Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

New Gilmore Girls (CW, 7pm)
New Friday Night Lights (NBC, 7pm)
New Veronica Mars (CW, 8pm)
New The Unit (CBS, 8pm)
New Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC, 8pm)
New Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 9pm)
New Boston Legal (ABC, 9pm)

News & Notes

The winners of the Scrubs contest should have received email from me last night. Eric Scott won the Best Buy gift card. Winners of the Scrubs gift packs are Jeff Pargeon, Scott R, Erin McGee, and two others I haven’t heard back from yet. Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to enter, I really got a kick out of reading the comments you made about Scrubs and/or this site. Prizes will be sent out shortly by the sponsors of the contest.

If you read these picks on Livejournal or Yahoo or some other site that grabs the feed of my picks, it’s possible they aren’t getting the picks online as soon as I get them online. I have no control over how often other sites check for new editions of the picks. If you want to see the picks as soon as they go online, your best bet may be to subscribe to the email edition of the picks or use a feed reader where you can adjust the settings yourself. Or, you know, just check the website regularly.

If you are reading the picks in email or as a feed, please remember to visit the website from time to time as the picks look the best here and I often have other nifty content available that you won’t see in the email/feed.

Times listed on this page are for the Central time zone, please add an hour for Eastern/Pacific.

Primetime Grid

Primetime

Baseball: Mets at Cardinals (FOX, 7pm). The game was rained out last night, here’s hoping that tonight they’ll get to play Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.

Lorelai begins dating Christopher, but it seems likely that her heart just isn’t in it on Gilmore Girls (CW, 7pm). There have been times when I’ve really enjoyed seeing Lorelai and Christopher together as they have such a connection and interesting history, but this just seems like a bad idea all around. Though it might be fodder for some good drama. Rory might actually make some new friends in this episode and Richard and Emily have their own storylines (always a good thing).

Things are pretty tense on the team and in the town on Friday Night Lights (NBC, 7pm). Everyone’s still upset about the injury to the star quarterback and when the team doesn’t do so well, folks blame the coach (of course). This is a really good show that has a really tough timeslot. Miss last week’s episode? It is available online. It seems likely that tonight’s episode will be available online starting tomorrow.

A missing lance corporal is found dead and buried in the backyard of a vacant house on NCIS (CBS, 7pm).

Veronica Mars (CW, 8pm) has just started college and she’s already in trouble with the Dean (Ed Begley Jr.) and other folks. Yikes! Yet a football player hires her to help find a stolen playbook before the next big game in this new episode titled “Wichita Linebacker”.

During a hurricane, The Unit (CBS, 8pm) must choose between saving a hospitalized African dictator or 10 patients left behind during the facility’s evacuation. Summer Glau (of Firefly) continues her guest stint on the show.

Goren and Eames take a hard look at a family when two brothers are found dead on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC, 8pm). Rip Torn guest stars.

Bill (Ted Danson) gets his band Pink Freud back together in an effort to woo Anne (Jane Kaczmarek of Malcolm in the Middle) on Help Me Help You (ABC, 8:30pm). Michael McKean and Tim Meadows also guest star.

A woman is raped twice, the detectives try to link the case to other cases that involved multiple rapes on Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 9pm). I am enjoying Connie Nielsen’s guest stint on the show while Mariska Hargitay is on leave.

The big murder case finally goes to trial on Boston Legal (ABC, 9pm). And Denny Crane may be developing feelings for the woman he called “midget” on their first date.

Betty Hutton discusses her career on Private Screenings: Betty Hutton (TCM, 9pm and 1:30am).

Rosie O’Donnell returns as Dawn Budge when she needs some reconstructive surgery on Nip/Tuck (FX, 9pm, 10:04pm; also airs on Friday and Sunday). DVR/VCR Alert: Runs 64 minutes. Burt Landau (Larry Hagman) also needs another surgery. I’m assuming that Jacqueline Bisset must also turn up again. You ever notice how creepy and disturbing this show is? I’m just saying, is all.

Ethan Phillips (of Star Trek: Voyager, Benson) and Dennis Boutsikaris guest star on a rerun of Criminal Minds (CBS, 9pm). The team investigates a series of murders that appear to have been committed by a vigilante (as the victims were all criminals themselves). Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” plays in this episode, which makes me wonder if anyone has kept track of the many TV shows and movies it has appeared in. I used to love the song, now it makes me cranky whenever it’s used on TV.

(after having difficulty with his chopsticks)
Reid: (to the waitress) “Excuse me, could I get a fork perhaps?” (group laughs) “Did you know that experts credit Confucius with the advent of the chopstick. He acquitted knives with acts of aggression.”
Morgan: “You don’t know how to use them, do ya?”
Reid: “It’s like trying to forage for dinner with a pair of number two pencils.”
  from Criminal Minds

Late Night:

“Polyamorists explain how their intimate networks function, how it differs from polygamy, the scheduling of sex, and what happens when jealousy occurs” on a rerun of The Tyra Banks Show (Oxygen, 10pm).

Rebroadcast of last night’s new episode of Weeds (Showtime, 10pm). Hoo boy, things are getting interesting; the finale airs next week.

Rebroadcast of the new episode of The Wire (HBO, 10:30pm) that debuted on Sunday night. I’m currently watching season 1 of The Wire on DVD– it’s really awesome. An excellent reader of this site sent me that DVD set as a “thank you” some time ago and it’s very much appreciated.

Didn’t get enough Criminal Intent or SVU earlier in the evening? Catch reruns on USA: Law & Order: Criminal Intent (USA, 10pm) and Law & Order: SVU (USA, 11pm).

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

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

Tina Fey, Steven Wright, kazoo virtuoso Barbara Stewart on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Full guest listings on Sue Trowbridge’s site.