Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets:

New 20/20 (ABC, 7pm)
New Friday Night Lights (NBC, 8pm)
Series premiere of Women’s Murder Club (ABC, 8pm)
Season premeire of Men in Trees (ABC, 9pm)
New Numb3rs (CBS, 9pm)
Fall premiere of Blood Ties (Lifetime, 10pm)

Friday Daytime

Jerry O’Connell (of Carpoolers, Crossing Jordan), Malin Ackerman (of The Heartbreak Kid), Gretchen Wilson on The Ellen DeGeneres Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

One-of-a-kind ways to celebrate Halloween, the Happy Hearts Fund, a visit from the “glitter lady” on Martha (syndicated, check your local listings).

Nicollette Sheridan (of Desperate Housewives, Knots Landing), Lara Spender has the “celebrity dish” (gossip, that is), a classic German dish with a twist on The Rachael Ray Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

Stylist Rachel Zoe on The Tyra Banks Show (syndicated, check your local listings).

“Transgender Families” on Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings). I’ve gotta say, I’ve been very impressed with Oprah’s shows this season about the transgendered as well as people who are intersexed. Also good stuff about bipolar disorder; the serious shows have been quite good. The fluffy shows are fun, but these shows do important work.

Show topic change: A look at the recent “homecoming murders” in Wisconsin on Dr. Phil (syndicated, check your local listings).

Primetime Grid:

Featured Picks

Series premiere of Women’s Murder Club (ABC, 8pm).

Women’s Murder Club is based on a series of mysteries by James Patterson about a group of women who are involved in the solving of crimes.

Angie Harmon stars in the series (you probably remember her best as A.D.A. Abbie Carmichael on Law & Order). She plays a dedicated police detective who has, at least in the past, put her career above her personal life; especially when she was obsessed with catching one particular serial killer. Her work on that case may have broken up her marriage; her ex-husband is also a cop and he’s played by Rob Estes (who recently starred in The Evidence, but is still best known for Melrose Place). Her veteran partner is played by Tyrees Allen, who I’m sure you’ll recognize from many guest and recurring stints on TV shows over the years.

The women never really refer to themselves as a “club,” they just happen to both work together on cases and are also friends. Laura Harris (who was “Daisy Adair” on Dead Like Me) plays a district attorney; she’s got a surgeon boyfriend, but is still drawn to an ex (who also happens to be a public defender) played by Kyle Secor (of Commander-in-Chief; he’s best known to most for playing “Bayliss” on Homicide).

Paula Newsome plays a medical examiner who is part of this little club (she’s also been on many shows over the years, but was a regular on The Lyons Den and City of Angels). She seems to have the most steady home-life of any of the members of the club as she’s happily (more or less) married.

In the first episode, a reporter ends up dead. While investigating this crime, the women meet a young ambitious reporter played by Aubrey Dollar (she was one of the stars of Point Pleasant, but I know her best for playing “Marina Cooper” on Guiding Light for a number of years). This young reporter is the one who calls the group a “club” and she definitely wants to be a part of it (looks like she is, as she’s a regular on the show).

If this all sounds awfully complicated, it’s not really. These four women work the same cases and also are friends (or at least the first three are, they aren’t so sure about the newcomer yet, she just keeps showing up). Harmon, Harris, Newsome, and Dollar are all great. The men in the supporting roles are also good. Ever Carradine shows up in the second episode in what looks to be a recurring role (she was great on Commander-in-Chief, Once and Again, and in other roles).

The way these women work and relate works, they have good chemistry together. Watching this I couldn’t help but wonder why there haven’t been more crime shows with this many female leads, it just works and doesn’t seem forced or unusual. Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain are the creators of the show; they also exec produce the show and write for it. They both worked together previously on Angel and The Shield.

I’ve seen the first two episodes and I enjoyed both of them. Good mixture of crime drama with relationship drama, I guess; covers both the personal and professional lives of these women. I haven’t read the books so can’t say how they compare to them. If you aren’t already hooked on Friday Night Lights or if you can watch a second show at 8pm, this is a really good bet.

Season premiere of Men in Trees (ABC, 9pm).

At long last, Men in Trees returns. You may recall that this fun little show abruptly disappeared from the schedule last season, without any warning. Usually that’s a bad sign meaning a show might be ending or be closed to cancellation, but this happened after the show had already been picked up for another season. It was a bit weird, it happened because ABC wanted to give another show a shot (October Road, which is set to return at midseason).

When Grey’s Anatomy first aired, they ended up pulling it from the schedule before all of the episodes they’d filmed for their first season had aired. That’s the situation with Men in Trees too. They’ve got episodes that they filmed for season one that haven’t aired yet; those will air basically as the first part of the second season. Now when season one of Grey’s ended, it was at a logical endpoint (albeit a cliffhanger) so when season two began, they just aired the remaining season one episodes as the start of that season.

