- ABC
- FlashForward
Thursdays (ABC)
It’s Back; No One Noticed: Last week’s two-hour return of FlashForward was beaten out by college basketball (which is really just high school basketball in high-def) and—get this—NBC’s comedy lineup, which usually struggles to top even The CW. Too bad, because FF has reset itself nicely after meandering off message last year. More information on why the planet blacked out for 2:17 minutes (it’s science-y and religion-y—see Genesis 2:17) was revealed, and former Lostie Dominic Monaghan finally became interesting as a major player in the conspiracy, as well as a straight-up badass (Big Ears is averaging about one kill per episode now). FlashForward won’t last more than one season; invest some DVD or ABC.com time when it’s over.
Friday, March 26 (SyFy)
Winter Finale: In just 10 episodes, Caprica has established itself as a more-than-worthy successor to parent sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica—and now, just like BSG always did, it’s going to leave us hanging for several months before finishing the season. Caprica won’t return until October (!), but there’s plenty to ponder until then: Should man (namely, Eric Stoltz’s pop-scientist Daniel Graystone) be playing techno-God by installing human consciousness/souls into robots? Can virtual beings lost in digital limbo ever return to the analog world? Do Caprica characters smoke more than Mad Men characters? Use these seven months wisely; for the uninitiated, DVD, SyFy.com, etc.
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Perfect 10 |
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Swank |
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High Society |
Tuesday, March 30 (TLC)
Series Debut, Again: First, TLC ran an hour-long intro pilot for The Little Chocolatiers (about Steve Hatch and Katie Masterson of Salt Lake City’s Hatch Family Chocolates) over the Christmas-weekend dead zone back in December 2009. Next, the supposed “series debut” aired at the end of January. Then … nothing. Now, The Little Chocolatiers’ real series debut is here—a full two months later, on a different night. Probably shouldn’t expect rhyme or reason from the network that actually lets the Cake Boss speak, but come on. Anyway, the show (which combines the confectionary artistry of Cake Boss and the “little” drama of the rest of the net’s roster quite effectively) will now air every Tuesday night through May on TLC. Unless it doesn’t.
Wednesdays (The CW)
New Series: Initially, The Only TV Column That Matters™ was thrilled to hear that The CW was producing reality shows about not only the current-day adventures of dancers from the ’80s Fox series In Living Color, but also models from a bottom-rack porno mag. But, sadly, Fly Girls is just about idiot party-girl fight attendants, and High Society is like The Hills crossed with Gossip Girl crossed with a full-frontal lobotomy administered with a rusty shrimp fork. Once again, Viacom and Warner Bros. suits: Move Supernatural (and, OK, Vampire Diaries) to a real network and burn down The CW for the insurance money.
Wednesday, March 31 (USA)
Season Premiere: Like Law & Order: Criminal Intent (which premieres its eighth season Tuesday, March 30), In Plain Sight is an underrated USA crime series with neither the cool quotient of Burn Notice nor the comic cachet of Psych, even though it falls squarely between both. Sure, things looked dark at the end of last season’s cliffhanger, when U.S. Marshal Mary (Mary McCormack) was gunned down in a gang standoff—spoiler alert: They didn’t kill off the main character of the show, and it’s back to wisecracks and witness-relocation business as usual. Which is fine, because McCormack and partner Fred Weller are one of the best teams in the cop-drama biz. Why mess with it?
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Bill
Frost:
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