June 8, 2007

What to Watch: Coming Up on Cable

Seth Arenstein takes a stab at The Sopranos' finale and gives a thumbs up to Lil' Bush on Comedy Central

Tube Stake: Programming reviews by Seth Arenstein

Adios, Sopranos...

• SATURDAY, JUNE 9

You’ve Got A Friend, 9pm/8c, Hallmark Channel. When young Bobby’s step parents tell him to stay away from that strange-looking man down the block (John “Bo Duke” Schneider), you know that this is the guy who will turn out to be his best friend (this is Hallmark Channel, remember). Actually, this is the kind of predictable, tear-jerker that Hallmark does well. Here, Bobby gets involved in soap box derby racing with the help of that odd fellow, who (surprise) teaches him ethics, a bit of physics and gives him the confidence in himself to become a successful racer and person. Ain’t Hallmark wonderful?

• SUNDAY, JUNE 10
 
The Sopranos, series finale, 9pm, HBO. Are you kidding? If it’s even half-way decent, they’ll be talking about this one for decades. Predictions for the ending? Isn’t it obvious? Weren’t we tipped off last week? The man who took a tired, decrepit crew and molded it into a well-oiled, vital team will take over the family after Tony and Phil dispose of each other (or A.J. kills himself and everyone in sight). N.Y. Jets coach Eric Mangini will assume control of the family. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is already investigating.

John From Cincinnati, 10pm, HBO. I’ll admit to having no clue as to what’s going on in this series, but I’ll stick around because I wouldn’t bet against David Milch. On the other hand, even the actors, with the exception of Ed O’Neill (who’ll always be Al Bundy to us), seem to be confused in this tale of dysfunction on the waves.

The Tudors, season finale, 10pm, Showtime. Long live the king—at least for a bit longer. The series about Henry VIII and his dangerous liaisons has been renewed for a second season. In some ways, that reduces the importance of this episode, where the king’s desire to have his marriage declared null is resolved.

• MONDAY, JUNE 11

Kyle XY, Season 2 premiere, 8pm, ABC Family. Last summer’s ratings hit comes back strong as Kyle leaves his surrogate family and meets his real mother and father, er, creator. He also discovers the genesis of his superior intellect and why his is an abnormally strong body, although it’s sans navel. It’s not quite a case of nature vs nurture, but that’s it, on some level. This is all related to why Kyle is most comfortable in the bathtub. And Einstein figures in all of this, too. 

Making News Texas Style. 8pm/7c, TV Guide Network. Several curious choices were made by the team behind the former TV Guide Channel’s first original reality series, whose 13-ep premieres will be shown full screen in another first for the channel. Instead of showing the frenetic pace associated with putting together a local newscast, the producers chose to concentrate on a young reporter in the CBS affiliate in Midland-Odessa doing a fluff piece about her trying to lose weight by working out at a dance studio. The other story they follow—the ousting of an anchor in favor of one from a rival station in Midland-Odessa—is more interesting, but can’t be called fast-paced, at least not the way this docu-reality show presents it, with repetitive teasers that open and close segments. After seeing the same clip of the news director saying things “were a little slower” when he was anchoring by himself, you pretty much know that avuncular Bill Warren’s a goner. Those repetitive teasers might be explained by the nature of this network, which often is watched in spurts. Shows like Making News Texas Style are designed to change this pattern.

Big Love, season 2 premiere, 9pm, HBO. Last year’s hit series returns in fine form on Monday nights, but gets awfully complicated (well, that happens when your protagonists are involved in a marriage with one husband, three wives, three houses, seven children and the secret of that arrangement gets out). But just when you thought this large family has encountered all it could handle, Bill (the husband) begins looking at another woman. Could this be wife #4? And what about teen son Ben and youngest mom Margene? There seems to be an attraction, eh?

• TUESDAY, JUNE 12

Fight Girls, 10:30pm, Oxygen. Nothing succeeds like success, right? Last year’s special about women training to fight in the brutal national sport of Thailand, Muay Thai, was such a hit (no pun intended), that Oxygen has expanded the concept into, yes, you guessed it, a reality series. This time it’s 10 young women who live and train together in a house in Las Vegas (hey, it’s a reality show, there’s always a house involved) for the chance to go to Thailand to fight for a championship. While we wanted to know more about the personal lives of last season’s fighters, in part because they were not all well-trained fighters as this year’s crop is, from the pilot it appears we’ll learn too much about the ladies. Blame it on that darned house.