Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, October 24, 2011. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Castle (ABC, 10 p.m.): Though it’s just one week until Halloween, the networks are being a bit stingy with their spooky episodes tonight. Fortunately, ABC steps into the breach with an episode of its goofy detective series where the type of guy who might appear on Ghost Hunters turns up dead. Naturally enough, our intrepid hero jumps to, “The ghost did it,” and that means it’s time for all manner of eerie wackiness, Nathan Fillion eyebrow raises, and assorted other horror paraphernalia. If there’s not at least one scene in this episode where Fillion and Stana Katic have to make their way through a dark corridor infested with cobwebs, we’re calling bullshit. Phil Nugent hopes it's a shot-for-shot remake of the old Filmation show Ghostbusters, complete with kooky gorilla.
REGULAR COVERAGE
How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 8 p.m.): If you’re a big fan of the Barney and Nora relationship, tonight might be the episode for you. If you’re not, you might want to take a mulligan and wait for the arrival of the Slutty Pumpkin in next week’s episode. Also, the gang discovers their significant others remind them of their parents, which could mean Michael Gross and Bill Fagerbakke will get to have an ‘80s sitcom star-off, to the general delight of Donna Bowman.
2 Broke Girls (CBS, 8:30 p.m.): Every episode of this show starts with the word “And,” which is meant to be read as “2 Broke Girls And The Something Something.” And while that’s all well and good, doesn’t it sound like the naming convention for Disney sequels in the 1960s and ‘70s, like Herbie Goes Bananas or The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again? Can “2 Broke Girls Go All Horsefeathers” be far behind? Todd VanDerWerff hopes so!
Bored To Death (HBO, 9 p.m.): Maybe all of you have watched this on HBO Go already, but here’s another new episode of everybody’s favorite stoner comedy starring Ted Danson. Tonight, Jonathan is to appear on something called The New Dick Cavett Show, which can only mean that someone—David Sims probably—has begun the thawing of Dick Cavett.
Enlightened (HBO, 9:30 p.m.): Will watching Laura Dern and Mike White’s comedy of self-improvement make you a better person? It seems unlikely, but it also seems like you’d have a better shot at becoming a better person by watching this than you would have by watching a repeat of The T.O. Show, which is on at the same time on VH1. Erik Adams has a screener, so he can watch both.
WHAT ELSE IS ON
Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 8 p.m.): Perhaps because the core audience will be out trick-or-treating next week, Cartoon Network is treating us to the Adventure Time Halloween extravaganza tonight, rather than next Monday. Finn and Jake face down some zombies, which sounds fun for young and old alike. (And how cool would it be to have kids who liked Adventure Time? Pretty cool!)
Hoarders (A&E, 9 p.m.): Watching Hoarders very often makes us feel a touch guilty, but it’s also almost always a fascinating show, and it’s returning for another season tonight. The son of rich parents is kicked out of the apartment because of his hoarding tendencies (and takes to sleeping outside on a bench), while a woman hoards stuff from the Victorian era. Perhaps she could open a dainty and proper tea room?
Scare Tactics (SyFy, 9 p.m.): “A giant reptile nest is found in an old facility where tests on animals were conducted,” reads the synopsis for this episode, leaving much to the imagination. You’re going to have to do better than that, Scare Tactics! What kind of reptiles? Is the nest full of Komodo dragons? Because that would be awesome. And also probably deadly. But mostly awesome. Komodo dragons in the wall of some old warehouse in the Midwest? Sweet.
Monster In-Laws (A&E, 10 p.m.): We’re almost certain that this new series came about because some A&E executive was looking through the titles of shitty Jane Fonda movies on IMDB to see if there was one he could take the name of for a reality show. Be thankful he chose this one and not Georgia Rule, which would have been all about people in Atlanta measuring things. (Jessica Jardine would have preferred that.)
A Fish Called Wanda (HBO2, 7 p.m.): If it’s comedy you’re looking for tonight, and you’re dubious about the proposal that comedy can be found in the CBS Monday night lineup, then you can’t do much better than this classic farce from the ‘80s, with an all-star cast, including Kevin Kline in a turn that earned him an Oscar, and Wanda Sykes as the fish.
Carnival Of Souls (TCM, 8 p.m.): It’s a rare movie that’s decades old but still manages to carry enough punch to legitimately scare audiences in the modern era. Night Of The Living Dead is a film like that, and so is this one, centered on a woman suffering supernatural trauma after a car crash. (And if you’re looking for other horror flicks on TCM, the Francis Ford Coppola film Dementia 13 is on later.)
World Series: Game 5: Cardinals at Rangers (Fox, 7:30 p.m.): The Cards and Rangers have traded wins back and forth, which means it’s time for the Cardinals to win again. Just so long as we get a game seven for the ages, we’re going to be happy. And by “happy,” we mean, “still incredibly pissed off that the Brewers didn’t make it and we have to watch the friggin’ Cardinals be happy about something.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Dexter (Sunday): Here’s all we’re going to say about Sunday’s episode: It really makes the old characters seem like idiots when the new detective comes on and says, “Hey, maybe this is a religious killing” after a bunch of corpses are propped up like puppets on four horses of different colors, with Alpha and Omega letters painted on their foreheads. We’re just saying, is all. Joshua Alston was not impressed.