TV Makes You Stupid

Literally.

Fans of the CBS post-apocalypse drama Jericho upset about the untimely cancellation of the series this year, which ended on a cliffhanger, are sending nuts to the network in order to get them to renege. Thousands and thousands of pounds of nuts! Says the ingenius fan campaign:

Why nuts? In the final episode Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) borrowed the historic phrase “NUTS” in response to a final offer of surrender from a hostile neighboring town. CBS decided to cancel the show, and fans are uprising to save Jericho by sending, you got it, NUTS to CBS executives.

To participate, spread the word, read more about it, or just to see the awesome, awesome photo gallery of the massive shipments of nuts (mmm, cashews), go here.  Awesome!

I’m actually not that broken up that this week, the CW Network announced that it was canning what USED to be one of my all-time favorite shows, Veronica Mars. For one thing, I’ve thought Season Three ranged the gamut from the boring to the excruciatingly unwatchable. For another, the fact that its second to last episode garnered ratings that were not only bad, but had actually lost a million of its core viewers and were lower than those garnered by the CW’s freshman and stinkbomb attempt at an original series, Runaway, pretty much meant that Veronica deserved to be killed with fire. Sorry, it’s harsh, but true.

But - and I may be alone in thinking this - with only one exception, I think the CW’s second fall line-up sounds much better than its first.

Returning favorites Supernatural, Smallville, One Tree Hill, America’s Next Top Model, Girlfriends, The Game and Everybody Hates Chris all deserve another season. While it’s likely to be Smallville’s swan song, the rest of these shows have plenty of life in them. I’m especially relieved at Supernatural’s third season, which looked like an iffy David up against two ratings Goliaths in its killer time slot. I hold the possibly unpopular opinion that Supernatural needs to get the hell out of timeslot Dodge.  This time slot needs to be shot in the face with rock salt. Next season, it’ll get even tougher with NBC moving The Office there. Yes, whatever the CW puts there will get smooshed like a bug on a very, very big windshield, but as a Supernatural diehard, I want to see it climb back up to the post-Gilmore Girls ratings glory of Season 1, not barely holding its own and toiling in obscurity. In other words, whatever, let something else get slaughtered there for a change. Hell, let a whole assembly line of other shows get slaughtered there. I just don’t care. Supernatural plain old deserves better.

That said, most of the network’s new offerings look very promising too.

Gossip Girl, the new show by the creator of The OC, Josh Schwartz, has managed to garner the network some actual industry buzz. Based on a smart and deliciously Mean Girlsish young adult series by the same title, with a solid cast and word on the street being it’s one of the better pilots delivered this pilot season, this is the one many TV critics are keeping an eye on for the fall season. I do find it ironic that they’ve signed Veronica Mars’ Kristen Bell on as the narrator, only employing her least flattering quality as an actress: her squeaky little speaking voice.

Life is Wild sounds like Everwood, and I’m cheap and easy, because I’ll watch anything that sounds like Everwood, even if it’s on the same network that boneheadedly canceled Everwood for Runaway and a loserville last season of 7th Heaven. (It bears repeating: of all the egregious missteps by Dawn Ostroff in the CW’s freshman season, this was easily one of her biggest, and not even in  hindsight - everyone said so at the time, too.) This show is about a transplanted, blended New York family living in a South African game reserve, filmed on an actual South African game reserve, with a legitimate international cast more diverse than even Lost’s, and with the patriarch role being played by the legendary and still smokin’ hot Rutger Hauer. Basically, it’s Everwood Meets Meerkat Manor! What’s not to love? Plus it’s on Sundays. Let’s be real. What else is there to watch? This one has sleeper-hit potential written all over it.

