tv

new and noteworthy tv: 5/17-5/23

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I could talk about the one new show and Lost, Lost, Lost, but I guess we can talk about finales, what will they bring?

Monday

  • House (Fox, 8pm) Season Finale – Can House save another?
  • One Tree Hill (CW, 8pm) Season Finale – Are those kids still living in One Tree Hill?
  • Gossip Girl (CW, 9pm) Season Finale – Will Georgina’s return bring more drama?
  • Castle (ABC, 10pm) Season Finale – Will Castle declare his love for Beckett?

Tuesday

  • 90210 (CW, 8pm) Season Finale – Drama? Romance? Arson?
  • V (ABC, 10pm) Season Finale – What are those Vs up to?

Wednesday

  • The Good Guys (Fx, 8pm) Series Premiere – Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks give the odd couple buddy cop show another avenue, the series premieres in its regular timeslot on 6/7.
  • The Middle/Modern Family/Cougar Town (ABC, 8:30-10pm) Season Finales – Did Cougar Town actually become one of my favorite comedies?
  • Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 10pm) Season Finale – Will Sharon Stone be the next ADA to leave?

Thursday

  • Bones/Fringe (Fox, 8/9pm) Season Finales – Will we continue to see creepy death and just plain creepy?
  • Community/Parks & Recreation/The Office /30 Rock/The Marriage Ref (NBC, 8-11pm) Season Finales – Will Community keep up the goodness? Will the other comedies return to goodness? Will I ever watch an ep of Ref?
  • CSI/The Mentalist (CBS, 9pm) Season Finale – Will death hit close to home? Will the psychic detective solve another?
  • Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 9pm) Season Finale – What good could Mandy Moore bring to Grey’s?

Friday

  • Ghost Whisperer/Medium/Miami Medical (CBS, 8/9pm) Season Finale – If they don’t survive Miami Medical will one of the ladies talk to their ghosts?
  • Kitchen Nightmares (Fox, 9pm) Season Finale – Will the Chef ever stop yelling?

Saturday

  • Golden God Awards (VH1 Classic, 10pm) – Metal awards?

Sunday

  • Lost (ABC, 7/9) Series Finale – Will Jack wake to find it was all a dream?
  • Brooks & Dunn (CBS, 8pm) – Whatever.
  • The Simpsons/The Cleveland Show/Family Guy (Fox, 8-10pm) Season Finale – Will animation domination be funny?
  • The Apprentice (NBC, 9pm) Season Finale – Will anyone care who wins?
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new and noteworthy tv: 5/10-5/16

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Aside from all the shows wrapping up there are a few other items you could catch, though not sure you’d really want to…

Monday

  • Undateable (VH1, 10pm) Series Premiere – What are the Top 100 Things that guys do that are deal breakers, find out over every night this week?

Tuesday

  • Ashes to Ashes (BBCA, 10pm) Season Premiere – What happens after Life on Mars when we hit the 80s, something tells me there won’t be a US version of this series after the hasty end of Mars.

Wednesday

  • ANTM (CW, 8pm) Season Finale – A special two hour episode where we find out who is the fiercest.

Thursday

  • Toughest Military Jobs (Military, 9pm) Series Premiere – Really there’s a Military channel?

Friday

  • Gavin & Stacey/Not Going Out (BBCA, 9/9:40pm) Season Premiere(s) – More British fun.

Saturday

  • A New Smile, A New Life (CW, 8pm) – For those desperate for a feel good moment, check out Roma Downey and Operation Smile.

Sunday

  • Miss USA Pageant (NBC, 7pm) – Goodness, which shellacked beauty will get the crown?
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new and noteworthy tv: 5/3-5/9

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Monday

  • Best Food Ever (TLC, 9pm) Series Premiere – America’s best food starts with the sandwich.
  • Big Bang Theory (CBS, 9pm) – At this special time we see what happens now that Penny and Leonard aren’t an item.
  • The Real Housewives of New Jersey (Brav, 10pm) Season Premiere – The ladies, if you can call them that, are back.

Tuesday

  • Women Behind Bars (WE, 10pm) Season Premiere – Profiles of some new women, who are, yes you guessed it, are in prison.

Wednesday

  • How’d You Get So Rich? (TVL, 10pm) Season Premiere – Joan Rivers really wants to know.
  • Worst-Case Scenario (Disc, 10/10:30pm) Series Premiere – You’ve seen Bear Grylls get out of nature and now he’ll show you how to get out of things like burning vehicles.

