WHAT'S ON
Bill Maher’s once-a-week HBO talk show practically screams “DVR Me So You Can Skim This Over the Weekend,” but he deserves better. Heavy political comedy from a host who usually seems a bit stoned should be savored, not rushed. Maher’s not quite a fine wine, but at least he can say anything he wants without offending advertisers (or Sarah Palin).
WHAT'S ON
Much was made over the Project Runway network shift and no one can say that Lifetime isn’t taking advantage of the attention. There are three-plus hours of fashion forward viewing tonight so even the most insatiable PR fan will probably be hungover tomorrow from all of that fabric purchasing and sewing.
WHAT'S ON
The basketball player known as Shaquille O’Neal may not have too many seasons left in the tank, but the media personality known as Shaq is just warming up. His last televised challenge was taking on childhood obesity, but now he ventures to far-flung locales like Pittsburgh to compete against fellow athlete luminaries in their chosen sports. Does it matter if he beats them? Not really. Does Shaq need to do another show to prove that he has the most charisma of any living athlete? Definitely not.
The last season of Monk began with little fanfare last week, but look for the tributes to roll in over the course of the season. The middle-aged audience for Tony Shalhoub’s OCD antics will sorely miss this quirky series and hopefully USA has another addled detective comedy project in the works. Weird cops shows rarely fly on networks (Sorry, The Unusuals), but that is all that basic cable is these days.
WHAT'S ON
The new season of Mad Men starts Sunday, and we welcome it as a harbinger of the fall season. The TCA press tour certainly whetted our appetite for new dramas, comedies and even Wayne Brady, so try to make it through another month or so of reruns and savor the last of the summer filler. Wash all that down tonight with a glass of ABC’s Wipeout.
WHAT'S ON
Sorry you missed the goings on at this year’s Teen Choice Awards and Alaskan Babydaddy Honors? Fret not — they actually air on Fox tonight. And while Robert Pattinson winning might not be historically important (or surprising), at least it reflects the conscious choice of his fans to force him to find somewhere to put a surfboard engraved “Choice Male Hottie” in his house.
WHAT'S ON
Summer is the time for dating shows, and if we have to cringe through one about desperate plus-size people who are convinced that this humiliating reality show is their last chance at true happiness, so be it. What’s the alternative — leave the house and socialize with good friends? Exactly. Now hunker down: It’s time to get your lonely fat on.
WHAT'S ON
It may not be a massive Emmy snub, but we thought Kevin Nealon might get a little love in the Supporting Actor category this year. Although his portrayal of Doug won’t win any shiny things next month, the warmth of his pot-loving, child-corrupting, telling-it-like-it-is-ing character continutes to make the B-plot of every Weeds episode the highlight of each week. Get it, highlight?
WHAT'S ON
There might be fictional entertainment (e.g. Burn Notice) on the cable channels, but we’ll patronize network reality tonight, specifically So You Think You Can Dance. Despite having one of the worst television show names in history, this show gets better every season and actually improves as the season progresses. With fewer dancers, the performances are longer and we feel less of a need to leave the house and, you know, actually dance ourselves.
Now that The Bachelorette is over, a new show featuring contrived romance needs to fill the void. Like clockwork, Fox drops in with More to Love, a plus-sized take on The Bachelor. Now that racial prejudice has been largely eradicated, American society is moving on to size discrimination, and More to Love is an unsteady stumble in that direction. Size 20 women everywhere UNITE!
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As the lead in HBO's megabudget miniseries The Pacific, Badge Dale finally gets to rise to the front of an ensemble. The 31-year-old actor first appeared as the ill-fated Simon in the 1990 adaptation of Lord of the Flies, then...
35-year-old Rian Johnson exploded onto the indie film scene in 2005 with his feature debut, Brick -- a captivating noir that both honored the form and subverted it by setting the mystery at a suburban California high school....
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