With Men in Trees, there was no cliffhanger or resolution, it just kinda stopped. So tonight’s season premiere is actually a special new episode that was filmed to reintroduce the show and its characters before those remaining season one episodes air and we get into season two.

This new episode is, naturally, a bit contrived. The story has a rather precious framing device, but I can forgive all that because I’m just happy to visit Elmo again and see these characters again. The episode does admirably at reminding us of who these people are, how they relate to each other, and what they’re up to. And it does it without flashbacks to last season (except in a “previously”).

There’s a storm and everyone ends up at the Chieftain bar together as part of an emergency plan. We begin near the end of the story and flashback to the beginning. Yeah, it’s one of those episodes of a show with a “two days ago” jump at the start (I forget the exact interval, but it’s something like that).

I’ve seen an additional episode from this season of the show and it’s darn good. I can’t wait to see more of what happens to Marin and the rest of the gang.

If you haven’t watched the show before, you can probably jump in without much worry. Sure, you’d miss some of the relationship drama, but you can kinda deduce what’s happened (and you can always go back and see the old episodes at a later date; presumably there’ll be a DVD release at some point).

It’s a light fun show in the vein of Northern Exposure, but with it’s own spin on that. Quirky small town stuff with relationship drama and some comedy, too.

I’m happy to have the show back and visit Elmo, Alaska again.

Primetime:

Now this is more like it. The first week or two of the new fall season, there just wasn’t a whole lot of TV on Friday night. Now there are multiple shows on the networks that are worth a look. Cool!

Baseball: Cleveland at Boston (FOX, 6pm). Game 1 of the American League Championship Series.

20/20 (ABC, 7pm) moves into a new timeslot. Topic is “How Young is Too Young?” Includes coverage of a girl who took pilot training at age 7, two children (ages 7 and 9) who are preachers, two girls (ages 8 and 9) who are boxers in Thailand, 15-year-old actress Emily Osment, and genius toddlers.

A veteran of the war in Iraq is haunted by ghosts on Ghost Whisperer (CBS, 7pm). Some real-life veterans guest star. I still can’t stand this show.

It’s the first day of school at Dillon High on Friday Night Lights (NBC, 8pm). Things are tough all over, but Smash is receiving a whole lot of praise from coaches, scouts, and fans.

Series premiere of Women’s Murder Club (ABC, 8pm). One of my featured picks for today, see above.

A newly turned vampire is on a killing spree on Moonlight (CBS, 8pm). I can see no reason to watch this. If you like the premise and haven’t seen the series Angel yet, just go check it out on DVD as it’s much (MUCH) better than this show. Or if you really want a current show with supernatural cases, try Blood Ties (Lifetime, 10pm).

Season premiere of Men in Trees (ABC, 9pm). One of my featured picks for today, see above.

Baseball: Rockies at Diamondbacks (TBS, 9pm). Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.

A car crashes into a coffee shop on Numb3rs (CBS, 9pm), but Charlie uses math (of course) to figure out that the crash may not have been an accident. Michael Welch is among the guest stars (he was “Luke Girardi” on Joan of Arcadia).

Ronon reconnects with a group of Satedans from his past on Stargate: Atlantis (Sci-Fi, 9:02pm and 11:03pm). They’re going after the Wraith.

A supermodel search contest is held at the Montecito on Las Vegas (NBC, 9pm). Hijinks presumably ensue. Sam thinks she saw someone murdered, but Danny doesn’t believe her. Tom Selleck is in charge on the show now that James Caan has departed. Still not sure that’s enough to make me watch, though.

Fall premiere of Blood Ties (Lifetime, 10pm). More new episodes of this new series based on the books by Tanya Huff. Season one was split into two halves, this is the start of the second half. Check out the official website for more info.

Late Night

New Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO, 10pm). Bill Maher welcomes TV host Joy Behar, economist Paul Krugman, and talk show host Tucker Carlson. Plus, via satellite, fmr. President Vicente Fox of Mexico and author Naomi Klein.

Halle Berry, Bill Hader, Spring Snake Symphony on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Christina Applegate, Bill O’Reilly, Alicia Keys on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).

Emma Watson, Patton Oswalt, Mark Ronson on a rerun of Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Lt. Col. Kevin Robbins, They Might Be Giants on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm). I just saw TMBG a couple of weeks ago on their current tour; well worth checking them out if they come to your town.

Anne Heche (of Men in Trees), Tom Anderson, Q-Tip on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings).

Jason Schwartzman, Morrissey on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).