Thursday

  • The Imploders/Heavy Haulers (TLC, 9/10pm) Series Premiere – The team takes down some smokestacks then another hauls heavy things.
  • The Dudesons in America/Ultimate Parkour Challenge (MTV, 10/10:30pm) Series Premiere – Think JackAss but Finnish then the athletes start at the Queen Mary.

Friday

  • Friday Night Lights (NBC, 8pm) Season Premiere – It’s Friday, and the football team returns, with lights.
  • Need to Know (PBS, 8:30pm) Series Premiere – The latest news magazine.
  • What Would You Do? (ABC, 9pm) Season Premiere – Hidden cameras catch folks in awkward situations.

Saturday

  • That Metal Show (VH1 Cl, 11pm) Season Premiere – Heavy Metal is discussed, and maybe you’ll hear some.

Sunday

  • Jesse Stone: No Remorse (CBS, 9pm) – Another round of Tom Selleck in the title role of the Robert Parker books.
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tv

new and noteworthy tv: 4/26-5/2

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Monday

  • Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern (Trav, 10pm) Season Premiere – What’s to eat in the Australian Outback?
  • Diners, Drive-ins & Dives (Food, 10pm) Season Premiere – More grub.

Tuesday

  • Food Party/Dinner with the Band (IFC, 10pm) Season Premieres – Ok just read the show synopsis on Food Party and not sure what a fifteen minute episode with a fringe artist, puppets, and food would be but I’m tempted to find out, then Rufus Wainwright.
  • The Hills/The City (MTV, 1/10:300pm) Season Premieres – I can’t even pretend to care about these shows.

Wednesday

  • Sunset Daze (WE, 10pm) Series Premiere – Reality fare hits the retirement home.
  • Happy Town (ABC, 10pm) Series Premiere – Something tells me that this town name is ironic as the murders hit.

Thursday

  • Sober House (VH1, 10pm) Season Finale – We know they won’t all make it but here’s hoping this train-wreck of a house did more good than bad for its residents.

Friday

  • Now (PBS, 8:30pm) Series Finale – Now is apparently no longer a relevant topic.

Saturday

  • Nascar (Fox, 7pm) – Cars go round in the Richmond 500.

Sunday

  • Cold Case (CBS, 9/10pm) Season Finale – Kicking off a little early this week to wrap up a two-parter in what could be the last we see f this show.
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tv

new and noteworthy tv: 4/19-4/25

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Still hoping to get caught up enough on tv to get back to some tv on dvd… procrastinator recommendations underlined.

Monday

  • Romantically Challenged (ABC, 9:30) Series Premiere – I do root for Alyssa Milano but it makes me doubtful when the promo jokes make me cringe.
  • Dhani Tackles the Globe (Trav, 11pm) Season Premiere – Not just tackling the globe but cycling.

Tuesday

  • The Lazy Environmentalist (Sund, 8pm) Season Premiere – I think if you have more money it’s easier to be lazy.
  • Deadliest Warrior (Spike, 10pm) Season Premiere – American SWAT vs German CSG-9.

Wednesday

  • Wa$ted (PlGr, 5pm) Season Premiere – Tips on stuff folks huck, first ep bakery good, not composting bad.
  • American Idol: Idol Gives Back (Fox, 8pm) – Another episode I can fast forward through because at the end there is an elimination.
  • Weird or What? (Disc, 8pm) Series Premiere – Investigating the weird and creepy including ‘killer ice’.

Thursday

  • 30 Rock (NBC, 8:30/9:30pm) – A double dose of Liz and Jack.

Friday

  • Say Yes to the Dress (TLC, 6pm) Season Premiere – The ladies love to try on.
  • Swamp Loggers (Disc, 6pm) Season Premiere – The loggers return to a site that’s beaten them before.
  • Chandon Pictures (Sund, 8/8:30pm) Season Premiere – The filmmakers in this Australian series return for more docs and drama.
  • Party Down/Gravity (Starz, 10:30pm) Season/Series Premiere – The return of the amusing caterers and the start of a new com/dram about a suicide survivor support group.

Saturday

  • The Guard (Ion, 10pm) Season Premiere – The Canadian Coast Guard keeps saving those lives.

