September 19, 2008

Programming Picks

Our critic taps a maestro and hails Cesar.

Highlights: “Leonard Bernstein Reflections,” Tues, 8pm, Ovation.  It’s been and remains tough to find serious music on TV. In fact, this doc of conversations with Bernstein was made in ’78, but premieres only now on U.S. screens. Rights clearance issues blocked it for 30 years. As a piece of history, it’s excellent, with a lengthy but interesting retelling of how an unknown kid replaced an ailing conductor and became an overnight sensation. While not a critical review, Reflections, appropriately, contains insights about Bernstein’s muse. My mind is never as active as when I’m alone, he notes. Thus, his best composing came while reclining. Why did he compose? He loved people and communicating with them. Think of what he might have accomplished had he lived to see today’s Internet age. SA             

Worth a Look: “The Shield,” Tues, 10pm, FX.  If your subs are new to “The Shield,” they’ll have trouble following details in this 7th, final season. The basics are accessible, though. So too is the dramatic tension, as the professional and personal lives of loveable, Machiavellian detective Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) continue to close in on him.  – “Dog Whisperer,” 100th ep, tonight, 9pm, Nat Geo. In the slew of highlight clips our fave came from ep 52, where a Dingo mix named Aussi is too violent to have a vet examine him. Of course, Cesar Millan calms Aussi by training his human, a sweet grandmother. SA