Aliens in America is a new and very well-received half-hour comedy about an urban family that takes in a Pakistani exchange student. The family includes an alienated (GEDDIT?) teenager who forms an unlikely bond with the exchange student, who also has trouble fitting in. It sounds funny and thoughtful, and coupled with the always-hilarious and whip-smart Everybody Hates Chris, it should boost the CW’s prestige in being a frontrunner of smart comedies with strong minority casts. I’m glad that they renewed the female-centric comedies The Game and Girlfriends, too; what with Ostroff’s ridiculous and oft-repeated allegations that Veronica Mars and The Search for the Next Pussycat Doll being about female empowerment when they clearly were not, one can’t help but feel that if that were a true priority for the network, it would’ve promoted the hell out of the two shows that REALLY WERE focused on the lives and concerns of its primarily female casts. But at least they both got another season, and that’s better than nothing.

Reaper is the one entry into the fall season line-up that I think may be destined to fail. Its premise is distasteful to me; starring Adam Brody’s BFF and longtime roommate, Bret Harrison, it’s a comedy about a man who becomes the Devil’s bounty hunter, rounding up lost souls and sending them to hell in order to avoid the same fate himself. It bears repeating: it’s a comedy. Yes, sending people to eternal damnation for one’s own personal gain week after week sounds like a barrel of laughs to me! Its pilot was directed by Kevin Smith, but it’s basically the opposite of Supernatural, and frankly, I cannot imagine what its target demos are intended to be. I have zero interest in tuning in for this one, and I don’t know who they think will turn out to watch it in droves. Not families, nor fans of horror/paranormal shows (it’s a comedy!!11!1), nor teenagers (the actors are not at all cute enough, there is no romantic pairing, and the satiric irony of the premise way overreaches that demo). No, I think it’s safe to say it’s doomed to a quick and painful ratings basement death.  Isn’t it ironic? Yes, I really do think.

Farmer Wants a Wife has the stupidest reality show title ever since My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance, but the premise itself could possibly - note the cautious qualifiers there - be interesting. As I understand it, it’s a show that is about a farmer choosing a wife among ten city girls who are fed up with city living and city prospects. It is a well-known cultural phenomenon in American culture that there is a sort of renaissance of idealization of “simple country living” among urban women ages 18 to 34, and it is possible that this show will look at those ideals and contrast them to how the realities of “simple country living” measure up. I realize the show will probably oversimplify this to the point of near-retardation, but I also think that as far as reality fare goes, it’s quite different, and it has the potential to be somewhat thought-provoking. Again, note the cautious qualifiers. My point is: it has the potential to not suck entirely.

Furthermore, the fact that One Tree Hill is rebooting its storylines by fast forwarding the plot to five years in the future, post-college, was a genius move by Mark Schwan. The actors are all way too old to play teenagers any more, and this way, we get to skip the tedious and frequent show-killing “college years” seasons and just get right to the aftermath. I predict there will be a host of new and interesting storylines for the characters to mine, maybe something a little more relatable to the audience that has grown up with it. I’m glad it got the five-years-in-the-future reboot, instead of VM. Plus, they’re moving it to Wednesdays at 9, a much less competitive time slot. In otherwords, I may start watching One Tree Hill again, and I bet it will do very well there. Especially because the CW is running it a la 24 - all in a row, without a long midseason hiatus, which has been proven several years in a row to be a surefire ratings killer across the board on every network.

This season of television was a strong one in terms of program offerings, but there are myriad reasons why the ratings on every show, every prime time network, every genre continue to slip, and kudos to the CW for taking some risks to address and counter that next year.

Oh, who am I kidding? I just want the damn network to do well so I get four or five more seasons of Supernatural. Did I mention I was cheap and easy?

My longtime e-friend Eric Johnson has been cast in the lead role in SciFi Network’s new series, Flash Gordon, set to premiere July 2007 and greenlit for a full 22-episode season. Yep. He’s playing Flash himself! How amazing is that? I’m not sure about any other casting notices yet. Eric says he is thrilled with the scripts. Now, I know that sounds like he is just towing the party line, but Eric is a totally snarktastic human being (why else have we gotten along all these years?), so if it really wasn’t great, he would’ve said so. Instead, he really believes the show is going to be a big hit, and I believe him - because I’ve heard the same from other sources. 

