Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

New Bones (FOX, 7pm)
Season premiere of Criminal Minds (CBS, 8:15pm?)
New Sons of Anarchy (FX, 9pm, 10:03pm, 12:04am)
Keith Olbermann, Chandra Wilson, Delta Goodrem, other guests TBA on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm or later)
Jamie Pressly (of My Name Is Earl), Little Britain, Lenka on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm or later)

News & Notes

The President will address the nation at 8pm and this will change the primetime schedule on the networks for tonight. Here’s what I know (as of 2:55pm):

FOX will air the speech at 8pm and then will air the shows scheduled for 8pm and 8:30pm after it. The speech is estimated to take 15 minutes; best guess is that ‘Til Death will start at 8:15pm and Do Not Disturb will start at 8:45pm.

I haven’t heard word from ABC or NBC (and have delayed the picks as long as possible waiting on word), but there are reports elsewhere that they’ll all be carrying the speech at 8pm. I’m guessing that rather than preempt any programming, they’ll just start the 8pm shows late (as FOX is) and air programming after the speech, but that’s just a guess as they haven’t sent out revised schedules. Basically if you plan to watch or record something at 8pm or after 8pm on any of the networks, you should probably be prepared for them to start and run late or even be pre-empted (I think that’s unlikely). When/if I find out more, I’ll update this page and post to twitter though I’ll be heading out of the house and away from ye olde internet for tonight’s Twins-White Sox game at 5pm or so.

Update: I’ve received word from CBS that Criminal Minds will air after the speech.

Three shows on the schedule for Wednesdays this Fall don’t debut ’til next week:
Dirty Sexy Money (10/1)
Private Practice (10/1)
Pushing Daisies (10/1)

Daytime

Jenny McCarthy, Jim Carrey, and “warrior moms” on a new Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings).

Primetime Grid

Featured Pick

Season premiere of Criminal Minds (CBS, around 8:15pm or so; it will air after CBS’s coverage of the Presidential Address at 8pm).

I’ve seen quite a few of the season premieres of returning shows this Fall season and my favorite of them all so far is tonight’s season premiere of Criminal Minds.

If you aren’t familiar with the show, it follows a group of profilers with the FBI as they work some very tough cases. Sounds simple enough, right? What makes this show so good is a great ensemble cast of fully developed characters who are each compelling in their own right. Thomas Gibson, Shemar Moore, Kirsten Vangsness, A.J. Cook, Matthew Gray Gubler, Paget Brewster, and Joe Mantegna are all really very good in their roles (as was Mandy Patinkin when he was still on the show). The writers do great things with all the characters as they go about the business of dealing with brutal cases. The cases are better than most on this sort of show, but I really do watch because I’ve come care about these people.

Last season ended with a cliffhanger as the team was in New York City working on a case that at first looked like the work of a lone killer, but then began to look like it might involve a terrorist plot. They were working with an agent from New York named “Kate” played by Sienna Guillory and also with detectives played by Jack McGee (of Rescue Me) and Erik Palladino (of Over There, ER).

At the end of the episode, pretty much everyone is shown getting into black SUVs and then we got a shot of a black SUV exploding. Yikes! The commercials for the show have pretty much given away the identity of which SUV blew up, but don’t worry– they haven’t given away too much as this is one terrifically exciting hour of television.

I’d say anyone could jump in with this episode even if they missed part one of this two-part episode or if they haven’t watched the show before or haven’t watched it lately. Obviously this episode plays a lot better if you know the history of the characters and care about them because much of the drama in this episode features various characters in peril.

I honestly cried a bit over this episode, but like I said, I’ve really come to care about these characters. There’s a good story here in a fast-paced well put-together hour which was written by Simon Mirren (a co-executive producer on the show) and directed by Edward Allen Bernero (the showrunner for the series, he’s also an executive producer).

I’ve watched this episode twice already (in the same day, no less) and imagine I’m gonna watch it again today.

The season premiere of Criminal Minds airs tonight on CBS after the President’s speech.

Primetime

Baseball: Cubs at Mets (ESPN, 6pm) followed by Baseball Tonight (ESPN, 9pm or so).

“The Perfect Pieces in the Purple Pond” is the title of tonight’s new episode of Bones (FOX, 7pm). A dismembered body is found, it turns out it’s the body of a 25-year-old science fiction writer. One of the suspects is a science fiction publisher. I’m sure this will all be terribly accurate when it comes to the publishing biz and science fiction, right? The big news is that Eric Millegan is listed among the guest stars as Zach returns for this episode. Yay! I still think they may have made a mistake in how they treated that character last year.

The women walk the catwalk while blindfolded and there’s a surprise elimination on a new America’s Next Top Model (CW, 7pm; also on Sunday at 8pm).

