The Goodriddance Girl

I almost forgot to warn you about the TNT remake of The Goodbye Girl tonight. Yikes! Who, you might ask, other than Neil Simon, was pining for a redo of a scandalously overrated movie that's virtually -- nay, completely -- unwatchable today? This TGG looks like a bad -- really bad -- touring roadshow version of a Broadway hit...think Tony Danza and Ted McGinley in The Odd Couple...actually something worse than that. And it's got the horribly annoying widdle girl/homunculette who got famous from some soft drink commercial. Ugh! What was Jeff Daniels thinking? Run away!

 
Get Your Monk On


USA's...er, Tony Shaloub's Monk-- for without him, there is no series at all -- returns tonight at 10pm for the second half of its second season, and new episodes of Monk are always something to relish. Since this is merely the continuation of the season, the Randy Newman theme song will probably still be there, having replaced the wonderful -- and Emmy-winning -- original Jeff Beal theme. Too bad. Whenever the first theme shows up in a promo or on a first season episode (like during today's all-day marathon), it's like a ray of sunshine. Cranky or charming, Newman or Beal...it doesn't make or break the show, but a theme sets the tone and they lost something lovable when they ditched the Beal theme. See for yourself at 10pm, and tune in until 8pm today for earlier episodes. Incidentally, USA is using the Beal theme in episodic promos for tonight's episode, though their Shaft homage -- "Wipe Your Mouth!" being the only really funny line in it -- is on the overall show promo.


More Maher

The acerbic Bill Maher is also back on HBO tonight with new episodes of Real Time with Bill Maher, so-named because it's broadcast live at 8pm Eastern (West Coasters get it delayed, of course), with a replay at 11:30pm, and encores elsewhere throughout the week. Perfectly timed to take advantage of this election year, RTwBM will quite possibly turn out to be the most cogent and cranky political commentary we'll get anywhere, and for that alone it's highly recommended. Not to mention that Maher is funny, though that sometimes take a back seat to the discussion at hand. He's not hesitant to hammer a point or express an unpopular or provocative opinion, and while he's certainly in the same general league with Dennis Miller (who's starting his new CNBC talk show soon, evidently with a simian co-host, ala J. Fred Muggs, according to Variety) and can tangle the mass culture references like a champ, Maher doesn't seem quite as self-satisfied as Miller when he tosses them out. Maher can be a bit of an asshole, but he's never less than watchable.


Food Rocks!

Food Network makes another stab for a younger demographic (like with their Rachael Ray quickie gourmet show, which is great, or the elementary how-to programs) with tonight's debut of Dweezil & Lisa at 10pm. Rockers and longtime sweethearts Dweezil Zappa and bespectacled Lisa Loeb go on a food tour, starting out their odyssey with a stop at Indigo Girl Emily Salier's restaurant in Atlanta. Subsequent episodes take them to family reunions, birthdays, Puerto Rico and other diverse venues. Will the cuteness of this couple be enough to make this show a win for Food, whose schedule is already a veritable paella of personalities with varying degrees of charisma and knowledge? Set your timer for 10pm and see how it comes out.



The new season of Monk begins tonight at 10pm on USA Network. And don't forget that, if you just can't get enough, ABC begins replays of Monk in the Saturday 10pm time slot beginning tomorrow night.


Real Time with Bill Maher returns with new episode at 8pm on HBO.

Dweezil & Lisa premieres tonight on Food Network at 10pm.

And don't forget about Joan of Arcadia at 8pm on CBS!

 
Fly, Rover...Fetch, Rover...Amaze, Rover

If you haven't done so already, I urge you to get on over to the NASA Mars Exploration Rover Mission website and check out the completely astounding new photos of the surface of Mars. Especially recommended for their blow-your-socks-off quality are the selections posted on Jan. 13th, the color panorama pictures, and be sure to click on the largest image possible. Spend some time zooming in and out and panning the span, because it will both humble and excite you. If not, check your pulse. You're probably dead.

 
Resistance May Be Futile, But It's The Only Way To Go

America has spoken -- viewers like Donald Trump and The Apprentice on NBC, last Thursday and last night, and woe is me. You can catch a new episode tonight at 8:30p, but I'm going to beat my dead horse again and urge you to check out the other 8pm choices Tru Calling on Fox and/or Threat Matrix on ABC. At least CBS isn't strewing CSI plays hither and yon to blunt Trump; tonight they're running an extra episode of Without a Trace at 8pm, hoping it will perform as well as the Cold Case repeat they aired yesterday evening at 8pm to impressive numbers. CBS is quickly discovering that these crime dramas are as effective for them as the various Law & Order skeins are for NBC -- that is, a quick fix when you're in a jam and can't afford to take a chance on something less guaranteed-to-work. It's not particularly elegant, creative or interesting, but it's certainly efficient.

Of course, the best bet for sheer entertainment tonight is the second episide of this season on Showtime's The Chris Isaak Show at 10pm. I'm thrilled to report that last week's opener was delightful, just as good as some of the great episodes from previous years, and tonight's looks to be equally amusing. The conceit that Chris Isaak is a tightwad -- a theme that's been played with before on the show but seems to be forefront now -- is always funny, and much like Jack Benny was anything but the miser he played on his show on radio and TV, nice-guy Isaak playing cheap is a delight. The show is charming, fairly insane, and not-to-be-missed. Check out my blog from last Thursday Jan. 8th for more information.

 
Movie Credits Longer Than Ever?

