Category Archives: What’s On TV

It’s about time Christopher Guest got into the TV biz; his approach to mockumentary has inspired a handful or more of the best comedies on TV in the last decade. What he chooses to go with, though, is so subtle at first it’s almost not there. “Family Tree” (HBO, 10:30 p.m.) stars Chris O’Dowd (known [...]

Special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen, who died Tuesday at 92 gets a full salute today with a replay of the French documentary that it premiered earlier this spring, “Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan” (Sony Movie Channel, 12:45 p.m.). It’s followed by Harryhausen’s three Sinbad films, “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” (Sony Movie Channel, 2:30 p.m.), [...]

A young man from Hawaii who found the ukelele a much more versatile instrument than his forebears is featured in the well-made documentary “Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings” (PBS, 9 p.m., check local listings). Shimabukuro, who pronounces the instrument “ook-ulele” and gained fame on line with a striking instrumental version of “While My Guitar [...]

The new “Monumental Mysteries” (Travel, 9 p.m.) throws together a bunch of crime stories that are loosely connected to monuments. They make it sound as if it will be Alamo and the Gateway Arch, which will be featured in future episodes. But the premiere begins with a forlorn gravestone in Rhode Island of a woman who some [...]

“Nature” (PBS, 8 p.m.) is often about exotic or little seen animals in exotic areas, but tonight’s episode is about the deer eating your garden right now. A century ago, there were less than 1 million deer in North America; now nearly 30 million. There are so many in Cayuga Heights, N.Y., residents got cameras [...]

There’s a number of ways PBS could approach a series about the Constitution. They could have Ken Burns do it with black and white pictures and old timey music. Or Bill Moyers taking a serious contemporary progressive look. Instead, they got the host of NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me,” Peter Sagal, who takes the [...]

Filmmaker Debbie Lum was always fascinated with the number of white American men who preferred Asian women. Then again, her own husband was white. But when she started to look into the story she found a perfect candidate in 60-year-old Steven who has connected with a number of interested Asian women and now one is [...]

Teams full of the best looking people usually don’t end up in the finale of “The Amazing Race” (CBS, 8 p.m.). But one team are the brother hockey players, Bates and Anthony Battaglia, which sort of makes sense — they’ve certainly finished first at the most pit stops – four — this season. But there [...]

It’s Hockey Night on Hallmark, as the network is the unlikely presenter of a film about Gordie Howe’s middle-aged comeback in the short-lived World Hockey Association  playing on the Houston Aeros with his sons in the 1970s. Michael Shanks of “Stargate SG-1″ laces up the skates to play “Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Hall Story” (Hallmark, 9 [...]

In the absence of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Louie,” TV might need a new lovable misanthrope. Filling that bill is Marc Maron, the comedian turned podcast interviewer, who turns his life into a fictional comedy series called “Maron” (IFC, 10 p.m.). In it, he complains about his life, lives with cats, invites other comics over [...]