Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

New Gilmore Girls (CW, 7pm)
New Friday Night Lights (NBC, 7pm)
New NCIS (CBS, 7pm)
New Veronica Mars (CW, 8pm)
New The Unit (CBS, 8pm)
New House (FOX, 8pm)
Michelle Trachtenberg guest stars on a new Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC, 8pm)
Series premiere of My Boys (TBS, 9pm; airs again tomorrow)
Chris Sarandon, Bob Saget, Catherine Bell, and Bernadette Peters guest star on a new Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 9pm; airs again on USA on Sunday 12/10 at 10pm)
New Boston Legal (ABC, 9pm)
George Clooney, the Decemberists on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm)

News & Notes

The winner of the Homicide: Life on the Street Mega Set is Peter Shearn. Congratulations, Peter! Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter, I really enjoyed reading your entries. By the way, if you haven’t purchased the set, it’s currently on sale at amazon.com for around $150 and would make a great gift for anyone (even you). Check out my review of the set if you haven’t yet.

I’ve added a bunch of links to stores in the sidebar. If you start your shopping trips there, I get a cut of what you spend and can use that money to keep this site alive. I also only link to stores that I’ve used or which look promising, just stuff I would recommend this holiday season. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me. Thanks again to everyone who does shop via my links.

Primetime Grid

Featured Pick

Series premiere of My Boys (TBS, 9pm; second new episode at 9:30pm).

My Boys doesn’t have a laugh track and it’s not a “laugh a minute” sort of show. It’s a low-key half-hour comedy about a woman named P.J. who works as a sports writer in Chicago where she covers the Cubs. She’s always been “one of the guys” and the “boys” of the title are her best friends and her older brother (played by Jim Gaffigan). She plays poker, drinks beer, loves sports, and relates better to men than to women, but she experiences difficulties when she gets involved with men romantically (and men often don’t know what to make of her).

I was charmed by this show, though I’m probably somewhat predisposed to like it as most of my friends are guys and I tend to hang out a lot with guys and this did cause some problems for me when it came to romance.

P.J. does voice over narration for the series and keeps comparing life to sports, of course. Her “boys” are her “team” and so on. In the first episode, a new guy is brought into their social circle and there’s mutual attraction between her and him. This, of course, complicates things, and is at the center of the drama in at least the first two episodes of the series.

I found this show refreshing because it wasn’t about gags and jokes, the humor came organically from the characters. These folks seem like they could be friends of mine or of my friends. These aren’t over-the-top situations, there are no sight gags, there’s no slapstick, there’s no schtick.

The other comedy that premieres tonight (Big Day) is all about over-the-top hijinks surrounding a wedding and I found it very hard to relate to that show; I suppose it’s no wonder I relate more to My Boys– I did, after all, get married in a low-key drama-free ceremony at a baseball game. Big Day is funny, but the characters are cartoonish in some respects (and the situations certainly are) and I wouldn’t want to hang out with those people.

I think My Boys is worth a look: you’ll either like the characters and the show or you’ll know pretty quickly whether it’s not your thing. I suppose some folks might be bored by it, but I liked it.

The series premiere of My Boys airs tonight on TBS at 9pm and is followed by a second new episode at 9:30pm; the episodes air again on Wednesday at 10pm and 10:30pm.

Primetime

Christmas classic A Charlie Brown Christmas (ABC, 7pm - 8pm).

Lorelai brings Christopher to the town’s knit-a-thon on Gilmore Girls (CW, 7pm) and I’m guessing that doesn’t go well (because I’ve seen TV before). Kathleen Wilhoite, Michael DeLuise, and Sherilyn Fenn guest star.

Smash takes drastic action, the coach’s daughter considers dating someone on the team on Friday Night Lights (NBC, 7pm).

NCIS (CBS, 7pm) has to work with the FBI yet again when they find the remains of a serial killer. Joe Spano and Don Franklin guest star again.

There’s a hostage situation at a school on Standoff (FOX, 7pm).

The first mystery of this season of Veronica Mars (CW, 8pm) is resolved or at least we find out who the rapist is. In case you weren’t aware, this season has smaller mystery arcs rather than a season-long arc, though of course there’s always more going on too. I can’t wait to see this episode.

Jonas is captured and tortured and it’s up to The Unit (CBS, 8pm) to rescue him.

When a young patient’s parents won’t agree on treatment, House (FOX, 8pm) takes them to court. Paula Cale is among the guest stars (she was the sister on Providence).

Michelle Trachtenberg (who was “Dawn” on Buffy) guest stars on Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC, 8pm) as a popular video blogger who is kidnapped in one of her vlogs. Was a real crime committed or was it a hoax? Detectives Logan and Wheeler investigate. Airs again on Wednesday, December 6th at 10pm.

Marla Sokoloff (of The Practice), Josh Cooke (of Four Kings, Committed), Kurt Fuller, Miriam Shor (”Yitzhak” from Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Stephanie Weir (of Mad TV) and Wendie Malick (of Jake in Progress, Just Shoot Me) star in the series premiere of Big Day (ABC, 8pm). It’s a comedy (with no laugh-track). Each half-hour episode shows about a half-hour of a young couple’s wedding day. The first episodes cover a very hectic morning at the home of the bride with family and friends and wedding prep hijinks. Malick plays the high strung mother of the bride, Sokoloff is the bride. I enjoyed the episodes I’ve seen, but unless this show moves to a better timeslot I don’t think it has much of a chance given the steep competition it faces.

Series premiere of My Boys (TBS, 9pm, second episode at 9:30pm; episodes air again on Wednesday at 10pm and 10:30pm).

Sean turns to alcohol, Christian receives an unexpected gift on Nip/Tuck (FX, 9pm, 10:07pm; also airs on 12/1 and 12/3). DVR/VCR Alert: episode runs 67 minutes.

Chris Sarandon, Bob Saget, Catherine Bell, and Bernadette Peters guest star on Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 9pm; airs again on USA on Sunday 12/10 at 10pm).

Shirley’s been kidnapped (as shown in the episode on Sunday) and Denny Crane gets jealous of one of Alan Shore’s friends when Alan spends a lot of time with him on Boston Legal (ABC, 9pm). Laura Leighton, Delta Burke, and Patrick Breen are among the guest stars.

A patient returns with a recurrence of a life-threatening brain aneurysm on 3 Lbs. (CBS, 9pm).

Late Night:

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

Nora Ephron on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

George Clooney, the Decemberists on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Lucy Liu, Bob Saget, Snoop Dogg on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).

Jude Law, Kristen Wiig, Brian Setzer Orchestraon Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

William H. Macy, Jeri Ryan, Isabel Allende on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

Wilmer Valderrama, Michael Irvin, Chris Daughtry on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings).

Donald Faison (of Scrubs), Gary Gulman on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).