Sunday

  • Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking (Disc, 8pm) Series Premiere – This documentary talks topics like alien life and time travel.
  • America the Story of Us (Hist, 9pm) Series Premiere – And history.
  • River Monsters (AnPl, 6/7pm) Season Premiere – Tigerfish and stingrays.
  • TV Land Awards (TVL, 9pm) – Tim Allen hosts, including a tribute to  Farrah Fawcett.
  • Girl Meets Gown (WE, 10pm) Series Premiere – In case you missed Say Yes to the Dress.
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new and noteworthy tv: 4/12-4/18

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Monday

  • Snakes’kin (AnPl, 7/7:30pm) Series Premiere – A family of animal responders in Georgia, and there’s snakes.
  • Tough Love (VH1, 9pm) Series Premiere – He tried to get tough on single girls and now he and his mom are taking on couples.

Tuesday

  • Tiny & Toya (BET, 7pm) Season Premiere – They’re back, though I don’t know who ‘they’ are.
  • Deadliest Catch/Construction Intervention (Disc, 9/10pm) Season/Series Premiere – First we follow the seafarers then we check in with some construction workers who start with a restaurant redo.
  • Glee (Fox, 9:28pm) – If I weren’t so looking forward to its return I would boycott for the 9:28 start time.
  • 9 by Design (Brav, 11pm) Series Premiere – We follow interior design couple through real estate and home life of 6+ kids.

Wednesday

  • Ugly Betty (ABC, 10pm) Series Finale – Will Betty be beautiful or has she been all along.

Thursday

  • Weird, True & Freaky (AnPl, 6/6:30pm) Season Premiere – Animals that eat mind altering substances and then primates gone wild, you know for a primate.
  • SNL in the 2000s (NBC, 9pm) – Looking back on a decade worth of clips I bet they can find some funny.

Friday

  • Secrets of the Mountain (NBC/KRON, 8pm) – What will the family find when they go up to the cabin they’re going to sell, I’m guessing secrets.

Saturday

  • Doctor Who (BBCA, 8/9pm) Season Premiere – Tune in at 8 for a little more about the doc and then jump back in.
  • The Graham Norton Show (BBCA, 10:07pm) Season Premiere – The season talker opens with Ricky Gervais among others.

Sunday

  • Riverworld (Syfy, 7/9pm) – Let’s hope this miniseries fares better than Waterworld.
  • Academy of Country Music Awards (CBS, 8pm) – Reba hosts and I think a former American Idol performs.
  • Chefs vs City (Food, 10pm) Season Premiere – It’s a foodie face-off!
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tv

new and noteworthy tv: 4/5-4/11

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Procrastinator picks are underlined… intrigued by the new HBO series at least, though can’t bring myself to pay for HBO.

Monday

  • NCAA Men’s Championship (CBS, 6pm) – The title game in Indianapolis.
  • Runaway Squad (A&E, 10pm) Series Premiere – A search for runaways to reunite them with their families.
  • Tori & Dean (Oxy, 10pm) Season Premiere – Do we really want to see them take an RV road trip?

Tuesday

  • Chopped (Food, 10pm) Season Premiere – Rattlesnake meat?

Wednesday

  • Criminal Minds (CBS, 9pm) – I only occasionally tune in to this show but am intrigued by the promise of a spin-off with tonight’s look at another BAU unit led by Forest Whitaker.
  • Peep Show/That Mitchell & Webb Look (BBCA, 9pm) Season Premiere – Roomie shenanigans and sketch comedy.
  • The Real World/Road Rules Challenge (MTV, 10pm) Season Premiere – They’re at it again.
  • Top Chef Masters (Brav, 11pm) Season Premiere – New competing chefs and a new judge at the table.

Thursday

  • Bones (Fox, 8pm) – The 100th episode brings Booth and Bone’s first case together.

Friday

  • Gator 911/Danger Coast (CMT, 9/9:30pm) Series Premieres – Gators and water rescues.
  • Private Chefs of Beverly Hills (Food, 10pm) Series Premiere – We’re following yet another profession, caterers to the over the top.

Saturday

  • 24/7 (HBO, 10pm) Season Premiere – Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley.

Sunday

  • Brandy & Ray J/Basketball Wives/What Chilli Wants (VH1, 9/10/10:30pm) Series Premieres – More reality fare.
  • The Tudors (Show, 9pm) Season Premiere – Henry takes a fifth wife.
  • Army Wives (Life, 10pm) Season Premiere – More drama.
  • Treme (HBO, 10pm) Series Premiere – A new drama, from the creators of The Wire, set in New Orleans following Katrina.
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new and noteworthy tv: 3/29-4/4

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Monday

  • 10 Things I Hate About You (ABCFam, 8pm) Season Premiere – Maybe they cover a thing a season.
  • Pawn Star$ (Hist, 10pm) Season Premiere – What’s for sale?
  • Saving Grace (TNT, 10pm) Season Premiere – We edge into the final season as Grace continues her drama and her chat with her angel.