Early industry buzz around the series is very good. SciFi is going to unveil a whole marketing and image campaign at MIPCOM ‘07, which is coming up, so look for a lot more information about the show to emerge in the coming weeks.  While shows like Battlestar Galactica, The Dresden Files and Stargate: SG-1/ Stargate: Atlantis have garnered the SciFi Network a great many critical accolades and varying degrees of cult and commercial success, I think Flash Gordon has the crossover potential to be what puts both Eric and the network on the map with mainstream audiences.  And needless to say, with BSG, SciFi has already proven that they can reinvent the hell out of cheesy 70s/80s sci-fi series, so you know it’s in good hands.

Having been a longtime fan of FG (and the old series) and of course Eric himself, I am incredibly excited about the show, and have bought flashgordontv.com. I’ll be launching it within a couple of weeks, with a little help from my friends. Stay tuned!

Now that summer is rapidly approaching, news of television actors’ “hiatus projects” will start trickling in. Filming summer movies is how many TV actors keep busy and pay their bills in between shooting schedules for their regular series. It’s like summer school for teachers.  Most TV actors under 30 will take part in churning out schlocky horror movies, but not Supernatural’s Jared Padalecki! According to the Hollywood Reporter today:

Jared Padalecki has been cast as Thomas Kinkade alongside Peter O’Toole in Lionsgate’s “The Christmas Cottage,” based on the life of Kinkade and his painting of the same name. Michael Campus will direct the film, which goes into production this month in Vancouver and Whistler.

Padalecki will play Kinkade, one of America’s most collected living artists who used his gift as an artist to portray his life-affirming values and explore the world around him. O’Toole will play a painter named Glen Wessler, based on one of Kinkade’s mentors. A holiday release is planned.

  [source]

Oh, my gosh, who on earth would go see not one but THREE movies about Thomas Kinkade? Besides me, of course. And, well, fine, most of you reading this.  I guess we should just be grateful he’s not starring in I Know What The Hills’ Eyes Saw in Texas Part 47.

I’ve been thinking a lot about minority representation on television lately. I’m not quite ready to blog about it, though I’ve been collecting some articles and links and percolating my thoughts before inflicting it on all of you. Stay tuned!

As a parent of a child on the autism spectrum, though, I am always on the lookout for the way that non-verbal learning disabilities and folks on the autism spectrum get represented in popular culture, especially with the recent seeming growing awareness in the media. Oprah’s show yesterday was all about the hardships that kids with autism face in school, to name a recent highlight, but it may surprise you to hear that there are actually nearly a dozen major fictional characters on prime time that canonically are on the autism spectrum, a few more that are commonly thought to be but not confirmed, and even a couple of folks with canonical non-verbal learning disabilities. Here’s a list of the ten most notable, in no particular order.

Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan and Zack Addy - Bones, FOX
Bones gets points for not just being an incredibly realistic portrayal of an adult individual on the autism spectrum struggling to intellectualize the social realities that others easily intuit, she also gets points for being emblematic of the issues unique to adult high-functioning Aspie women. I would argue that Dr. Brennan is one of the most endearing and sympathetic portrayals of an adult with Asperger’s ever seen in pop culture. Though her disability is never made explicit on the show, both the actress and the show’s creator have confirmed it numerous times in interviews.

When asked if Brennan might not actually have Asperger['s] syndrome - a condition many doctors consider a form of high-functioning autism - Deschanel nodded… “I think it’s fascinating to have a character who’s brilliant in one area and clueless” in others, Deschanel said. [Source.]

Zack Addy, Bones’ brilliant but naive forensic assistant on the show, “almost definitely has Asperger’s,” Deschanel added. I enjoy watching Bones for many reasons, not the least of which is watching a show that actively involves two individuals on the autism spectrum in heroic, contributing and positive roles - as effective members of a team, no less.

