Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Tuesday, April 10. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Justified (FX, 10 p.m.): The A.V. Club’s Scott Tobias has characterized the third season of Justified as “busy.” With the varying criminal interests (and their varying conflicts with Raylan Givens) elbowing their way into Harlan over the course of 13 episodes, there’s no way the show is going to move onto its next season without making some room for itself. (Read: Building a big pile of bodies.) Who will survive, and what will be left of them? And more importantly: Will they be allowed to say something quippy before they’re dispatched?
REGULAR COVERAGE
Glee (Fox, 8 p.m.): Glee’s back, you guys! Remember Glee? The magical singing-and-dancing show that could be any show, depending on the week and Ryan Murphy’s general mood? Join Todd VanDerWerff as he wonders how Murphy and company will resolve that ridiculous car-crash cliffhanger. (Remember that ridiculous car-crash cliffhanger?)
Cougar Town (ABC, 8:30 p.m.): More important than whatever theme Will Schuester shoehorns into his episode-opening lecture tonight: ABC is finally waking Cougar Town from its Dancing With The Stars-induced slumber. Ryan McGee implores you to watch the show before the network cruelly snatches it away again.
Ringer (The CW, 9 p.m.): Now it just seems like Ringer is throwing around the word “bitch” in an attempt to provoke tetchy groups like the Parents Television Council. “It’s Called Improvising, Bitch!” snarls the title of tonight’s episode—the same thing Carrie Raisler says when people call Whose Line Is It Anyway? “sketch comedy.”
New Girl (Fox, 9 p.m.): “I know you. You’re Co-Pilot Roger Murdock!” Erik Adams shouted when he spotted Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in press images for tonight’s New Girl. “I’m sorry son, but you must have me confused with someone else,” Abdul-Jabbar replied. Adams quoted Airplane! to no one in particular for 15 more minutes, before daydreaming about how the late Leslie Nielsen surely would’ve been a great fit for the role of Jess’ grandfather. “Of course he would,” the ghost of Nielsen said. “And don’t call me Shirley.”
The Voice (NBC, 9 p.m.): Our long, heavily affected, mewling national nightmare of hearing Erin Martin Björk her way through pop hits may soon be over, and Emily Yoshida couldn’t be happier. Unless, of course, Martin makes it through tonight’s elimination episode, at which point Emily will no longer be responsible for her drastic post-show actions.
Raising Hope (Fox, 9:30 p.m.): Given the way Fox’s grim reaper is nipping at the heels of the network’s comedies that aren’t Glee or New Girl, the announcement of Raising Hope’s third-season renewal was a pleasant surprise. With a focus on the events that made Jimmy a single father, tonight’s a good night to get acquainted with the Chances and their wacky-yet-emotionally-grounded world—Phil Dyess-Nugent would be pleased to make an introduction.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
The Muppet Show (noon): It doesn’t feature any segments of the same caliber as “The Fears Of Zero,” but something about Dom DeLuise’s creature-filled, “Muppet of a man” performance on The Muppet Show conflated his and Zero Mostel’s episodes in our youthful minds. Erik Adams sets out to conclusively tell the episodes apart, while also receiving a visit from the lovely and talented Bernadette Peters.
WHAT ELSE IS ON
The Deadliest Catch (Discovery, 9 p.m.): If a crab-fishing fleet’s quota is less than normal, does it make their quarry less deadly—or more deadly? This is the question posed indirectly (and by indirectly, we mean only by What’s On Tonight?) by the eighth-season première of the Discovery Channel favorite.
Dream Machines (Syfy, 10 p.m.): Parker Brothers Concepts of Melbourne, Florida specializes in building fantastical vehicles that only previously existed in the doodles of bored middle-school boys. That’s enough to clear Syfy’s “minimum genre-content” requirement, which means you can now watch the Parkers build a goofy future car for 50 Cent.
Shannen Says (WeTV, 10 p.m.): 90210 alum Shannen Doherty follows in the tracks of her former co-star Tori Spelling, turning the planning process for her 2011 wedding into reality-TV fodder. And it’s the most notoriously misbehaved 90210 star this time around, so juicy, catty developments are all but guaranteed.
Big Easy Justice (Spike, 10 p.m.): Not justice that is both big and easy, but rather justice doled out in the Big Easy, N’awlins (don’t pronounce it like that), where bounty hunter Tat-2 practices a distinct, Cajun-blackened brand of retribution—we gare-un-tee! (Don’t say it like that.)
Snow Day (FMC, 7 p.m.): This is a difficult movie to recommend, seeing as writers Will McRobb and Rob Viscardi originally intended it to be a feature-length adaptation of The Adventures Of Pete And Pete. That was not to be, but the finished product, lopsided as it is, is imbued by skewed, suburban outlook of the Petes Wrigley.
The Searchers (TCM, 8 p.m.): True to its title, John Ford’s masterful Western has John Wayne and Jeffrey Hunter search, search, and search some more through breathtaking desert vistas, on the lookout for Wayne’s abducted niece.
NBA Basketball: Celtics at Heat (ESPN, 8 p.m.): With a few weeks of regular-season play left, the Heat still have a chance to snatch the top seed in the Eastern Conference from the Bulls. The Celtics, meanwhile sit pretty at the top of the Atlantic Division and the center of the conference standings, a.k.a. “probably making it to the second round, where they’ll be walloped by the Heat or the Bulls” territory
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Adventure Time: You wanted it, you got it: One of the most requested series in TV Club history is now a regular, weekly staple of our televised diet. Oliver Sava invites you along to visit the Land of Ooo.