Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Thursday, January 22. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Rake (Fox, 9 p.m.): Tonight marks the debut of Fox’s take on the anti-hero drama: Rake, about a smarmy lawyer with a twinkle in his eye. The most important thing here is not that Fox got this series from Australia or that it’s placed in the lucrative post-American Idol slot—it’s that Greg Kinnear is the lead. Greg Kinnear! Smiling, tanned, white-teethed Greg Kinnear—master of the shit-eating grin before Jason Bateman was a twinkle in Mitchell Hurwitz’s eye, “the other guy” in a thousand romantic comedies, and an American national treasure. Todd VanDerWerff writes in his pre-air review of the series that “Kinnear is such a natural fit for the part of unscrupulous-but-winning lawyer Keegan Deane that it’s surprising to realize this program existed before without him (in another country no less).” Tonight, Scott Von Doviak will take on the show in the first of his weekly reviews. And we will all make time at 9 p.m. to gaze upon the lovely visage that for a few fleeting weeks will grace our television screens.
ALSO NOTED:
The Vampire Diaries (The CW, 8 p.m.): Greg Kinnear is not in this show, but he would fit right in, the handsome devil! The Vampire Diaries returns from its winter hiatus tonight to tell the story of some terrible stuff that happened to Katherine—in 1490. Carrie Raisler is looking forward to the period flashbacks, because…
Reign (The CW, 9 p.m.): …maybe they’ll cross over with tonight’s other returning CW series, which takes place only about 50 years later? Caroline Framke has missed Reign so—she staged that gorgeous “running away from the castle” scene a hundred times over winter break. Of course, in tonight’s episode, Mary and Bass return to the castle, so now she has to stage an anticlimactic return, too.
The Greatest Event In Television History (midnight, Adult Swim): It is none of the things it purports to be, but it exists! Hooray! Starring Henry Pollard and The Man Who Was Supposed To Be Henry Pollard! And also Some Other People. An A.V. Club Reviewer might review it. But We don’t know Who just yet. (Maybe Greg Kinnear.)
REGULAR COVERAGE
Community (NBC, 8 p.m.)
Parks And Recreation (NBC, 8:30 p.m.)
White Collar (USA, 9 p.m.)
The Michael J. Fox Show (NBC, 9:30 p.m.)
Parenthood (NBC, 10 p.m.)
Spoils Of Babylon (IFC, 10 p.m.)
ALSO IN TV CLUB
Todd VanDerWerff reviewed Black Sails, Starz’ new drama about a life of piracy on the high seas, and discovered that because of budget constraints, the show is “less a tale of bloodthirsty curs roaming the high seas, cutting down everyone they come upon, and more a tale of the pirate bureaucracy, of the democratic procedures and accounting tricks that keep mutiny from overthrowing captains of pirate ships.” Rah rah bureaucracy!
Matt Wild takes us through the “bullshit-strewn” works of Penn & Teller in a TV-themed Gateways To Geekery:
At their very core, Penn and Teller are old-fashioned con men, eager to fool and delight their audience by lying through their teeth. Their early reputation as the “Bad Boys Of Magic” was predicated on the idea that they were cheerfully breaking the unspoken Magician’s Code and revealing the secrets behind their tricks and illusions. Of course, that was a lie, too, and their seemingly secret-shattering tricks often led to more questions than answers. Their act was—and still is—essentially a lie within a lie, all masquerading as the truth.