Charlie Eppes - Numb3rs, CBS
Another character whose disability is never made explicit on the show, but in an online exchange on a forum which is no longer up and running, Cheryl Heuton, the show’s creator, told me directly that “if he were a real person, Charlie would probably be on the autism spectrum.” Charlie is modeled after mathematician/ physicist Richard Feynman, who is widely suspected of having had Asperger’s.  Charlie’s probably the best case scenario of what a highly well-adjusted person on the autism spectrum looks like. Unlike Bones and Zack, Charlie has been very loved, very socialized, and very nurtured, and has developed a great number of effective social crutches.  Much like the real-life Feynman (and fellow Aspie, author and livestock expert Temple Grandin), Charlie on the show often uses his unique perspective to shed light on situations through the lens of his specific obsession (math), so that rather than excluding him from contributing as a professional, it makes him invaluable. Probably the most positive spin on adulthood with Asperger’s on TV.

The two youngest Mackey kids - The Shield, FX
Two of the three children of Vic Mackey on The Shield have autism. They haven’t detailed too much about the children, but the portrayal of what parents of autistic children go through is top-notch. The show has depicted the often prohibitive expense and difficulty of finding appropriate, accessible services for children, the parents’ struggle of agreeing on what the best course of therapies for children the spectrum is, and the extreme stress a marriage can suffer when dealing with these issues. According to some studies, 80% of marriages end in divorce within three years after a child’s diagnosis of autism is made, and the Mackeys have been no different. The show is hard viewing and I don’t know if I’d recommend it just for its depiction of parenting autistic children, but it’s done a lot to raise awareness of what parents go through in these situations, and it is worth noting that The Shield star Michael Chiklis and his real-life family have become adamant fundraisers and spokespersons for autism awareness, in large part because of his role on the show. Awesome!

Kevin Stark - Eureka, SciFi
Kevin is an 11-year-old boy with autism and a yen for physics. He’s only appeared in a couple of episodes of this quirky show filled with eccentric left-brained types (mom and dad included) but it’s been very positive portrayal so far, with other town members searching to find new ways of communicating with him and involving him in the show’s action, and emphasizing his strengths rather than his limitations. Hopefully we’ll see more about him and his role in his crazy little community in Season 2.

Jerry Espenson - Boston Legal, ABC
A recurring character diagnosed as an adult, he’s not as much a best-case-scenario as other portrayals, but instead elucidates what the serious downsides of a lack of social intuition and low frustration tolerance can be. He’s not on much any more, but his Asperger’s has been very well-discussed on the show in an objective, unidealized way.

Adrian Monk and Monk’s Brother - Monk, USA
Adrian Monk suffers from trauma-induced obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and whether or not OCD is on the autism spectrum is a hotly debated topic in psychiatric circles at the moment, but either way, it’s highly dubious that Adrian has just OCD. His extreme social ridigity coupled with the fact that he canonically has an autistic brother (the predisposition to autism being thought to be genetic) has led many people to speculate that he was a highly socialized Asperger’s case who had a breakdown after his wife’s death. There’s also the fact that there’s so much overlap between the diagnostic criteria for OCD and Asperger’s. Who knows.

Dr. Spencer Reid - Criminal Minds, CBS
Though I love Matthew Gray-Gubler to pieces - his web site is worth checking out, as it is truly a work of art - Reid is actually my least favorite portrayal of an individual with Asperger’s. Not only do his specialized skills start to sound more like superpowers the more the show describes them, perpetuating the myth of Rainman that having autism is like being one of the X-Men, but the show makes his disabilities and shortcomings the frequent butt of jokes. And not the indulgent, sympathetic kind, like the other characters do on Numb3rs and Bones for their respective Aspie characters. Reid’s autism is comorbid with various other mental and emotional disabilities, which isn’t uncommon, so it’s not a picture-perfect portrayal; still, Gray-Gubler does an exceptional job with the physicalities of tics, stimming and poor eye-contact/use of body language that many Aspies have.