Season premiere of Knight Rider (NBC, 7pm). I’m never quite sure if I should call this a “series premiere” or “season premiere” given this series really began with the movie on NBC last year and now has been ordered as a regular series. I just watched tonight’s episode and boy is it ridiculous and bad. These days KITT can morph into just about anything and do just about anything. Paula Garces guest stars in this episode; she played “Tina” on The Shield. The plot involves . . . oh does it really matter? Justin Bruening and Deanna Russo star; other castmembers include Bruce Davison and Sydney Tamiia Poitier. Val Kilmer is the voice of KITT. I enjoyed Tim Goodman’s coverage of this show and Gary Unmarried.

Richard proposes to New Christine (again) and Christine proposes . . . to Barb (yes, really) in the season premiere of The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS, 7pm). By now Christine is just so stupid it drives me nuts. I watch this show occasionally, but don’t think it’s anything I’d ever go out of my way to see and this episode is not very good.

The Jonas Brothers and Jesse McCartney perform on tonight’s results show for Dancing with the Stars (ABC, 7pm). In case you care about that sort of thing.

Jay Mohr stars in the series premiere of Gary Unmarried (CBS, 7:30pm). Mohr plays “Gary” who got divorced three months ago after 15 years of marriage to a woman named Allison (played by Paula Marshall). They’ve got kids and disagree on how to raise them, of course. Gary works a job painting houses with a character played by Al Madrigal. Ed Begley, Jr. plays Allison’s new love interest. You get the idea, it’s all very formulaic. Second Life is mentioned fairly prominently in the premiere, in case you’re someone who is interested in that particular virtual world. This show is nothing special, really.

Presidential Address (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC at 8pm).

Season premiere of Criminal Minds (CBS, after the speech, see above).

There’s a “musical genre challenge” in this new episode of Project Runway (Bravo, 8pm, 10pm, midnight, 2am).

New Inside the NFL (Showtime, 8pm).

Rerun of last night’s new episode of 90210 (CW, 8pm).

Kenny and Eddie fight over Joy in a new ‘Til Death (FOX, 8:15pm). Plus there’s a “disco mishap”. Vicki Lewis (of NewsRadio) guest stars.

It’s time for performance reviews and bonuses at The Inn in this new episode of Do Not Disturb (FOX, 8:45pm). Jon Polito guest stars.

The club travels to Nevada to meet with a brother club on a new Sons of Anarchy (FX, 9pm, 10:03pm, 12:04am; also on Sunday at 10pm). DVR Alert: this episode has a running time of 63 minutes.

Mary Tyler Moore and Rosie Perez guest star in the season premiere of Lipstick Jungle (NBC, probably after 9pm). Nico continues to be haunted by her infidelity and Wendy’s Mom pays her a visit. I’ve seen the first two episodes of the new season and they’re okay if you like this show, though I’m not sure how I feel about the major development in the premiere– I’ll say more about that next week after this episode has aired.

Mac is kidnapped in the season premiere of CSI: NY (CBS, probably after 9pm). Eek!

The contestants team up to redesign the bachelor pads of three different men on a limited budget on a new Top Design (Bravo, 9pm and 11pm).

Michael creates an eight course tasting menu for employees at the Crayola factory in this new episode of Dinner Impossible (Food Network, 9pm and midnight).

Greg Giraldo and Kathleen Madigan debate whether strip clubs or sororities are “more evil” in a new episode of Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil (Comedy Central, 9:30pm and 11:30pm).

Late Night

The speech in primetime tonight might cause your local news to start late which means that late night talk shows might start (and end) late as well.

New episode of Red Hot and Green (HGTV, 10pm and 2am).

Aaron Eckhart on The Daily Show (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

Dr. Cornel West on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

New episode of Haulin’ House (HGTV, 10:30pm and 2:30am).

Sen. John McCain, Keith Olbermann, Chandra Wilson (of Grey’s Anatomy), Delta Goodrem on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm). As I was getting ready to post this, news broke that McCain was “suspending his campaign” to work on financial bailout so now I’m wondering if that means he won’t appear on Letterman tonight. I think more news should break today that causes changes to the TV schedule and my TV picks, that’d be awesome! (Or not.) And now, just as I was about to finally post the picks comes word that McCain won’t be on Letterman. Latest news: Keith Olbermann has been added as a guest (2:55pm).

Dr. Phil McGraw, Kevin Farley, Plain White T’s on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC, 10:35pm).

Jamie Pressly (of My Name Is Earl), Little Britain, Lenka on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Michael Clarke Duncan (he’s in the premiere of Chuck), Shirley Manson (of Sarah Connor Chronicles), Jamie Lidell on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

Sandra Oh (of Grey’s Anatomy), the first competitor to be elimated from this season of Dancing with the Stars, Foals on Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, check your local listings).

Lester Holt, other guests still TBA on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).