Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, January 20, and Saturday, January 21. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Grimm (NBC, 9 p.m., Friday): Tonight’s episode: “Of Mouse And Man”! We’re hoping that means the monster of the week is some kind of giant… mouse-person hybrid thing or maybe one of those mice that has the human ear growing out of its back or something like that? Kevin McFarland hopes that the monster is a rat king, but we all know that if there were a bunch of rats tied together by the tail, that would just be ridiculous. Kind of like this show.
REGULAR COVERAGE
Late-Night Round-Up (7 p.m., Friday): Phil Nugent watched a whole week of Chelsea Lately, just because we asked him to. Honestly, we could probably get him to watch just about anything if we asked nicely enough. Anybody have suggestions?
Chuck (NBC, 8 p.m., Friday): Time for the next-to-last episode ever to air, as the two-hour series finale hits next week. Tonight, Chuck takes on a bullet train. We assume he does so singlehandedly. Ryan McGee hopes he fights it with kung fu.
Fringe (Fox, 9 p.m., Friday): Noel Murray’s off in the wilds of Sundance, so somebody else will have to cover this tale of Peter’s trip over to the alternate universe and said universe confronting a powerful adversary. Could it be… Galactus?
Portlandia (IFC, 10 p.m., Friday): This show has characters named Irys and Spyke? Why didn’t Christian Williams tell us about this? We’re definitely fans of people inserting Y’s into their names in weird places. Like Tydd VynDyrWyrff. Our hero.
The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret (IFC, 10:30 p.m., Friday): Not all of us watch this show, but we do so enjoy its delightful titles. Tonight’s features something about liver and salad? Weird. Kevin McFarland will only eat liver salad.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
Veronica Mars (11 a.m., Friday): The bus crash storyline gets a little lost there in the middle of this show’s second season, but Rowan Kaiser makes an argument for why one of the episodes this week brings it roaring back in a fascinating way.
The Adventures Of Pete & Pete (3 p.m., Friday): Big Pete and his dad attempt to catch a fish named Bob, and Big Pete contemplates the nature of death. Marah Eakin would just like you to know that this show wasn’t created by Ingmar Bergman.
The Twilight Zone (1 p.m., Saturday): Angels and mannequins make up this week’s two episodes, and they’re also the main characters in the computer role-playing game Todd VanDerWerff is creating. It’s a deliberate Wizardry throwback!
WHAT ELSE IS ON?
Shark Tank (ABC, 8 p.m., Friday): This is one of our favorite stupid reality shows, complete with all of the crazy-ass business ventures and the Sharks occasionally getting into pointless battles. We can’t believe it’s not more popular! It’s so dumb!
On Freddie Roach (HBO, 9:30 p.m., Friday): HBO’s new documentary series from director Peter Berg follows a few weeks in the life of a boxing gym. We’ll keep an eye on it to let you know if it’s any good for folks who aren’t all that in to boxing. Like us.
Swanderosa (CMT, 10 p.m., Friday): Have you ever noticed that all CMT reality shows are basically just carbon copies of other networks’ reality shows but set in the South somewhere? Like, this is just another wedding show, only set in Texas.
Drew Peterson: Untouchable (Lifetime, 8 p.m., Saturday): Marcus Gilmer checks out the latest from Lifetime, which stars Rob Lowe as the murderer named Peterson who wasn’t Scott Peterson and features the line, “I’m untouchable, bitch.”
Bayou Billionaires (CMT, 9 p.m., Saturday): Okay, we’ll give CMT points for this one: This appears to be a reality show version of The Beverly Hillbillies, only if the characters on that show had never moved to Los Angeles and had lived in a swamp.
An Idiot Abroad 2: The Bucket List (Science, 10 p.m., Saturday): This season features Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant sending Karl Pilkington out to accomplish certain tasks. Ryan McGee adds “ride a rhinoceros” to the list.
The Italian Job (TMC, 8 p.m., Friday): It’s time for a night of Mark Wahlberg Cinema, in honor of the man who could have stopped all of our greatest disasters if only he’d been present to make sure they didn’t happen. Like Hurricane Katrina!
Planet Of The Apes (Fox Movie Channel, 8 p.m., Friday): You could follow that up with this incredibly terrible remake of the original film from Tim Burton. But it does feature Mark Wahlberg in perhaps his finest ape-battling role, and there are many!
A Letter To Three Wives (TCM, 8 p.m., Saturday): Mark Wahlberg doesn’t star in this movie, which features one of the best screenplays ever from Joseph L. Mankiewicz (who also directed) and Vera Caspary. But no Wahlberg! So it sucks.
PGA Tour Golf: Humana Challenge (Golf, 9 p.m., Friday): Soon, there will be no more NFL football. The college basketball games will be so much gobbledygook. And the NBA will just be so many Lakers games. But at least we’ll have shitty ol’ golf!
College Basketball: Louisville at Pittsburgh (ESPN, 9 p.m., Saturday): Louisville won this game last year, thanks to the efforts of someone named Kyle Kuric, who scored five of the team’s six overtime points in a 62-59 victory. Or so we’re told.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
30 Rock (Thursday): Tracy Jordan’s storyline in this episode suspiciously parallels Tracy Morgan’s storyline in real life, and Meredith Blake is on the case. Fortunately, in the world of fiction, nobody can be all that awful of a person, so he's mostly just goofy. Ah, if only that were the case here.