***

Honorable mentions go to: Brady Hauser, a recently introduced autistic savant on FOX’s 24, kept company at CTU by Jack Bauer’s awesome but socially awkward go-to girl Chloe O’Brian, whose autism is a foregone conclusion to many Internet fans; Matt Parkman on NBC’s Heroes, who is not at all autistic, but is severely dyslexic and learning disabled - dyslexia being commonplace among Asperger’s folks and part of a group of learning disabilities that often present together (my son, for example, has both autism and dyslexia); and Gil Grissom (CSI, CBS) and Greg House (House, FOX), both of whom have had long-running “Is he or isn’t he [autistic]?” debates on many Internet forums; Lily Montgomery on the ABC soap All My Children, the longest-running female autistic character on television; and Dr. Bob Melnikov of the long-running Canadian sci-fi series ReGenesis. I’ve never seen an episode, but apparently, his Asperger’s is an openly discussed facet of his character.

Most people are surprised to hear that autism and related non-verbal delays are so well-represented and in such a diverse number of ways on television, considering that popular culture does such a relatively poor job of including characters with physical disabilities. Five years ago, no one with dyslexia, OCD, ADHD or autism could see themselves represented on prime-time; today, five of the six major networks (boo, CW Network!) and several basic cable channels are inclusive of such characters, most of them principles. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely progress.

I may do a similar post to this about characters with physical disabilities or limitations on prime time, but I would need your help, readers, as I’m not as sensitive to this as I am to portrayals of mental/emotional disabilities, and may leave some out, so feel free to add your own!

The fact that CBS is seriously considering making this confirms to me that the universe is, on some level, inherently good.

…Don’t look at me like that. I will give you my speech about how reality TV is necessary to fund your serious dramas, and how just because it’s originally unscripted doesn’t mean reality TV is not craft in many ways. I will talk about the nature of the real, how reality TV challenges that, the way that reality TV in no way desires to be the real, the blurred space between reality TV and mockumentary and improv, the nature of editing and how much we are and aren’t meant to be aware of, and possibly I will jump into the ways in which the best reality TV people create personas which are essentially characters they live for 39 days or 3 months, depending.

Then I will remind you of my deep and passionate love for Dr. Will, finish off with how much I also love How I Met Your Mother, briefly mention my love of real people who think they’re pirates but will clearly be horrible at it, and spend the rest of the post babbling about Survivor: All Stars.

And no one wants that.

I love you, CBS.

