Premieres and Notables; February 28- March 6, 2011

Monday, 2/28

Zeke and Luther; Disney XD. 7 pm CST. Season Premiere.

No Reservations; Travel Channel.  8 pm CST. Season Premiere.


Tuesday, 3/1

I'm gonna steal a phrase from Attack of the Show by saying the sound you'll be hearing at 7 pm tonight is the sound of nerd boners popping up all over the country because ABC's No Ordinary Family will have two BSG guest stars: Lucy Lawless and Tricia Helfer.


Thursday 3/3

Beyond Scared Straight (A&E; 9 pm CST). Season Finale.

Ice Brigade; Food. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A Michigan-based ice sculpting company gets its own show.


Friday, 3/4

Beast Hunter; National Geographic.  8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A scientist searches for mythical creatures in this new reality show.


Sunday, 3/6

America's Next Great Restaurant; NBC. 7 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Twenty-one people compete to get investors for their dream business.

Secret Millionaire; ABC. 7 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Celebrity Apprentice; NBC. 8 pm CST. Season Premiere.
As if Trump and the show wasn't enough of a joke already, check out these line-up of potential business leaders: Lil Jon, Richard Hatch (the original "Survivor", not the actor), Jose Canseco, Meat Loaf, Lisa Rinna, Mark McGrath, Star Jones, La Toya Jackson, Dionne Warwick, and bat-shit crazy Gary Busey.

Army Wives; Lifetime. 8 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Chopped All-Stars; Food. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Chefs compete for charity.

Breakout Kings; A&E. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Prison Break producers bring us this drama about two U.S. Marshals who enlist criminals to help them catch fugitives.  I've heard rumors that Prison Break's breakout scumbag T-Bag (or, if they can't get "T-Bag" cleared, at least the actor Robert Knepper) may be a guest from time to time.

Taking on Tyson; Animal Planet.  9 pm CST.  Season Premiere.

Escapist film festival winners recreate Little Big Planet

The Coolest Baby on Earth

New video game: Wii Fail

Roof-Clearing the Easy Way

Surprise Attack Fail

Meet Karma's new bitch...

Premieres and Notables: February 21-27, 2011

Wednesday, 2/23

America's Next Top Model; The CW. 7 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Shedding for the Wedding; The CW. 8 pm CST.  Series Premiere.
Overweight couples compete to lose weight-- and win the big dream wedding...


Thursday, 2/24

Royal Pains (USA; 8 pm CST). Season Finale.


Friday, 2/25

Spartacus: Gods of the Arena (Starz; 9 pm CST). Season Finale.

Portlandia (IFC; 9:30 pm CST). Season Finale.

Camelot; Starz. 10:05 pm CST. Series Premiere/Sneak Peek
Starz gives King Arthur and Camelot the premium channel treatment. 
I'm guessing this is the pilot, which is supposed to whet our appetites until April, when it returns.


Saturday, 2/26

Secrets From a Stylist; HGTV. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
I give credit to HGTV: it gives a nice chunk of the winners of all their contest-shows, their own shows.
HGTV Design Star winner Emily Henderson gives people advice on how to design their homes.

2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards; IFC. 9 pm CST. Special.
Normally I don't mention awards shows. They're lame and unfunny-- and the best parts can be found on the internet within minutes.  But this one is hosted by Joel McHale, so it may actually have humorous moments...

Cat Hates Justin Bieber

Everyone's a critic...

For People Without a Valentine...

Cavs Fan Gets in Scuffle With Jazz Bear

I love the shoulder block.

Drunken Slurring Dwarf Sings Cutie Patootie

Premieres and Notables; February 14-20, 2011

Monday, 2/14

Jake and the Never Land Pirates; Disney Channel.  7:30 am CST. Series Premiere.
Kind of a take-off from Peter Pan. A group of kids get together to fight Captain Hook.

Mad Love; CBS, 7:30 pm CST.  Series Premiere.
Jason Biggs and Sarah Chalke star as a couple falling in love: to the dismay of their BFFs (Tyler Labine and Judy Greer), who can't stand each other.
A cast this great is tough to utilize properly, and the premise is very similar to How I Met Your Mother's (which would be a good thing-- except there already is a HIMYM), but I'll give it a shot.

Kid in a Candy Store; Food Network.  7:30 pm CST. Season Premiere.


Tuesday, 2/15

Jump City: Seattle; G4. 7 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Contestants battle parkour-style.


