TV News and Reviews

With fall shows returning, midseason TV starting up, and special movies running, there’s a lot to watch on television this week. Can’t decide what to tune in for? Here are TV News and Reviews’ primetime suggestions for the week of January 25, 2009:

Sunday

Cold Case, CBS, 8/7c. Tune in early for this thoughtful, heartstring-tugging cop procedural that typically runs an hour earlier on Sundays. This week’s case involves the murder of a 1967 brush salesman.

The Last Templar, Part I, NBC, 9/8c. I’m not familiar with the novel by Raymond Khoury, but this two-part mini-series about an archaeologist and FBI agent exploring the long-hidden secrets of the Knights Templar looks like it might be a fun National Treasure-ish style adventure. With an exciting line-up of Mira Sorvino (who reportedly broke 5 teeth during a boating action scene accident), Scott Foley, Victor Garber and Omar Shariff, I’m looking forward to checking this one out.

Monday

The Last Templar, Part II, NBC, 9/8c. The conclusion to Sunday night’s mini-series adventure.

The Closer, TNT, 9/8c. Set your DVR or stay up late if you want to catch both The Last Templar and the first new episode of the year for The Closer. Following last fall’s cliffhanger, viewers are anxious to see what happens with Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) and Fritz’ (Jon Tenney) wedding plans and the fate of wounded team member Detective Sanchez. Catch the encore at midnight Eastern/11pm Central to avoid recording. As Brenda would say: “Thank you so much.”

Tuesday

Scrubs (2 episodes), ABC, 8/7c. The Mentalist is still doing reruns on CBS, so now’s your chance to take a peek at the last season of this clever ensemble comedy, with tonight’s guest star Elmo.

Wednesday

Lost, ABC, 9/8c. Be prepared to bend your brain with the third episode of the new season with our castaways. The season opener managed to clear up a few questions while opening up a whole new can of worms to consider. It wouldn’t be Lost if you weren’t lost, so just go along for the ride and see where it takes you.

Life on Mars, ABC, 10/9c. I loved this quirky American remake of a British show, starring Jason O’Mara (The Closer, Men in Trees) as police detective Sam Tyler, who gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. The mystery of the show lies in all the possible explanations for Tyler’s predicament–is he in a coma, hallucinating, on drugs, or dead? Or is it really time travel or some sort of dimension shifting? The beauty of Life on Mars is that it’s a great nostalgia piece and gritty cop show, with little bits of the mystery of Tyler’s past and future woven in. Paired up with fellow mind-bender Lost, here’s hoping Life on Mars finds the ratings it deserves. Heavy-hitters Harvey Keitel, Gretchen Mol, and Michael Imperioli also star.

Thursday

Burn Notice, USA, 10/9c. This witty spy action drama is a heck of a lot of fun to watch. With Jeffrey Donovan’s smooth spy moves and deadpan voiceovers, Gabrielle Anwar’s gleeful attachment to solving everything with violence, and blustery Bruce Campbell conning everyone in sight, the show delivers good old-fashioned entertainment in a slick, sexy, fun package. USA is treating us with a few midseason episodes before Burn Notice returns for its regular season in the summer.

Friday

Friday’s a deadzone this week, with not much going on and no new episodes. Even TLCs What Not to Wear is a recap episode, highlighting women from past episodes who had gone through impressive weight loss but hadn’t figured out how to dress their new figures. Though made up of old clips, we should be treated to some new banter from hosts/stylists Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, so tune in to TLC at 9/8c.

Saturday

Crusoe, NBC, 8/7c. This is it, folks, the season finale of this exciting romp with pirates, cannibals, and MacGyver-esque treehouses full of gadgets. And don’t forget the gorgeous Philip Winchester and Tongai Chirisa running around shirtless as they trade boyish banter.

I am a big fan of TLCs What Not to Wear. But I do have a few disagreements with them occasionally. One of the things I don’t like about the show is how often Stacy and Clinton drill in “Age-Appropriate” to any woman over 25, and more harshly as the ages go up (though somehow Stacy London herself seems immune to a lot of these rules). Now, I agree that your style does need to change somewhat as you mature, and wearing junior clothes that aren’t made for a woman’s body isn’t a good idea. But I dislike the fact that once you hit 30 you must graduate to plain clothes and over the knee skirts and reserve embellishment for your shoes–and get a reserved bob haircut.

Tonight’s What Not to Wear guest Jennifer was the executive director of a music school. She was often called upon to do fund-raising and attend benefits and galas, and was wearing jeans and little spaghetti strap tops. This was definitely not appropriate businesswear for a professional. I’m not even sure how she got the position dressing like that, but it seems these days it is easier for those in charge to turn their employees into What Not to Wear than it is to tell them to dress appropriately for their job. Just get Stacy and Clinton to do it!

But I digress. Jennifer’s wardrobe wasn’t doing anything for her, and I agree she needed an upgrade. Some of the clothing they chose for her was nice, with some added ruffles or cutout detailing. But really, they kept telling her that she was blending her bohemian side with her business side when she was standing there in a high-necked matte gold top and black skirt. I wasn’t exactly feeling the bohemian part. Age-appropriate is fine to an extent, but if a woman bends the rules because she can carry it off, why not let her? Why do we have to become plain as we get older?

