News & Notes
Over on cable, Bravo has the seventh season finale of Top Chef, Discovery Health has a My Child Won’t Work special and a My Kid’s Smarter Than Me special, History has the first season finale of Chasing Mummies, MTV has the 24th season finale of The Real World, Spike TV has the 12th season premiere of The Ultimate Warrior, TNT has the second season finale of Dark Blue, and truTV has the series premiere of Ma’s Roadhouse.
In late night, Bravo has the series premiere of Top Chef: Just Desserts and Spike TV has a Royce Gracie: Ultimate Warrior special.
As of next week all Wednesday night programming on the networks will have premiered, except Law & Order: Los Angeles, which premieres the following week.
Prime Picks
The Great Food Truck Race (Food Network): Repeat. This past Sunday’s episode, “Small Town Trouble,” replays, where the three remaining teams have to cook a five-course meal like the pioneers would have. Plays again later.
Dark Blue (TNT): New. Carter and the team go undercover to stop a pair of drug-smuggling brothers using a flower shop as cover for their operation. Ty isn’t sure about his divorce and Carter prepares for a big change in his life. The season finale episode follows, which has the team still undercover in the drug smuggling case. Alex gets a big job offer in Miami and Ty is really having trouble with his divorce. Both play again later.
Terriers (FX): New. Hank and Britt go after a wanted criminal with a sizeable reward for bring him in, cause the need some quick cash. Runs 64 minutes. Plays twice and again later. This is one of the best new shows of the fall, but if you weren’t sure after having watched last week’s premiere, keep watching as things get really good over the first handful of episodes, which revolves around things setup in the first episode.
Other Options
- Hellcats (The CW): New. Marti can’t believe her mother is in the audience. Savannah’s sister falls and gets injured badly while captaining a rival team. Dan takes a liking to Savannah. Did you watch the premiere last week? What did you think? Will you be watching again this week?
- Outlaw (NBC): Series Premiere. Cyrus Garza is a Supreme Court justice that thinks the system that loves has become broken and steps down from his lifetime position to begin practicing law once again and doing whatever he can to help his clients. In this first episode that client is a death row inmate about to be executed (it was nice of them to get this storyline that ever law show must do at least once during its run out of the way early). Plays again Friday in its actual timeslot. The next new episode plays on Sept. 24th. Review: Jimmy Smits plays Garza and he is good as usual, unfortunately the series is not. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that other than the twist of how things start off, it has that seen it before vibe. There isn’t anything special. Yes, they will be taking on all kinds of big and controversial cases, but nothing in this first episode leads me to believe that they will be all that compelling. Also, they try to introduce a little bit of an ongoing mystery, or something, having to do with Garza, but it isn’t fleshed out nearly enough to make you want to know more about it. Overall, it sadly pales in quality and drama to its Friday night competition, as Blue Bloods on CBS is one of the best new shows of the season. Heck, Sanctuary, which premieres Oct. 15th, over on Syfy is a better too.
Sports Note
- ESPN has doubleheader Wednesday Night Baseball MLB action with the New York Yankees at the Tampa Bay Rays followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers at the San Francisco Giants.
Late Night
- Covert Affairs (USA): Repeat. The first of last night’s two episodes, “I Can’t Quit You, Baby,” replays.
- Haven (Syfy): Repeat. Friday night’s episode, “As You Were,” replays. Otherwise known as the first episode to show this series might actually become something.
TV Marathons
Bravo has 14 episodes of Top Chef: Washington D.C.
History has 13 episodes of Ice Road Truckers.
Oxygen has 12 episodes of America’s Next Top Model.
Syfy has six episodes of Merlin early.
USA has five episodes of NCIS tonight.
