Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

New Everybody Hates Chris (CW, 7pm)
New Heroes (NBC, 8pm – 9:01pm)
New 24 (FOX, 8pm)
New Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Travel, 9pm and midnight)
Bill Gates on The Daily Show (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight)

Primetime Grid

Featured Pan

This is not a “featured pick,” it’s a “featured pan” and a bit of a rant.

While I understand that fictional characters on TV shows and in movies often don’t have to adhere to any of the normal laws of our universe, there are some storylines or shows that take things too far or find a way to offend me. It’s no longer escapism, it’s just creepy and wrong.

Recent events on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip have entered the “Creepy Zone” as I like to call it.

In the episode before last, Danny (played by Bradley Whitford) informed his boss Jordan (played by Amanda Peet) that he was “coming for her.” He’d said he wanted to date her and then made this pronouncement without letting her say anything (she was stuffing her face with food ‘cuz she’s pregnant and couldn’t say anything. Isn’t that charming?). Any woman would react to “I’m coming for you” with dread or fear or some unpleasant feeling in this circumstance; even if you were into the guy, that phrasing would surely make you uneasy.

But it was last week that upped the creepy ante and may be the final straw for me. I really enjoy the work of most of the actors on this show, I loved most of Sports Night and enjoyed a fair bit of The West Wing, but I think I’m going to have to give up on Studio 60.

Last week’s episode opened with Danny making repeated phone calls to Jordan during their holiday break. Sometimes she answered and told him she wasn’t interested in dating him, other times she let the phone ring and he’d leave voicemails. At some point he actually changed his phone number so she wouldn’t recognize it and would answer the phone. Yes, really.

Later in the same episode, he got a bunch of people (famous and otherwise) to fax Jordan letters of recommendation. He had them contact her and tell her why she should date him. Let’s not forget that Jordan’s been in hot water due to scandal in the press, her job has been in jeopardy, she’s pregnant and dealing with a whole lot. She has a high profile job and some of the people Danny contacted are folks who work in her field. She’s also Danny’s boss.

When Danny approaches her at the end of the episode, she tells him his behavior is inappropriate. She tells him it’s embarassing and it’s harming her career. She lays out the facts. She tells him to stop. As I watched I thought that I might be able to get past this whole creepy storyline if Danny apologized right there and recognized that he’d been way out of line and hadn’t been thinking clearly.

Instead, when Jordan asks Danny to leave her alone and stop this harassment, he says “No.” That’s the end of the episode and it sure did sound like the music swelled at the end. Ew. Are we supposed to find this romantic? Sorkin has said that they’ve decided to focus on the romance for the rest of the season.

Tonight’s episode really should have Danny getting a reprimand from his boss and being sent to a class about sexual harassment and/or stalking. At the very least. In the real world, he probably could be fired and/or have charges filed against him for stalking.

But it sounds like tonight’s episode has Jordan and Danny trapped on a rooftop together. Gosh, we’ve never seen that plot before on TV. Aw. How romantic! Only she’s up there with someone who is stalking and harassing her so really, that’s not okay.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip airs tonight on NBC. I shouldn’t watch and neither should you, though I fear I’ll find myself watching just to see how much worse it gets. I’d like to think they’ll right these wrongs, but I don’t think they will.

Primetime

Chris signs up to be a hall monitor on Everybody Hates Chris (CW, 7pm).

Haywire shows up on Prison Break (FOX, 7pm).

Mario Lopez hosts Miss America 2007 (CMT, 7pm).

George Takei (of Star Trek) and Christopher Eccleston (of Doctor Who) guest star on Heroes (NBC, 8pm). DVR/VCR Alert: Runs ’til 9:01pm.

James Cromwell and Chad Lowe guest star on 24 (FOX, 8pm).

A filmmaker looks at the life of a piano player in Baghdad in The Liberace of Baghdad (Sundance, 8pm).

Dick Van Dyke and Barry Van Dyke star in Murder 101: College Can Be Murder (Hallmark, 8pm).

Heather Locklear and Jonathon Schaech star in Nora Roberts’ Angels Fall (Lifetime, 8pm).

Bourdain travels to Russia on a new Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Travel, 9pm and midnight).

TV Land Myths & Legends (TV Land, 9pm) takes a look at Barry Williams’ set behavior on The Brady Bunch, Julia Child drops a chicken, and a supposed Wizard of Oz suicide.

Danny and Jordan are trapped on a roof, there’s a dinner honoring Harriet, Matt and Harriet’s “relationship begins to unravel” on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (NBC, 9:01pm). I didn’t even go into the creepy aspects of the Matt and Harriet relationship or at least Matt’s behavior. Not as bad as what’s going on with Danny and Jordan, but Matt lies to her and did just kiss her out of the blue in the middle of a show when he thought she might be interested in someone else. Ugh.

The gang goes to a vacation house one last time on What About Brian (ABC, 9pm). William Devane guest stars.

Late Night

Bill Gates on The Daily Show (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

Barry M. Lando on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

Bill Cosby, Mary Lynn Rajskub (of 24), Katharine McPhee on The Tonight Show (NBC, 10:35pm).

Dylan McDermott, Connie Nielsen, Billy Bragg on The Late Late Show (CBS, 11:37pm).

Brad Garrett, Sarah Silverman, Peter Bjorn & John on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Talk show listings are linked to in the sidebar here at TVPicks.net.