The worst of all was the haircut. Maybe it’s what Nick Arrojo is told to do, maybe it’s what the guest wants, but I am so sick of seeing the bob haircut on every woman that comes in. If she has curly hair, their answer is to cut it off and straighten it. Jennifer had a sort of collar-length wavy hair that was soft around her angular face. Then Nick comes and gives her a bob and straightens it, making her look more angular and her neck too long. She had a youthful quality about her beforehand, and then the hair and modest makeup just aged her into a “proper” yuppie librarian type. This is nothing against Jennifer, who seems to be a lovely person, devoted to her husband and her work. I feel she deserved better, quite frankly.

I beg the What Not to Wear people to stop cutting bobs on everyone. There’s this strange idea that somehow it’s a one-size-fits-all solution to hair problems and it’s just not true. Yes, bobs look great on some women. But there is nothing wrong with a woman having longer hair. Men like it, women like it; it’s soft and feminine. The same goes for curly hair. In the after shots over the credits, Jennifer had let her hair curl a bit and it was much more flattering on her. I hope she grows it out, and maybe tries a different color. I thought it was odd that she said she didn’t want to be a blonde, and yet she was still blonde afterwards.

One more note for all who watch the show. An important facet of carrying off any kind of wardrobe is confidence. I’ve seen many episodes where they put beautiful clothes on a beautiful girl and she still looked frumpy. This is because many of the What Not to Wear guests slump their shoulders, stand with their stomachs out, or walk like ducks. Sure, modern women may laugh about practicing walking witha  book on your head, but it’s still a great way to achieve balance and learn to walk in a more elegant way. So head up ladies, one foot in front of the other, and try wearing heels. You’ll upgrade your wardrobe without paying a cent.

**Photo of Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, c2007 Brian Doben, TLC
(Wait, is that a sparkly skirt above the knee and a top with embellishment? Is that age appropriate? Of course it is, because she looks fabulous!)

Tonight’s episode of What Not to Wear was another good one. The guest star this week, Catherine, was a sweet girl who was ready for her makeover. Having recently lost 100 pounds (!), Catherine was still stuck in her old body image. Holding out for her “optimum” weight, she was simply hiding in floor-length black skirts and baggy clothes. I think many women who work in a corporate environment have committed the same wardrobe sin as Catherine–long black skirt and knee-high stockings. You know who you are. After all, if the skirt is ankle length, who will know they’re knee-highs?

The best visual stunt of this What Not to Wear was when Clinton knelt down with a pair of scissors and cut one of Catherine’s skirts to knee-length. Incredibly, he cut a nearly perfect line and the original shape of the skirt caused the new hem to mimic a tulip ruffle. The change was startling, and illustrated their point dramatically, as Catherine looked ten times better with just this quick and dirty alteration.

My only critique for the show is something that happens once in awhile on What Not to Wear–the reveal outfits aren’t the best choices. During the shopping day, Stacy and Clinton outfitted Catherine in some great business wear, and the credit montage also showed her in a lot of flattering suits and casual wear. The reveal outfits, however, particularly the first suit, were less than stellar. A pale grey suit with a yellow blouse–and all that showed of the blouse was the long tie at the neck. It was certainly an improvement over the black baggy dowdy suit she’d started the show with, but a later suit in the credits with the tulip skirt would have made a much better reveal outfit. All in all, though, still a satisfying What Not to Wear episode.

For more Friday night guilty pleasure, we get two episodes of Say Yes to the Dress. Tonight’s episodes were more enjoyable than some others I’ve seen, as they covered a wider range of brides. Since the store featured carries designer lines, the typical bride is spending more on their dress than I spent on my entire wedding, and it’s a little hard to identify with the prima donnas. Tonight, however, there were a mix of girls with different backgrounds and also vastly different tastes in gowns. One of the ladies getting fitted had to have a very modest dress to follow her religious traditions, particularly as her father the rabbi would be officiating the wedding. It was actually a revelation, to see how a dress with a high neck, sleeves to the elbow, utterly plain but for some ruffles at the bottom, could actually be very becoming and flattering.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, we had different brides trying on the latest fashion in sexy bridal gowns, made with sheer bustiers and yards of ruffles and glitter. I liked this particular designer’s work, as the dresses had lots of detail and some fussiness, without being giant wedding-cake style dresses.

Say Yes to the Dress is a fun show to watch, and shows how subjective wedding dress choices are. Often a bride will put on a dress I think is hideous, only to have her declare it’s her favorite. A bride, who brought her fiance to shop with her, came out in an incredibly flattering dress that he hated. She ended up chosing a much plainer, less attractive style–but that’s just my opinion, of course.

Say Yes to the Dress also shows us all the behind the scenes action, of what the salespeople have to go through, and their methods of trying to match the dress to the woman. Things do not always go as planned. Tonight’s second episode had two girls waiting to try on a sample that another bride was wearing for an hour. The saleswoman feared losing the sale if she got the girl out of the dress, but in the meantime, another girl was sitting in her dressing room in a robe waiting for that dress. The miraculous result was that both girls bought that dress, which was a huge relief to the saleswoman who’d been frantically trying to keep her girl placated while she waited.

Relive all the joys and frustrations of choosing a wedding dress, and fantasize about having a limitless budget as you watch Say Yes to the Dress, on TLC, Friday nights at 10pm Eastern/9pm Central. Before and after, catch the newest episode of What Not to Wear, at 9/8c and again at 11/10c.

PHOTO: Kleinfeld consultant, Keasha Rigsby, helps bride-to-be, Stacey Kaaz, shop for a wedding gown (c2007, Todd Pitt, TLC).