Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets:

Season premiere of Doctor Who (Sci-Fi, 7pm - 9:30pm, 9:30pm - midnight)
New Men in Trees (ABC, 8pm)
New Law & Order (NBC, 9pm)
New Numb3rs (CBS, 9pm)

News & Notes:

Apologies for the lateness. Still struggling a bit here. Thanks to the handful of people who sent emails or donations yesterday– that’s very much appreciated (you’ll be getting a personal reply and thanks soon).

The deadline for the Scrubs contest is Noon central time tomorrow. Remember this contest is just for folks who read this site, so the odds are much better than in many online contests (that encompass the whole net). I’m sure other sites ran a similar contest, this is just the one for TVPicks.net. I won’t be sending email to all those who entered as I thought I might; will be contacting the winners next week and announcing them here. Thanks for all the entertaining messages!

Times listed are for the Central timezone, add an hour for Eastern/Pacific.

Primetime Grid:

Primetime:

At long last, we folks in the U.S. get to see season two of the new Doctor Who (Sci-Fi, 7pm - 9:30pm if you want all the new stuff). Yay! Though given how much I loved the Doctor of the previous season, I’m unsure how I feel about the new season. The season premiere is actually a 90 minute Christmas special (Sci-Fi, 7pm - 8:30pm, 9:30pm - 11pm) and it’s followed by the first “regular” new episode (Sci-Fi, 8:30pm - 9:30pm, 11pm - midnight). I’m told by those who’ve seen season two (it’s already aired in the UK) that these two episodes, which introduce a new Doctor, are okay but that future episodes for this season are even or much better. (A hat tip to my fellow Vidiots Jason Snell, Chris Rywalt, and Nathan Alderman of TeeVee for giving me the scoop). The season premiere of Battlestar Galactica airs next Friday, the following Friday the regular Friday schedule for this fall and winter will begin with Doctor Who at 8pm and Battlestar Galactica at 9pm. Awesome lineup!

Miss the beginning of season four of The Wire? If you have HBO, you should watch this (it doesn’t matter if you’ve missed previous seasons, you can still follow this season). The first three episodes of this season are rerun tonight (HBO, 7pm - 10pm) so you can easily get caught up before Sunday’s new episode. I featured this show and these episodes in these picks back on September 10th, 2006. I’ve seen these three and the next one– it’s great stuff.

Rerun of last night’s new Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 7pm).

Word on the street in NYC is that Marin (Anne Heche) is dead on a new Men in Trees. D’oh! Um. I’m totally hooked on this show to the point of looking forward to it– it’s just so darn cute or something. We need more cute on the schedule.

New episode of Close To Home (CBS, 8pm). I just watched last week’s season premiere of this show and had mixed feelings. Cress Williams and David James Elliott seem to be interesting additions to the cast (I always like Williams, I’m not sure about the guy that Jag plays), but Jon Seda . . . is Jon Seda. Ew. Though fortunately he wasn’t in the episode much. I always thought a big part of the premise of this show had to do with the lead character’s home life with her husband and baby, but now that the husband is gone . . . that’s kinda been thrown out the window and I worry they’ll try to hook her up too soon with someone else. This isn’t really a show I’m crazy for anyway, but I think I’m less inclined to tune in much this season, even with Cress Williams on board.

More fun with predators on Dateline NBC (NBC, 8pm).

The Numb3rs (CBS, 9pm) team goes all Without A Trace and Kidnapped as they search for a kidnap victim. Presumably, they find her by the end of the episode unless this show is making a drastic change. Math is somehow involved.

An Internet photo of a murdered woman provokes a lot of 911 calls on Law & Order (NBC, 9pm). What’s the real story behind the photo? Presumably the detectives investigate and a court case results.

The truth and fiction behind gender myths, a study of the brain circuitry of women, the changing brain chemistry of teens, a neurobiologist who has experienced the gender gap from both sides, and author Jenny McCarthy on 20/20 (ABC, 9pm).

Late Night

Author P.J. O’Rourke, singer Rob Thomas, journalist Joan Walsh, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO, 10pm).

Rerun of the latest episode of Nip/Tuck (FX, 10pm).

“Okraphobia” episode of Good Eats (Food, 10pm and 1am).

Joel Grey guest stars on a rerun of a recent episode of House (USA, 10pm).

Late night talk show listings are now linked to in the sidebar on the right (on the website).