & Order: Los Angeles, as the fall season gets into full swing.
Sports Notes
- ESPN has doubleheader Wednesday Night Baseball MLB action with the Tampa Bay Rays at the Boston Red Sox followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers at the San Diego Padres.
- ESPN2 has quarterfinals coverage from the U.S. Open tennis tournament.
Late Night
- Covert Affairs (USA): Repeat. Last night’s episode, “Fool in the Rain,” replays.
- Leverage (TNT): Repeat. This past Sunday night’s summer finale episode, “The Morning After Job,” replays.
TV Marathons
Bravo has eight episodes of Top Chef followed by five episodes of Top Chef: Washington D.C.
Oxygen has 12 episodes of America’s Next Top Model.
Syfy has eight episodes of The Outer Limits early.
USA has 10 episodes of Psych early.