Tuesday

  • My First Home/Little Chocolatiers (TLC, 8/10pm) Season Premieres – Homes and chocolate, who could ask for more?
  • Law & Order: Criminal Intent (USA, 10pm) Season Premiere – Goran, Eames, and their lieutenant are counting down to their departures.
  • V (ABC, 10pm) Season Premiere – The aliens are back.

Wednesday

  • In Plain Sight (USA, 10pm) Season Premiere – Mary and Marshall together again.
  • The Ultimate Fighter (Spike, 10pm) Season Premiere – Let the competition begin.

Thursday

  • Bones/Fringe (Fox, 8/9pm) – They’ve taken a break but now they’re back.
  • Mentalist (CBS, 9pm) – Will his powers of perception and persuasion work at an earlier timeslot?
  • Fugitive Chronicles (A&E, 10pm) Series Premiere – Real life infamous manhunts brought to life, I love a good reenactment.

Friday

  • Wife Swap (ABC, 8pm) Season Premiere – Tv sanctioned family torture is back.
  • Stargate Universe/Merlin (Syfy, 9/10pm) Season Premieres – Alien and magical worlds return.
  • Miami Medical (CBS, 10pm) Series Premiere – Another take on the medical drama, the trauma unit finds expert surgeons and an adrenaline rush.

Saturday

  • Maybe I should review my Netflix queue.

Sunday

  • Sunday Best (BET, 5pm) Season Premiere – The gospel competition kicks off in Nigeria.
  • Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom (AnPl, 7pm) – Bears like food!
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new and noteworthy tv: 3/22-3/28

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Idol is down to two nights a week so maybe I’ll finally start to catch up on Lost…

Monday

  • Dancing with the Stars (ABC, 8pm) Season Premiere – Countdown to the first injury…
  • Top Gear (BBCA, 8pm) Season Premiere – More gear.
  • Nurse Jackie/United States of Tara (Show, 10/10:30pm) Season Premiere – The ladies return to Showtime.

Tuesday

  • Survivors (BBCA, 9pm) Season Premiere – Apparently some of the survivors are still surviving in this post apocalyptic tale.
  • V (ABC, 10pm) – After a break this special recap reminding us that we want to like this show but don’t.

Wednesday

  • Fly Girls (CW, 9pm) Series Premiere – I can’t believe an airline agreed to have their stews filmed off duty.
  • Mythbusters/Is It Possible (Disc, 9/10pm) Season/Series Premiere – Thwarting myths and looking at science.

Thursday

  • NCAA (CBS, check local listings) – If we’re at the semis this means the brackets are almost done, right?

Friday

  • Chandon Pictures (Sund, 9pm) Series Premiere – An Australian sitcom follows documentary filmmakers/wedding videographers, hmm I think I saw this on Melrose Place.

Saturday

  • Kids’ Choice Awards (Nick, 8pm) – Kevin James hosts the latest.

Sunday

  • Bubba’s World (Fuel, 10pm) Series Premiere – Following champion motocross rider James Stewart.
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idol dozen

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The pain isn’t over, it just gets more serious. The semi finals are over and I will just come to accept the fact that the wrong four were kicked off. Todrick, Alex, Katelyn, and Lacey may not have been favorites to win, but they had more talent and potential than Aaron, Tim, Paige, and Katie. But it reminds me that one of the things that keeps Idol interesting is the possible injustice of it all. So I expect those four to go, even if it’s not in the order I would choose.

What else makes Idol interesting? That’s a good question and every year at this time I start to wonder. And I have to remind myself that Kris Allen, who wasn’t even an early favorite, was the one who took the title last year. So this year will favorites Crystal or Big Mike continue to shine or will there be another upset or just a limp to the finish line?

I will say that it’s as fun to see a performer pick the right songs, continue to improve, and show us why we really enjoy watching performances as it is frustrating to see folks not living up to their potential and the wrong people keep coming back. I’ll keep watching for now… though I may have to skip out on the next few weeks until we cull the herd. Well, maybe after this next week.

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