Laurel’s TV Picks

Antiques Roadshow (PBS, check your local listings)
New episode of Six Feet Under (HBO, 8pm; airs again lots)
Series premiere of The Closer (TNT, 8pm and 11pm)
New episode of Penn & Teller: BS! (Showtime, 9pm)
Nicole Kidman, Foo Fighters on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm)

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Season 4 of Gilmore Girls is now available for pre-order on DVD, the set is due out on September 27th. Seasons 1 – 3 are also available and highly recommended.

Don’t forget that there’s still time to pre-order season 7 of Homicide: Life on the Street, it’s due out on June 28th, you can read all about it in my Homicide Video/DVD FAQ.

I may just take weekends off for ye olde picks this summer as I’ve got a wedding to plan (eek!) and other stuff going on. Plus hey– it’s summer. Will try to at least warn y’all of any series premieres or marathons, etc.

Series premiere of The Closer (TNT, 8pm and 11pm). Kyra Sedgwick stars in this new series from some executive producers who have worked on The D.A, The Agency, and Nip/Tuck. Sedgwick plays a woman who is widely regarded as “one of the world’s best interrogators.” She’s a police detective who relocates from Atlanta to L.A. to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive and/or high profile cases. As you might expect, most folks in the LAPD are not happy to have a new deputy chief of detectives among them from somewhere else.

I’ve seen this first episode and the show has promise. Though the first episode suffers from a malady I like to call “pilot-itus.” We learn again and again about some of the lead characters quirks, one hopes that this is toned down in regular episodes. I also had this case figured out from the get-go, but I hope that’s just ‘cuz I watch way too much TV of this sort. I still enjoyed the episode, even though I like it when the supposedly smart characters are smarter than I am.

J.K. Simmons (of Oz, Law & Order, many things) also stars as her boss; it’s made clear pretty early on that they have a history. I like Simmons in any role, really, and hope to see lots of him in this show. Jon Tenney does show up late in the episode as an FBI agent who knows the lead character, I never really felt I got a feel for any of her fellow detectives, but I’m sure that’ll come in time.

This is a promising summer series. As you all know, the bar is much lower during the summer time. Would I make room for this show on my Tivo season pass list if it aired during the regular season? It’s too soon to tell. I’ve got to give this show at least a couple more episodes.

Gore Warning: The body at the crime scene (and on the autopsy table later and in pictures) is especially gruesome, even for this kind of show. Ick. Do we really need to see decomposing bodies in this much detail? I don’t think so.

The series premiere of The Closer airs tonight on TNT at 8pm and 11pm; it also airs again tomorrow at 10pm. The premiere episode airs without commercials. Episodes will air regularly on Monday night.

Antiques Roadshow (PBS, check your local listings) is still in Chicago.

Teens continue to compete for a full-ride college scholarship on The Scholar (ABC, 7pm).

Baseball: Atlanta Braves at Texas Rangers (ESPN, 7pm). Game may vary.

Nate hangs out with some friends of his from high school and finds out he has nothing in common with them on a new episode of Six Feet Under (HBO, 8pm; airs again lots).

Series premiere of The Closer (TNT, 8pm and 11pm). Kyra Sedgwick stars in this new series from some executive producers who have worked on The D.A, The Agency, and Nip/Tuck. Sedgwick plays a woman who is widely regarded as “one of the world’s best interrogators.” She’s a police detective who relocates from Atlanta to L.A. to head up a special unit of the LAPD that handles sensitive and/or high profile cases.

Summerland (WB, 8pm) returns with a new episode. This show was not picked up for next season, so if you like the show, enjoy the new episodes this summer ‘cuz the show won’t be back after that.

New episode of Hell’s Kitchen (FOX, 8pm). Gordon Ramsey continues to make life difficult for the would-be chefs at Hell’s Kitchen.

Mary Tyler Moore on Larry King Live (CNN, 8pm, 11pm, 2am).

Part 2 (of 2) of the flying car episode of Monster Garage (Discovery, 8pm and 11pm).

“Sticky Stuff” and “Playing With Food” Unwrapped (Food Network, 8pm and midnight; 8:30pm and 12:30am).

Judith ends up staying with the men for a little while on a rerun of Two and a Half Men (CBS, 8:30pm).

Penn & Teller look at the question: “Has our surveillance-obsessed society really succeeded in making America safer?” on a new episode of Penn & Teller: BS! (Showtime, 9pm).

Rerun of the latest episode of The Shield (FX, 9pm). DVR Alert: My Tivo recording from the other day cut out before the end, so I’m gonna try to catch what I missed tonight. Second-to-last episode of the season.

Larry Diamond on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

Nicole Kidman, Foo Fighters on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Hilary Duff, Jim Norton, Kaiser Chiefs on The Tonight Show (NBC, 10:35pm).

Pamela Anderson, Bob Saget (or possibly Anderson Cooper), Brendan Benson on a rerun of Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Mike Epps, the Faint on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings).

Jason Lee, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Midlake on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, check your local listings).

Tori Alert! Mena Suvari, Kenan Thompson, Tori Amos on a rerun of Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).

“Phases” and “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered” episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (FX, 6am, 7am).

“Awakening” episode of Angel (TNT, 7am).

Sci-Fi mini-marathon du jour: Planet of the Apes (Sci-Fi, 7am – 3pm).

Carrie Underwood on Today (NBC, 7am – 10am).

Liam Neeson, Nicole Kidman, Kenny Loggins, Jo Dee Messina on Good Morning, America (ABC, 7am – 9am).

Summer desserts on The Early Show (CBS, 7am – 9am).

Michael Eisner, a performance from Drumstruck on Live with Regis and Kelly (syndicated, check your local listings).

Glenn Close, travel adviser Peter Greenberg, the Backstreet Boys on The View (ABC, check your local listings).

“Scene In A Mall” episode of Gilmore Girls (ABC Family, 10am).

“The Test” episode of Ed (TBS, 11am).

“Passion” and “Killed By Death” episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (FX, Noon, 1pm).

James Spader, Debbie Reynolds on a rerun of The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Rosie O’Donnell on a rerun of The Tony Danza Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

“Wildest Weather” on The Jane Pauley Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

“Wedding Disasters” on Dr. Phil (syndicated, check your local listings). I’m not sure I dare watch this.

“Oprah’s Producers’ Favorite Moments II” on a rerun of Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings).

“The Reigning Lorelai” episode of Gilmore Girls (ABC Family, 4pm).

“Billy” episode of Angel (TNT, 4pm).

“Felicity Was Here” and “Sophomoric” episodes of Felicity (We, 5pm, 6pm). Final episode of season 1, first episode of season 2 (end of freshman year, beginning of sophomore year).

“For Whom The Cheese Melts” episode of Good Eats (Food Network, 6pm).

EZ Bake Unwrapped (Food Network, 6:30pm).

Season finale of The Shield.

Game 3 of the NBA finals.

New episodes of Fire Me . . . Please, Britney and Kevin: Chaotic, and more.

Rerun of the very first episode of Veronica Mars.

I’ll have a review of the season premiere of Reno 911! plus full coverage of the rest of Tuesday primetime and late night TV and a preview of Wednesday TV.
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