Wednesday, 2/16

Survivor: Redemption Island; CBS. 7 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Jamie's Food Escapes; Cooking. 7 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Jamie Oliver gets another show...

Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior; CBS. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Yet another spin-off for CBS.
This one stars Forest Whitaker as an agent who takes a more spiritual approach to get into the mind of the criminals he chases.


Thursday, 2/17

Old friends return to The Office as Michael's movie script (mentioned way back in Season Two) gets made (NBC; 8 pm CST).

Man vs. Wild; Discovery. 8 pm CST. 6th Season Premiere.


Friday, 2/18

The Injustice Files; Investigation Discovery.  8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Filmmaker Keith Beauchamp looks into cold cases from th Civil Rights era.

Gold Rush: Alaska (Discovery; 9 pm CST). Season Finale.


Saturday, 2/19

Primeval (BBC America; 7 pm CST). Season Finale.

Being Human; BBC America. 8 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.


Sunday, 2/20

The Amazing Race: Unfinished Business; CBS. 7 pm CST. Season Premiere.
An "All Star" season with teams that came up a little short due to dumb reasons (cabbie got lost, misplaced passport, stick shift vehicles).

Good Luck Charlie; Disney Channel. 7 pm CST. Season Premiere.

Tajizzle

Here's a gift idea for Valentine's Day

How Kevin & Candice Get to Work

Kevin and Candice go to work on Attack of the Show.

Low budget (no blood hits anything), but kinda fun.

Premieres and Notables; February 7-13, 2011

Monday, 2/7

The Electric Company; PBS. check local listings.  3rd Season Premiere.
Good Charlotte stops by.

Power Rangers Samurai; Nickelodeon. 7 pm CST. Season Premiere.

The Chicago Code; Fox. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
The Shield creator Shawn Ryan brings us this series about police and corruption in Chicago.
The pedigree of this show makes it worth checking out.


Tuesday, 2/5

Only in America With Larry the Cable Guy; History. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Larry goes around and learns about the people of the country by visiting etiquette lessons and frog-jumping contests.

Traffic Light; Fox. 8:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
All I know about it is it's a comedy about five friends and the differences in their stages of their love lives (don't we have a few new shows this year with that exact premise?).

Top Shot; History. 9 pm CST. Season Premiere.


Wednesday, 2/9

Live to Dance (CBS; 7 pm CST). Season Finale.

Human Target (Fox; 8 pm CST). Season Finale.

Mr. Sunshine; ABC. 8:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Matthew Perry stars as a sports-arena manager in this new comedy.
I saw the first 20 minutes or so (pretty much the whole ep) last Spring when it was unveiled during Upfront Week, and it didn't look too bad. 

Friday Night Lights (DirecTV 101; 8 pm CST). Series Finale.
The little-show-that-could gets a proper send-off.
Those us with out DirecTV will have to wait a few weeks for the DVDs to come out-- or when NBC airs them.

Justified; FX. 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.
After last season's finale, Raylan has some 'splainin' to do about the dead bodies he was responsible for.  But don't expect an hour of his boss yelling at him because this season's arc begins tonight when he runs into a local crime family who sell the Demon Weed.
This was one of the best shows that aired last year-- and it's not all that tough to jump into. So if you missed last season, don't let that keep you from this one.  The writing is spectacular and the actors are wonderful.  Highly recommended.


Thursday, 2/10

Ace of Cakes (Food Network; 9 pm CST). Series Finale.


Friday, 2/11

Transformers Prime; The Hub. 5:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Another attempt to bring the Transformers to the small screen to capture the magic of the '80s.


Friday, 2/11

Auction Packed; NatGeo. 8 pm CST. Series Debut.
Uhmmmm. A reality show about a family of auctioneers.
I just write what I see on paper, people. I don't make this stuff up.

Justified Season Two Trailer

Love the show-- and I was a bit of a Star Wars geek way back, so I like the "Han shot first" nod.



Oh Hellz yeah! Feb 9 can't come soon enough.

Premieres and Notables; January 31-February 6, 2011

Sorry this is late. I spent the weekend in beautiful Duluth, MN-- went back home (yes, even though it's been half my lifetime since I've lived there, I still consider it "home")-- for an exciting weekend.