• Kristin from E!Online has her “Save One Show” poll up that she does  every year. It’s a tight race, she says, between the top three. Take a gander at the one I voted for! Go on. Guess. Whatever you do, don’t vote for One Tree Hill, because if it wins for a second year in a row, it might make poor Kristin cry.
• Sallie Tisdale, a nurse and a freelance writer for Salon.com, wrote up this interesting critique about House, called The Beautiful Hospital.  In it she compares House to all other medical dramas, past and present, saying “My biggest objection to medical shows is not that the doctors on television do their jobs brilliantly, but that they do everyone else’s jobs, too.” I kind of think she misses the point of scripted television, but hey, it’s a good write-up nonetheless.  Best and most realistic medical show on TV according to Nurse Sallie? Wait for it - it’s Scrubs!
• Speaking of House, I got a little frisson when I saw the upcoming season of The Shield advertised during last night’s broadcast. Bald and surly babydaddy Mackey, how I’ve missed you.
• 17-year-old Hayden Panettiere of Heroes was spotted coming out of LA nightspot L-Scorpion with her old-enough-to-be-her-dad costars, Leonard Roberts and Milo Ventimiglia. A fan mistook her for Lindsay Lohan, which appeared to horrify Miss Panettiere, to entertaining results, which were caught on video. But seriously, Hayden, you’re partying alone with guys in their 30s in clubs you’re not even old enough to get into. Could vagina-flashing the world and multiple stints in rehab really be that far off?
• I have a little Gilmore gossip.  According to a good friend of mine, who is intimately familiar with one of the writers of the show, the fate of the show is resting entriely in the hands of Alexis Bledel.  If she comes back, Lauren Graham will, too. Otherwise, it’s the end of the road for the Stars Hollow crew. When asked about whether that rumor that the CW may produce a show about Lorelai, Luke and a new baby, just needing to lure Alexis back for sweeps, my source actually laughed out loud and said, “Over Lauren Graham’s dead body.” I’m also told that the finale required massive rewrites, as Lauren “LOATHED everything but the first and last scenes.” Drama!
• Reason #897654 why Battlestar Galactica rules: SciFi has put up a Battlestar Galactica VideoMaker which equips fans to make their own effects-laden BSG fan videos. Most other networks sue over such endeavors - SciFi is enabling! Let me know if any of your efforts get pimped on the scifi.com site. I like to squee with people. Speaking of squee, HOW CRAZY WAS THAT FINALE?!??! I’m still plotzing. I’m going to have to watch it over… and over… and over… before - sob - the new season starts in 2008.
• I have a 2006-2007 DeathPool update to make. A lot of renewals and cancellations are starting to trickle in. Unfortunately, “Supernatural renewed” is one of the top search terms people use on search engines to find TVMYS, but there’s no official word on whether or not this Internet fandom favorite is getting a much-deserved third season. However, there is hope on the horizon. Friend of TVMYS and all around fantastic TV Blogger DuckyxDale visited the set of Supernatural last week along with a bunchof other bloggers (we’ll try not to hold it against them that we didn’t get an invite, heh) and he wrote up an awesome report of his experiences, including the fact that everyone on set seems very confident of a season 3 happening. Yay!
• No, I haven’t seen The Tudors, but I have a CD of the pilot sitting around, and I do intend to check out at least the first few episodes.  Is anyone out there watching it? What do y’all think of it?
• Finally, I cannot tell a lie, darlings.  I am seriously considering TiVOing Drive… and then fast-forwarding through any scene that doesn’t have Nathan Fillion. What?

Wentworth Miller, star of FOX’s Prison Break whose second season finale airs a week from this Monday, finally found time in his busy schedule to visit Korea on a national promotional tour for BeanPole Jeans, for which he is their newest spokesmodel. Which is kind of funny because Wentworth kind of is tall and lanky, though I wouldn’t call him a beanpole, per se. The ever faithful Wentworth-loving blog JustJared.com put up 150 pictures, of which this one is my favorite, plus a video of Wentworth singing “Happy birthday.” Amazing! AMAZING!!! Wentworth never sings for anybody! What do the Korean fans have besides FREAKING AWESOME fan signs that US fans don’t? I am so jellus. Anyway, go check out all 150 of the pictures here. He looks happy and rested and, of course, really, really, ridiculously good-looking.

And if you’re curious as to what the Beanpole ad itself looks like, it’s also up at JustJared here! Thanks to Katie for the heads-up!

I’m back from my trip and I have a lot of cool stuff to post later today, including a couple of contests - one exclusive to TVMYS But in the interim I did want to make a quick post about last night’s episode of ”Supernatural.”  I felt like the episode was really contrived, and that their Annual Sex Scene (yes, folks, that does read ANNUAL) was nice enough to look at, but completely gratuitous, designed for the sole purpose of attempting to make us feel really, really bad for Sam at the end. But I didn’t; instead I ended up thinking the brothers Winchester AND the girl were being really stupid. I don’t get why they had to end it like that.  As plot devices go, this one was probably their weakest one of the entire series.  If a werewolf doesn’t “turn” except when she sleeps, wouldn’t it be easy enough to just… you know… NOT SLEEP the two or three full moon evenings a month?  Seriously, Supernatural writers. Midday naps as a deus ex machina. Look into it next time.

Many many apologies for getting this week’s edition in a little late and once again picture-less. I’m a bit rushed today and have about eight trillion different things I need to be doing this week, so I’m a little all over the place, but I definitely did not want to leave Andie, the site or the rest of you guys hanging! So I hope you guys get plenty of use out of this and I will, of course, be back with a new one (and hopefully improved!) next week!

Enjoy!

TONIGHT!

