TV News and Reviews

I was going to do a post on nice family-friendly programming that was on for those who celebrate Easter, until I realized that there isn’t any nice family-friendly programming for Easter. Looking at the TV listings, you’d think it was just any other day. NBC isn’t even bothering to show the excellent primetime drama Kings, that has a biblical theme and spiritual tone.

I realize that the country, and certainly TV, has gotten more secular over time. TV execs also no doubt consider Easter to not be a very commercial holiday, so they don’t bother hyping it as much. It just seems a little sad that the networks and cable can’t manage to have one day without Rock of Love or a violent Batman movie out of respect for those who do celebrate Easter. The afternoon schedule on Nickelodeon starts with The Naked Brothers Band. I realize it’s only a teen drama, but still. Couldn’t we try just a little bit?

The History Channel has a couple religious history segments on in the afternoon, but it’s once again not exactly family friendly stuff. If you do celebrate Easter and feel the desire to watch TV, your best bet is to stick with sports programming on the main networks. If you have HBO, the George Clooney, Renée Zellweger movie Leatherheads is on at 4pm Eastern/3pm Central. And no, despite TV trends on Sunday, Leatherheads is not an S&M film. It’s a very nice, old-fashioned romantic comedy that takes place during the early days of pro football. It’s got style and snappy dialogue and it covers love, friendship, morality, and patriotism. It’s an entertaining, funny, and pleasant film to watch at any time, but it’s also a nice movie for the holidays.

If you’re looking for religious or holiday-themed movie suggestions to pop into the DVD player, head over to see About.com’s Top Christian Easter Movies, or CD Universe’s ecclectic Easter holdiay DVD list.

I hope you all have a pleasant weekend, and Happy Easter wishes to all who celebrate.