TV Club bringeth you Strangers With Candy TV Club Classic reviews, and TV Club taketh them away
Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, August 6. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Strangers With Candy (3 p.m.): As surely as TV Club Classics must begin, then the time comes when they must end, and we have reached that point with Meredith Blake’s coverage of Strangers With Candy, as she hits the first season finale of the show and brings her coverage to a close. Will it only be for now? Or will she return someday, to tell us all of the wonders that await in seasons two and beyond? All we know is that it all ends with Jerri returning to a life of drugs after falling in love, which is the sort of thing that can always trip you up. So the lesson Meredith wants to impart is: Don’t fall in love. Ever.
REGULAR COVERAGE
Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 7:30 p.m.): Tonight, BMO tries to find Finn’s sock. If that doesn’t sound like a very exciting episode of television, just remember that episode of Breaking Bad where Walter lost a sock, and he and Jesse had to find it. Oliver Sava ranked that episode as best of all time.
The 2012 Summer Olympics (NBC, 8 p.m.): Farihah Zaman is pretty psyched for men’s diving, but that’s only because she was a major Greg Louganis fan back in the day. Okay, that’s a lie. We were the Greg Louganis fanboys back in the day. We totally wanted to follow his career trajectory.
Bunheads (ABC Family, 9 p.m.): We were fans of Boo and Ginny, but now we’re pretty sure that Sasha’s the Bunhead for us. Erik Adams is just glad it’s not that other one. What’s her name? No, seriously, what’s her name? Melanie? That sounds right, so we’re just gonna call her that this week. Melanie.
Alphas (Syfy, 10 p.m.): There’s a fight club for Alphas? Todd VanDerWerff thinks there should be a fight club for TV reviewers, probably one that pits them all against each other in a competition to review an episode of Alphas about Alphas forming a fight club. Wheels would truly be within wheels then!
Teen Wolf (MTV, 10 p.m.): We were worried that this show wouldn’t feed us the red hot lacrosse action we’re used to from this show, but then we learned that this episode would feature the lacrosse championship. Phil Dyess-Nugent is saved from having to imagine a world without werewolf lacrosse!
Web Therapy (Showtime, 11 p.m.): We’re not so sure about there being a reality TV star named Allegra. It feels just a little too much like a big, dopey joke. Help us out here, Brandon Nowalk! Convince us that joke is meaningful and fits within the show’s new media context! Or, y’know, just tell us to ignore it.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
The West Wing (11 a.m.): We Americans follow a tradition: Every four years, we welcome Rob Lowe to a new television series, and every four years, we usher him out on his way to something else. Steve Heisler observes the beginning of the “Sam goes off to California” arc in “Arctic Radar.”
Justice League (1 p.m.): A man overdoses on a chemical and becomes the dream-controlling Doctor Destiny. Why is it that we can never overdose on Pepto Bismol and become superheroes of the digestive tract? Oliver Sava keeps telling us that’s all we need to do to become King Stomach, but it’s not working.
WHAT ELSE IS ON
Huntik (Nicktoons, 8 p.m.): So this show comes from Italy? And the first season aired on some cable channel we’ve never heard of? And now, three years later, Nicktoons—another channel we didn’t know existed—is airing the start of season two? That sounds like a promising recipe for awesome success.
Secret Lives Of The Super Rich (CNBC, 8 p.m.): Tonight, CNBC takes you inside the giant homes of the super rich, whose number you almost certainly won’t join, but you can pretend you might by watching this show. Oh, who are we kidding? You’ll probably just angrily swear at the screen throughout.
RuPaul’s Drag U (Logo, 9 p.m.): The third season concludes, if you were paying attention and wanted to know. We haven’t been watching this season, so if you have, please let us know in comments if it’s been worth it, or if the show continues to feel a little centerless and inconsistent. It could just be us!
Push Girls (Sundance, 10 p.m.): If you haven’t been keeping up with this series about wheelchair-using athletes, why not check in tonight, since the Olympics have turned a little repetitive by this point (at least, if you’re watching the U.S. coverage)? Tonight, the women can’t wait to get back to skiing.
3:10 To Yuma (TCM, 8 p.m.): Glenn Ford and Van Heflin star in the original version of this story that was remade as a Russell Crowe vehicle a few years back. It’s not a great Western, but it’s a highly entertaining one, and if you’re looking for a tale of Wild West intrigue, you can’t do much worse tonight.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Starz, 9 p.m.): Some critics we respect really loved this David Fincher take on the Stieg Larsson novel, while others found it exploitative and often punishing. We still haven’t seen it, so perhaps you can offer your opinions on it, as well as Rooney Mara’s Oscar-nominated work.
MLB Baseball: Yankees at Tigers (ESPN, 7 p.m.): The Yankees are comfortably ensconced atop their division, but the Tigers are in the middle of a tight race for the wild card, caught up with the Orioles, Angels, and As. Obviously, it’s only August, so anything could happen, but this one could be fun.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Falling Skies (Sunday): Everybody’s on a trip to Charleston, and Les Chappell isn’t as excited by it as he feels he ought to be. C’mon, show! You’re fighting aliens and wandering around the Atlantic seaboard. The least you can do is have some exciting stuff happening, right? Let’s see some crazy gunfights!