Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

New Chuck (NBC, 7pm)
Season finale of Ugly Betty (ABC, 7pm)
Season finale of Chuck (NBC, 9pm)
Series premiere of Breaking Bad (AMC, 9pm and midnight)

News & Notes

The Martha Stewart Show has been picked up for a fourth season.

The Sci-Fi Channel has aquired the rights to air reruns of Jericho. Cool! In case you’re wondering when season two starts on CBS, the season premiere will air on Tuesday, February 12th. Sci-Fi Channel will air a four episode mini-marathon of season one episodes on February 11th. Season one is available on DVD should you want to catch up with the show before then. I recommend the show. Season one was uneven, but usually interesting and kinda fun. Definitely not like other shows.

If the contest entries thus far are any indicator, the favorite new show of the season for you guys is a tie between Chuck and Pushing Daisies with Gossip Girl not far behind those two. You guys have good taste, though I must say the strong showing of Gossip Girl surprised me. Guess we like Josh Schwartz shows, eh? (He’s behind both Chuck and Gossip Girl).

Primetime Grid

Primetime

College baskeball: Duke at Virginia Tech (ESPN, 6pm), Seton Hall at Providence (ESPN2, 6pm), and Michigan State at Northwestern (ESPN2, 8pm).

NBA basketball: Spurs at Heat (TNT, 7pm) and Nets at Warriors (TNT, 9:30pm).

Chuck (NBC, 7pm) is back on a special night and time with the final two episodes that were produced before the strike. One airs at 7pm, the other airs at 9pm. In this first episode, Chuck notices that a bunch of Russian arms dealers seem to be meeting in Los Angeles; he’s even more intrigued when he learns that one of them is Casey’s ex-girlfriend. I’m so pleased to have two new episodes of this show to watch as I’ve really missed it.

Season finale of Ugly Betty (ABC, 7pm). Betty gets excited when she gets an assignment to interview author Phil Roth, but she’s disappointed when it turns out it’s not the novelist, but some guy who writes books on how to pick up women. Bummer. Gabrielle Union guest stars as a woman that Daniel likes. Gene Simmons makes an appearance as himself.

Gordon comes to the aid of former actor Allan Love, whose restaurant Ruby Tates is losing money due to his lack of control and apathetic chefs on the season premiere of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares (BBC America, 7pm, 10pm, midnight). Much better than the FOX series.

I’m still enjoying the reruns of Keen Eddie on Sleuth (Thursdays, 7pm and 10pm; also on Saturdays at 5pm).

Mel Harris and Sheryl Lee guest star in a rerun of CSI: NY (CBS, 7pm) that gives some insight into Hawkes’ past and the reasons he chose to change jobs.

The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders appear on a special two-hour Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader (FOX, 7pm - 9pm). Yes, really.

Helen “Supergirl” Slater guest stars in this rerun of Smallville (CW, 7pm). Blue kryptonite strips Clark of his powers. Bummer.

The “celebrities” are challenged to run a Broadway ticket booth and compete to see who can sell the most tickets on a new celebrity-edition of The Apprentice (NBC, 8pm - 9:01pm).

Rerun of “The Case of the Cross-dressing Carp” episode of C.S.I. (CBS, 8pm). Wherein a teenage boy is found hanged and it looks like maybe he’s in the process of transitioning from male to female. But is he really? The other case involves a mob hit (and possibly Catherine’s Dad, of course). And Grissom asks Sara a big question.

Greg: “Nothing says ‘mob hit’ like being shot in the chest, thrown down a construction shaft and tucked in under a concrete blanket.”
  from CSI

Patients include a kid who swallowed marbles and a middle-aged woman who wants surgery on her chin in this rerun of Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 8pm). Of course it’s not really about the cases, is it? This episode is about chemistry. Guest stars include Stephanie March (of Conviction, Law & Order: SVU), Kurt Fuller (of many many things; he played the original station manager on NewsRadio), Vicki Lewis (of NewsRadio), and Rockmond Dunbar (of Heartland, Prison Break).

Bailey: You have on your I-want-something face.
Callie: Will you cover for me, just do the chief resident thing so I can stay happy? Just today. Please, please, please.
Bailey: So you want me to . . .
Callie: . . . be me. But, you know, better. Be you.
  from Grey’s Anatomy

TVPicks.net fave Zeljko Ivanek guest stars on the old Ice-T series Players (Sleuth, 8pm and 11pm).

The brothers capture a female vampire who can’t recall how she became one in this rerun of Supernatural (CW, 8pm). Oddly enough, the vampire is played by Mercedes McNab who played “Harmony” (a vampire) on Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Work continues on the Army National Guard bike on a new American Chopper (TLC, 8pm and 10pm).

It looks like Chuck may have to go into hiding on the season finale of Chuck (NBC, 9:01pm). He wouldn’t like that and neither would we, now would we?

Rebroadcast of the series premiere of Breaking Bad (AMC, 9pm and midnight). This dark new series was created by Vince Gilligan (of The X-Files). A science teacher turns meth manufacturer after he’s diagnosed with cancer. Bryan Cranston (of Malcolm in the Middle) stars. I haven’t seen this yet, but have heard really good things about it.

Charisma Carpenter (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) guest stars in tonight’s new episode of Big Shots (ABC, 9:02pm). There are two more episodes after this one, but they probably won’t air in February. I imagine ABC will air them eventually.

New episode of real crime series The First 48 (A&E, 9pm and 1am).

New episode of Make Me A Supermodel (Bravo, 9pm, 10pm, 1am, 2am).

Lindsay Frost guest stars as a reporter who goes missing in this rerun of Without A Trace (CBS, 9pm). It turns out she’s looking for her son, who also went missing some time ago. A rather intense (but good) episode, if I recall correctly.

A Harry Potter cake is featured on a new Ace of Cakes (Food Network, 9:30pm and 12:30am).

Late Night

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, T.J. Miller, Super Furry Animals on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Ringo Starr (assuming he cooperates, I guess he’s walked off some talk shows this week) on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).