Week In Sloth

The Week In Sloth

\ Mar 22, 2007

3 min read

Thursday 22

“Penn & Teller: Bullshit!” (Showtime 8 p.m.) Professional magicians/bullshit detectors Penn & Teller launch the fifth season of their documentary series angrily exposing frauds, scams and undying urban myths.

Friday 23

“Miss USA 2007” (KOB-4 8 p.m.) Quick, name any single one of the Miss USA winners since 1952. … OK, so there was that one chick who got naked in Playboy and married the weirdo from Blink 182. But that’s not technically her name.

“Six Degrees” (KOAT-7 8 p.m.) Hey, “Six Degrees” is back from hiatus. … “Six Degrees.” … Didn’t think so.

“Acceptable TV” (VH1 8 p.m.) Taking a cue from YouTube and Al Gore’s cable station Current, VH1 launches its own “open source” TV series. The idea is that you, the American public, make the shows, post the shows and then vote on what shows should be shown. In fact, TV executives would prefer you do a hell of a lot more of this. Saves them a lot of time, money and brainpower.

Saturday 24

“Elvis Lives: The 25 th Anniversary Concert” (KNME-5 9 p.m.) New digital technology allowed Elvis Presley to rise from the grave (or at least appear in a television monitor) and sing for this 2002 Memphis “reunion” concert featuring Big E’s former bandmates.

Sunday 25

“Planet Earth” (Discovery 7 p.m.) Discovery claims it has “redefined blue-chip natural history filmmaking” with this epic (and very expensive) HD series narrated by Sigourney Weaver. Expect lots of pretty nature pictures in this 11-part series shot in more than 200 exotic locations.

“Grease: You’re the One That I Want” (KOB-4 7 p.m.) If I seem to lack a certain of enthusiasm over who will be named Broadway’s next Danny and Sandy on tonight’s live finale, you’ll have to forgive me. It’s just that, right now, I’m more concerned with the outcome of contentious parliamentary elections in Latvia.

“Battlestar Galactica” (Sci-Fi 8 p.m.) Should we impeach President Bush or not? In such fractious and confusing times, I turn to the soothing metaphor of science fiction TV series to guide me. In tonight’s third season finale of “Battlestar,” for example, the fleet is torn apart by the trial of president-turned-traitor Gaius Balthar. Feel free to discuss and debate.

“Rome” (HBO 10 p.m.) Tonight, it all comes to an end. The show, not the empire.

Monday 26

Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo (Cartoon Network 8 p.m.) The teen superheroes battle high-tech ninjas in this feature-length toon.

Tuesday 27

“The Great American Dream Vote” (KOAT-7 9 p.m.) It’s up to you and your dialing fingers again, America. You must vote to decide who will have their lifelong dream fulfilled. Will it be the bald guy who wants hair, the nerdy kindergarten teacher who needs a makeover or the dude who dreams of building an amusement park for chickens? I’d put in my two cents; but, you know, Latvia.

Wednesday 28

“That’s Gotta Hurt” (TLC 9 p.m.) TLC goes for the bloody obvious in titling this series about unlucky people like the skier who tumbled down an 800-foot vertical slope or the woman who got hit in the face with a frozen turkey that was thrown through her car’s windshield.