True TV | Bird Up: Monk, Psych, Drinky Crow Show, My Own Worst Enemy, Eli Stone, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
By Bill Frost @bill_frost
Monk, Psych Friday, Nov. 28 (USA)
nChristmas Episodes: Oh, quit rolling your eyes; at least USA waited until the day after Thanksgiving to run these—and Monk and Psych are bumping off The Starter Wife tonight, which should be considered the greatest gift of all. On Monk, longtime peripheral character Capt. Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine, aka Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs—I know!) finally gets a chance to shine as the victim of an improbably contrived “miracle” hoax; on Psych, Shawn and Gus unravel an even more improbably contrived Christmas heist, then Shawn nails Gus’ sister. Ah, the holidays …
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The Drinky Crow Show Sundays (Adult Swim)
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nNew Series: Tony Millionaire’s Maakies comic strip, about an alcoholic/suicidal crow who pals around with an equally drunken monkey sailor, made a brief animated jump to TV on Saturday Night Live in the ’90s; a more elaborately drawn pilot episode for The Drinky Crow Show appeared on Adult Swim last year. In this past Sunday’s DCS debut, Drinky cut out his own eyeballs and replaced them with literal “beer goggles” so he could tolerate his ugly new girlfriend, then inadvertently blew up the planet before emotion-robbing aliens (voiced by Jemaine and Bret from Flight of the Conchords) could arrive; things get even weirder in the coming weeks. It’s the best sorta-nautically-themed series since NCIS, and should at least wash the bitter aftertaste of Moral Orel’s dark Adult Swim exit out of your brain. Or not. n n
n Chug n
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n Abstain n
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My Own Worst Enemy Mondays (NBC)
nCanceled: So NBC killed Christian Slater’s split-personality spy series My Own Worst Enemy but is keeping Brooke Shields’ craptastic Lipstick Jungle? Thanks, Heroes. That once-hot superfriends soap is dragging NBC’s Monday nights into the basement, much like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is sinking Fox—these be hard times for network sci-fi, unless you have a talking car (hey, Lipstick Jungle already has a couple of talking horses). My Own Worst Enemy’s clock runs out on Dec. 15, when the ninth and last-produced episode airs—catch it while you can; it’s as tense and dense a serial as Heroes should have been.
Eli Stone Tuesdays (ABC)
nCanceled: Yeah … good riddance.
Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money Wednesdays (ABC)
nCanceled: This one really hurts; Pushing Daisies was/is the most original—certainly the most colorful, if not pie-centric—network series in years. Too bad it costs more to produce than an amateur dancing show. And Dirty Sexy Money? The true, smart heir to the great nighttime rich-folk soaps of the ’80s? Also dead. Daisies and Dirty were the tasty sourdough buns of the suck sandwich filled with Private Practice, which has not been canceled despite sucking the ratings out of ABC’s Wednesdays and will live to suck on Thursdays with Grey’s Anatomy come January. There is a small bite of justice here: ABC will move the excellent Life on Mars to Wednesdays at the same time, pairing it with the returning Lost and just maybe guaranteeing a full season of Michael Imperioli’s sweet ’70s mustache.
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show Wednesday, Dec. 3 (CBS)
nCBS handily won November Sweeps, but that ain’t the chart I care about: It’s also No. 1 on the Parent Television Council’s primetime indecency hit list, what with strip-club lap dances (Two & a Half Men), live F-bombs (Big Brother), visible nut sacks (Survivor: Gabon) and the devil’s mathematical science (Numb3rs). So bring on Heidi Klum and her underwired master-race jiggle squad at 9 p.m. Mountain Time—unless KUTV 2 pusses out again and declines to air it …
DVD
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n Girls Gone Wild: Blonde on Blonde n
n The story of Bob Dylan’s landmark 1966 album Blonde on Blonde, as acted out by several topless young ladies and a few gallons of whipped cream. No, wait: Leave out Dylan, add more boobs and whipped cream. Sorry about that. (MantraEnt.com)n n
n Metalocalypse: Season 2 n
n Dethklok record and design clothes, Toki takes guitar lessons, Nathan runs for office, Pickles gets famous, Murderface races cars, Skwisgaar shreds, and more! All this, plus Dr. Rockzo, Revengencers and killer Amazons! Yow! (AdultSwim.com)n n
n Step Brothers n
n Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly take the idiot-man-child thing a “step” too far as 40-something “brothers” who still live with their parents and act like afro-ed jackasses. Still, it has more teabagging than Talladega Nights, which ain’t bad. (Sony.com)n n
n Wanted n
n Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy star in the dizzying comic-book action flick about … what the hell was this about? Curveball bullets? Evil looms? The Matrix without all that “thinky” exposition? And why so little teabagging? (NBCUni.com)n n n
n The X-Files: I Want to Believe n
n Mulder and Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson) are back on the job, with more hair, less motivation and no bees (or teabagging). Argue amongst yourselves whether or not a plot about religion counts as science fiction. (FoxHome.com)
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More New DVD Releases (Dec. 2)
nThe Best of Dr. Katz, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Dark World, Fly Me to the Moon, Law & Order: Season 6, The Lawless, The Longshots, Post Impact, Rim Shop, Rise of the Footsoldier, Saturday Night Live: Season 4, The Trojan Horse, Wisegal
Listen to Bill Mondays at 8 a.m. on X96’s Radio From Hell. Little teabagging at BillFrost.tv. Even more True TV linkage at MySpace.com/TrueTV and on Facebook.
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