Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, January 28. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
RuPaul’s Drag Race (Logo, 9 p.m.): The only reality show to ever make our top TV countdown—and the most popular reality show with you folks—returns tonight, after an abbreviated, largely disappointing all-star edition in the fall. But! Good news, everyone! Because Ru is back, and she’s brought along another coterie of would-be drag superstars to chase the big prize, deconstruct the tenets of reality TV, and ultimately end up performing their shows in the nightclubs of this great nation. Oliver Sava will work “dragtacular” and “squirrelfriends” into every single review this season.
REGULAR COVERAGE
Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 7:30 p.m.): The Earls of Lemongrab send up a flare to let everybody know they’re in trouble, and Finn and Jake head out to see what might be going on. Oliver Sava is awaiting us saying his name three times in Monday What’s On Tonight’s for the next few weeks.
Regular Show (Cartoon Network, 8 p.m.): Tonight’s episode is called “Sandwich Of Death,” which puts Alasdair Wilkins in mind of the time he made a sandwich of death. The ingredients? Wheat bread, Dijon mustard, lettuce, tomato, a couple slices of ham, pepperjack cheese, and a two-ton hydrogen bomb.
Switched At Birth (ABC Family, 8 p.m.): Both Bay and Daphne are dealing with relationship issues in this week’s episode, but, then, when are those girls not dealing with relationship issues? Carrie supposes they aren’t when they’re helping her look up great works of art on Wikipedia. But that’s about it.
Bunheads (ABC Family, 9 p.m.): Sutton Foster’s brother, Hunter, arrives on the scene to play Michelle’s brother, Scotty. The Fosters once understudied as Eponine and Marius in Les Misérables—and if Erik Adams could ever keep the characters of Les Mis straight, that would totally gross him out.
The Following (Fox, 9 p.m.): If you didn’t get enough serial killer madness in last week’s debut episode, David Sims is taking over our coverage, and he’s pleased that Annie Parisse is joining the cast in tonight’s episode, because he thinks fondly of the time only six people liked Rubicon, and he was one of them.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
Batman: The Animated Series (1 p.m.): The episode’s called “Torch Song,” and it somehow isn’t about Batman and Robin starting up an awesome night club act in which they sing standards from the Great American Songbook, while accompanied by Killer Croc. Oliver Sava recommends “Some Other Time.”
WHAT ELSE IS ON
The Carrie Diaries (The CW, 8 p.m.): Things fell off steeply last week from the première’s readership, but, hey, the numbers were still… all right. Plus, we have one more screener, so Carrie Raisler’s heading back into the breach one last time. Hold last week’s numbers, and we might have something here!
Extreme Smuggling (Discovery, 8 p.m.): Have you been wondering how you’re going to get all those lemurs you stole on your last trip abroad into the country? Well, wonder no more, because Discovery has a new special that will help you get all those lemurs over the border in giant shipping containers!
Dallas (TNT, 9 p.m.): Pretty much none of you wanted to read our thoughts on this last summer, because you apparently had better things to do. Then Larry Hagman died, and our last reason for watching petered out. So we’re dropping coverage. Phil Dyess-Nugent says goodbye one last time.
Independent Lens (PBS, 10 p.m.): Concerned about what’s being shoehorned into your children’s textbooks, particularly if you live in Texas? Tonight’s documentary—“The Reactionaries”—looks at the efforts to promote political agendas via what kids are learning, and sounds like it might be a must watch.
My Girl/My Girl 2 (Encore, 8 p.m.): Look, we’re still recovering from Macaulay Culkin getting his first on-screen kiss from Liz Lemmler, but we think you should stick around for the even better sequel, in which that one girl from Veep heads off into the wild blue yonder to find out stuff about her dead mother.
Reversal Of Fortune (Sundance, 8 p.m.): Jeremy Irons won his Oscar for playing a socialite charged with attempting to murder his wife, in this generally well-received awards vehicle. But if you ask us, it’s a travesty that Irons has an Oscar while Macaulay Culkin received none for his work in My Girl! Boo!
College basketball: Kansas at West Virginia (ESPN, 9 p.m.): Jeff Withey of the Jayhawks leads his team up against Aaric Murray and the Mountaineers, in this battle between schools representing states you probably try to avoid if you have to go on a road trip. This is the first time the schools have ever met.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Enlightened (Sunday): Brandon Nowalk may have given this episode an A-, but in our minds, this little jaunt into the life of one of the show’s side characters deserves an A+++. Okay, so we’re not actually authorized to hand out A+++’s, but you should check out Brandon’s (obviously wrong) thoughts anyway.