Friday and Saturday nights, I got to see my first women's hockey games.  Great stuff.  And the best part was seeing the defending National champs, the UMD Bulldogs, sweep the Bemidji State ladies.  Really tight games, and I was happy to see some punches thrown-- just like the good old days of watching the college men in the '80s.  Women's hockey is a little more finesse than physical, but those two teams took their shots, and even though they can't check each other, we did get to see a few board crashes.  (Not that I advocate the violence over the technique; but it sure is nice to see a physical game...)

But the big reason to visit there was to get into some of the events surrounding the 28th Annual John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon.  My wife and I attended the events about ten years ago and finally were able to make the timing work again this year-- and with kids along as well.

Saturday was the Cutest Puppy Contest.  The accommodations were a little crowded (took a half hour to get a parking space, and the hallways of the old brewery were a little tight), but you can't beat a building full of puppies (40 entrants-- and dozens more who didn't get there in time).  And, being a winter weather area, there were lots of my favorite types of dogs: huskies and malamutes-- and a gigantic Saint Bernard named "Bob" (who took second place in the fan voting.  The top three finishers can see seen at 2011 Cutest Puppy.

And Sunday afternoon was the beginning of the full and half marathons.  The full marathon is the longest in the lower-48, and the weather was beautiful: sunny and about 15 degrees. It felt warmer than that though, but the snow was still there and perfect (there have been years where the start had to be moved due to lack of snow). 

And other than a lack of planning for fans by the marathon people (two busses running from the race to the parking lot; the wait was close to an hour-- and they could have groomed the fan area a little, so it wasn't so hard to walk through-- and bleachers like at the old place the race started at-- would have been nice), it was perfect.  Not many athletes will let you hang out with them before the race like mushers and their dogs do.  Right up to about a half hour before they were due to leave, fans could walk right up to dogs and pet them and wish them luck-- and ask mushers questions and wish them luck as well.

And when it was time to race, those dogs are crazy.  I took lots of pics and videos of the dogs howling and jumping.  Some teams were pretty calm, and others needed a team of humans to hold them back from taking-off early.  Sled dog marathons can be exhausting-- but those dogs just love it.

If you're interesting at all in that race (would should be ending in a day or two), check out the John Beargrease Race website.

Okay, thanks for indulging me. Here are the premieres:


Tuesday, 2/1

Seriously Funny Kids; Lifetime. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Heidi Klum hosts this show that captures the funny things kids say (some of them are the "darndest" things, if you catch my drift).

One Born Every Minute; Lifetime. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
This show goes behind the scenes at a maternity ward.


Wednesday, 2/2

Extra Virgin; Cooking Channel. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Debi Mazar and husband Gabriele Corcos take their online cooking vlog (Under the Tuscan Gun) and make a show of it.


Thursday, 2/3

If you missed last week's fantastic premiere of Archer Season Two, you can catch it again tonight after an all-new Archer (FX; 9 pm CST).  This week, Sterling finds out his mom lost her savings in a Ponzi scheme. Last week, he had to protect an underage hottie who kept hitting on him.  And Archer, a guy who will screw just about anything with a vagina, draws the line at underage girls.


Friday, 2/4

Who Do You Think You Are? NBC. 7 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.


Sunday, 2/6

There's a little thing called the Super Bowl (XLV) on Fox at 5:30 pm CST that pits The Pittsburgh Steelers against my adopted hometown state team The Green Bay Packers.  Should be a good one. I may actually watch it...

If football's not your style, then check out Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl VII.  I've found it to be bland beyond ten minutes at a time (show's fault; not puppies' fault), but, c'mon: they're puppies! 

And after the game, Fox gives us a special episode of Glee (roughly 9:30 pm-- be sure to overrecord if using a DVR because the game could very well "go long"). 

Quick Recommendation-- The King's Speech

Normally I'd wait until my quarterly/half-yearly review section, but seeing as how it's in theaters now, I thought I'd mention it.

I saw The King's Speech this weekend.  I knew it would be good, but I didn't realize just how good it would be.

Funny thing: I didn't want to see a movie this weekend.  I've been getting my teeth kicked in at work for some time now (why I haven't finished my last six months-worth of movie reviews) and was just looking forward to a quiet night at home.  But my wife and I found ourselves childless for a night, so we decided to take advantage of it.  Not much showing that we knew to be good, and even though I was thinking The King's Speech would be fine to watch at home on Blu-Ray/DVD, I have to say I'm very glad I saw in a theatre.  The way the film was shot, seeing the close-ups of Colin Firth on a big screen as he struggled through some scenes as the stuttering Bertie, really highighted the incredible acting he was doing.