Joe’s Best Bets…

Prison Break (FOX; 8:00PM)
Episode: “Panama”
Network Description: Sara (Sarah Wayne Callies) weighs sacrificing herself in order for Michael (Wentworth Miller) and Lincoln (Dominic Purcell) to set sail to freedom; T-Bag’s (Robert Knepper) reign of terror continues south of the border as Bellick (Wade Williams) forces Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) to track down the missing money; Mahone’s (William Fichtner) actions finally catch up with him, and an escapee finally tastes freedom.

24 (FOX; 9:00PM)
Episode: “Day 6: 7:00PM - 8:00PM”
Network Description: Following the shocking events at the Russian Consulate, CTU tracks Gredenko (guest star Rade Sherbedgia) and attempts to thwart further terror attacks on U.S. soil. Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) copes with devastating news while Vice President Noah Daniels (guest star Powers Boothe) considers controversial strategies.

Girlfriends (The CW; 9:00PM)
Episode: “Church Lady”
Network Description: Lynn (Persia White) continues to work at the church with Eldon (guest star Kadeem Hardison) and the children’s choir, even though they have decided to end their short affair. Later, Joan (Tracee Ellis Ross) and Maya (Golden Brooks) get Lynn to admit that she still has feelings for Eldon and is secretly hoping he will change his mind and give in to their physical attraction. But, Lynn is shocked when she learns Eldon has begun dating a member of the church who shares his beliefs in abstaining from pre-marital sex. Meanwhile, William (Reggie Hayes) decides to give the girls the silent treatment as punishment for interfering in his relationship with Monica (Keesha Sharp), but is upset when they don’t even notice he isn’t speaking to them.

The Black Donnellys (NBC; 10:00PM)
Episode: “Lies”
Network Description: Tommy (Jonathan Tucker) realizes the Italian’s new mob boss Nicky Cottero (Kirk Acevedo) means business on collecting his debt when he threatens the boys’ mother, Helen (guest star Kate Mulgrew). After exhausting all options, Tommy takes Dokey’s (guest star Peter Greene) bribe and while visiting Huey’s widow, steals a box that Dokey wants. Jimmy (Thomas Guiry) and Joey Ice Cream (Keith Nobbs) find the former Louie Downtown’s cell phone and, after realizing he was running a gambling circuit, start to collect on his payments. Sean (Michael Stahl-David) finally comes home from the hospital while Jenny (Olivia Wilde) wakes up after sleeping with Samson (guest star James Badge Dale) and gets blown off by Tommy when she tries to explain.

C.S.I.: Miami (CBS; 10:00PM)
Episode: “Triple Threat”
Network Description: When a wealthy real estate developer is killed, the CSI’s suspect his wife and her two secret twin sisters — who share the same DNA. The victim (guest star Colin Ferguson) is killed at a charity event hosted by his wife (guest star Leslie Bibb). However, evidence soon reveals that the victim is not who they originally thought and blood found at the crime scene could belong to the wife OR her two secret twin sisters, who even her husband knew nothing about.

Also New Tonight…

Lincoln Heights (ABC Family; 7:00PM) | Dancing With The Stars (ABC; 8:00PM) | Deal or No Deal (NBC; 8:00PM) | Everybody Hates Chris (The CW; 8:00PM) | How I Met Your Mother (CBS; 8:00PM) | IFL Battleground (MyNetworkTV; 8:00PM) | Inside the Actors Studio (Bravo; 8:00PM) | Wildfire (ABC Family; 8:00PM) | All of Us (The CW; 8:30PM) | The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS; 8:30PM) | I Love New York (VH1; 9:00PM) | My Super Sweet 16 (MTV; 9:00PM) | Two and a Half Men (CBS; 9:00PM) | WWE Raw (USA; 9:00PM) | Engaged & Underage (MTV; 9:30PM) | The Game (The CW; 9:30PM) | The Rules of Engagement (CBS; 9:30PM) | The Hills (MTV; 10:00PM) | The Riches (FX; 10:00PM) | What About Brian (ABC; 10:00PM).

The rest of the week!