Well, according to this report they are, but if you go to the movies, you know that nobody in the theater -- except for a scattered few dogged completists -- stays to watch the credits anymore. (Specialized or industry audiences are an exception, naturally). And with many movies adopting the "all credits at the end" style, a lot of people don't even know the names of most of the actors they just saw onscreen, let alone the rest of the production crew. I'm all for the end credits, something that's really important when the films hit television, where you need to get viewers hooked into the story as fast as possible, and leisurely credit sequences are off-putting and a luxury TV just can't afford.

The ever-longer end credits will no doubt be treated the same way they are (usually) for TV today -- squeezed down, sped up, or reconfigured into a breakneck credit roll that nobody except Evelyn Wood honor students would be able to decifer. So, while unions may have won the right for their memberships to have their names up on those credits, don't count on anybody noticing. I was amazed that after the most recent Lord of the Rings movie, the audience scrammed outta there like an Orc just let off a Middle Earthen silent-but-deadly; unless they'd all seen the movie four times already -- and this was only the third day out -- if fans don't stay for the credits, who will?

 
Hold 'Em or Fold 'Em = Fun to Watch

Poker's back, and Bravo (among other networks) knows it, thanks to their successful (by cable standards) Celebrity Poker Showdown, the first six-episode cycle of which culminates tonight at 8pm in a two-hour finale match. The winners of the previous five segments (the first four of which are airing today starting at 3pm) meet tonight to see who's really got what it takes, and though you might not believe it if you haven't caught the series yet, it should be a hell of a show. I'm not bluffing here: Celebrity Poker Showdown is terrific.

In a season where networks persist in bringing out shows featuring an element of competition, however specious -- who's bitchiest, who's ugliest and needs the most plastic surgery, who's got the tackiest decorating taste, who can eat fish guts, and so on -- it's refreshing to discover that a genuine competition like CPS has caught the viewers' fancy. It's a surprisingly unadorned concept -- five celebrities are assembled at the Palm Casino Resort in Las Vegas to play Texas Hold 'Em Poker -- and production, a snazzy logo-ed curtain and poker table the only set pieces, except for the ring-a-ding Loser's Lounge, where everybody except the victor ultimately ends up. The charm here is precisely in the purity of the pursuit-- playing poker-- and a little bit in the celebrity-watching, but more on a psychology experiment-level than some kind of E! expose.

One thing I really like is that the "big" celebrities don't always-- in fact never did -- win, and unlikely champions emerged, Q Scores (do they even get used anymore?) be damned. Willie Garson over Ben Affleck and Friends' David Schwimmer? Yeah, baby! Granted this was the first episode, and subsequent hours featured a more eclectic mix of known and not-so-known faces, including an episode full of West Wing actors (all the better to promote the show on Bravo's schedule; hey, can't blame 'em for trying), but in truth all the contestants have been fun to watch. And when squirrelly and hilarious comedian/actor David Cross (Mr. Show, Arrested Development) snatched an unexpected victory in the fifth episode, well, you had to love it.

The real star of the show, though, is Texas Hold 'Em, a poker variation that works well for TV -- very interactive and lots of cards showing -- and its intricacies and strategies are explained simply and persuasively by expert commentator and ultra-smart guy Phil Gordon. Kevin Pollack is a great co-host with Gordon, and his consolation and commiseration with the losers in the Lounge is snappy, snippy and incredibly entertaining. The show is an interesting and effective mix of a little show biz, a lot of serious poker playing, frequent appearances -- and sometimes disappearances -- of Lady Luck, and a more than you'd imagine amount of persuasion and personality as the players vie for dominance and a win for their favorite charity.

Though poker, like most everything on TV, is probably just a passing phase on the programming continuum, it's a spunky and yet cerebral antidote to a lot of the tiresome junk out there right now. Bottom line, it's working, and Bravo -- which has just announced that a second series of Celebrity Poker Showdown is on the way later this year -- along with Travel and their World Poker Tour, ESPN and the World Series of Poker, and the folks who'd like to bring you the Casino & Gaming TV cable channel (if they can get it off the ground), is betting that it will hang in for the long haul, and that's no bluff.


Celebrity Poker Showdown concludes tonight at 8pm with the two-hour finale where previous winners Willie Garson, Richard Schiff, Nicole Sullivan, Paul Rudd and David Cross meet to compete. Visit the CPS site on Bravo for background information, and to vote in the "Who do you think will win?" poll, where it looks like the David Cross fan club has stuffed the ballot box.

The entire six episode series runs several more times and in a couple of marathons, the first of which is this coming Sunday beginning at 3pm. If you want to see David Cross' inspirational comeback victory, it's not playing in today's marathon so your first opportunity will be Sunday at 7pm. Here's the schedule.


Check out the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour website for complete information and show schedule. This spring they'll be premiering their own celebrity poker series with Hollywood Home Games, set inside actual homes of the participants. Maybe we'll get to see inside their medicine cabinets or something....

You'll find ESPN's World Series of Poker site here.


And you can learn all about the fledgling Casino & Gaming TV network at their site here.

 
Agnieszka Holland Directing an Episode of CBS' Cold Case?

Yes, indeed, acclaimed Polish writer and director Holland helmed tonight's episode of Cold Case, giving you yet another reason -- besides the one that the show's pretty good -- to watch at 8pm this evening. Holland, whose credits include an Oscar nomination for 1990's Europa, Europa, along with many other highly respected movies, and more recently the HBO movie Shot in the Heart, surely lends a classy note to this already dignified series, which despite not engendering the hoopla of higher-profile programs is a solid performer for CBS. (Also despite the fact that the Cold Case concept was hardly original, all protestations from the producers notwithstanding; they don't get many points for giving credit where credit is due, unfortunately.)

Enjoy!


Cold Case airs at 8pm on CBS.



Pore over Ms. Holland's impressive credits here on IMDB.

And here's another site with more film information on her career.