Anyway, The King's Speech is about King George VI (whom his family called "Bertie"), who found himself thrust into the throne through a few family events that didn't go his way (he had no desire to be king).  Bertie was a good family man and knew him being king would have come from some deaths in his family.  He also suffered from a terrible stutter, and it did little to make him seem very royal. 

And to add his panic over being a stuttering king, his country was also on the precipice of war.  Hitler and the Germans were running roughshod through Europe, and his people needed a king they could stand behind.

Bertie needed someone to help him find his voice, and he finally comes into contact with Lionel Logue, played by Geoffrey Rush, an Australian who has a pretty unorthodox teaching style.

I don't want to give too much away, but it's pretty safe to say the path seems pretty standard: oddball speech therapist offends the Royal, they have a spat, but he realizes that the therapist was making headway.  They work together and form a bond neither thought would happen when they started.  But even though the plot seems standard enough, the two lead actors brought an incredible depth to their roles-- and to the friendship the two men form.

It's a truly wonderful film, and it's amazing to watch those two actors work their roles as they did, so do yourself a favor and check it out.

Premieres and Notables; January 24-30, 2011

Monday, 1/24

RuPaul's Drag Race; Logo. 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.


And now... a public service announcement:

Tuesday & Wednesday

Turner Classic Movies ends its celebration of Hal Roach Studios this month with some longer-form movies from 7 pm Tuesday to 7 pm Wednesday (CST).  Like I noted two weeks ago, there are some real gems in here.  I mentioned that Laurel & Hardy's best work were in shorts (because many of the longer films relegated them to bit parts; still funny, but not really what I consider "Laurel & Hardy"), but there are some gems that were closer to an hour.  I admit to not knowing all the stars Hal Roach Studos had, but let me lay-out the L&H films in this marathon-- and also a long-form Little Rascals film as well.

Tuesday, 1/25

***7 pm CST-- Sons of the Desert. 
Stan and Ollie lie to their wives about being sick, so they can attend their lodge meeting.
It doesn't go well.
Highly recommended.  This plays out like an hour-long short. The focus is squarely on the duo, just as it should be.

8:15 pm CST-- General Spanky.
An hour and fifteen minute Little Rascals film that finds Spanky, Alfalfa, and Buckwheat in the Civil War.

Wednesday, 1/26

12:45 am CST-- Zenobia. 
Only Oliver Hardy is credited here. Not sure if it follows the "L&H" pattern, but I thought I'd mention it.

***3:30 am CST-- Way Out West. 
Stan and Ollie in the Old West, doing what they do. 
Like "Sons of the Desert", this one is like an hour-long L&H short. Some gags held together by a fairly simple plot.  Lots of great stuff here to recommend as well.

4:30 pm CST-- Bonnie Scotland.
A classic film (80 minutes long) that I have to admit, I'm not 100% sure I recall the details well enough to say this is like the others I mentioned.  It's one of their more famous films, so it is worth a look.


And now, back to our regular premieres post...

Tuesday, 1/25

Joan & Melissa: Joan Knows Best?; WE tv. 8 pm CST.  Series Premiere.
A reality show that follows Joan and Melissa Rivers.
You know you've been waiting for something like this. Admit it....

A Stand Up Mother; WE tv.  9:02 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Tammy Pascatelli (a former contestant on Last Comic Standing) gets her own reality show.


Wednesday, 1/26

Desert Car Kings; Discovery. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A reality show that follows the lives of an Arizona auto-parts family-business.

Clean House; Style. 9 pm CST. Season Premiere.
With Tempest Bledsoe taking over for former host Niecy Nash.

Being Erica; SoapNet. 10 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.


Thursday, 1/27

Archer; FX. 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.
Highly recommended.  Even if it's "not for everyone", it's still worth a try.
Especially if you like old-school Adult Swim sensibilities, secret agents who screw anything that walks, office personnel who get aroused from being choked, drunk "mad scientist" types, traitorous heads of spy agencies, and a near-complete disrespect for manservants...
Listen: just try it...


Friday, 1/28

Working Class; CMT. 7 and 7:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
CMT's first scripted series.  This one's about a single mom and a nosy neighbor (or coworker, depending on what magazine I read) played by Ed Asner.


Sunday, 1/30

Brick City; Sundance.  7 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.

Guy remains "cool" after faceplant