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SizzleTV by Mark Stone
Simon Baker returns as The Mentalist on CBS (photo contributed)
Tonight, three of Thursday night’s hottest shows from last season are all back with their season premieres. On ABC, Grey’s Anatomy returns with a two-hour special episode. Tonight’s outing, airing at 8 titled Good Mourning; Goodbye, has members of the hospital staff finding unique ways to deal with their grief at George’s death, and George’s mother faces the daunting task of deciding what to do with his organs. I’m not a fan of the show by any means, but I’m well aware that the medical drama used to be good. There is so much wrong with the show now that I’m not sure it can ever recover. Fans won’t stop watching just yet, and I’m sure the ratings will be solid tonight. But if the writers and producers can’t find a way to retool the show, fans are going to lose patience.
On CBS, two shows that consistently found themselves in the weekly top 10 ratings last season – The Mentalist and CSI – are back to wreak havoc with competing shows from other networks. Following the second episode of Survivor, the season premiere of CSI has Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) returning to help the team investigate when a famous young actress dies as the result of a suspicious car accident. At 10 pm, Simon Baker is back as The Mentalist. Tonight, Jane and Lisbon are stunned to discover that the Red John case has been assigned to another team. I keep waiting for the public to tire of all the crime shows that keep clogging up the upper echelon of the ratings, but shows like CSI and The Mentalist aren’t going away. The Mentalist isn’t bad, but it’s not that good either. There’s way too much quality TV on to waste on shows like these, but that’s just me.
Also, while last night gave us four brand new shows to sample, tonight we only get one. FlashForward, airing on ABC at 8 pm, is yet another show with strong potential for long-lasting appeal. The first 17 minutes of the show has been available on ABC’s website, and if you can’t wait you can check out the preview here.
Judging from the first 17 minutes (which isn’t enough to form a conclusive verdict), it appears as if ABC may have another hit on its hands. I haven’t seen the rest of the pilot, but I’ve heard the show spins its wheels uncontrollably for the next 25 minutes only to end with a big wallop. David S. Goyer, who wrote the screenplay for The Dark Knight, produces the program. Goyer has also written some of the episodes of the show, which should be a good thing. Remember however, that Goyer also wrote the gawdawful film The Unborn (which proves that nobody’s perfect). FlashForward stars Joseph Fiennes and John Cho, and tonight’s pilot even has a cameo by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane. But what is the show about, you ask? As the show opens, FBI Agent Mark Benford (Fiennes) regains consciousness and hauls himself from a pile of wreckage. He sees that a horrible cataclysm has taken place and that people are panicking and destruction is everywhere. Then, we flash back four hours earlier. What happens, as we’ll soon discover, is that every person in the entire world blacked out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. I’ll leave it at that. You know you want to watch.
On NBC we get sophomore episodes of Weekend Update Thursday at 8, Parks and Recreation at 8:30, The Office at 9 and Community at 9:30. On tonight’s episode of The Office, Jim makes a request that leaves Michael feeling defensive and insecure, Pam works on the guest list for the wedding, and Toby and Dwight go under cover to investigate a workers’ comp claim.
Elsewhere on the tube, Fox has new episodes of Bones and Fringe, and The CW has new episodes of new hit Vampire Diaries and Supernatural. Hockey fans looking for preseason action can catch the Oilers take on the Lightning in Winnipeg (will they ever get the Jets back?) on TSN at 5:30 pm.
It’s a pretty solid night for guests on latenight: Joel McHale, star of Community, is on Conan; Megan Fox is on Jimmy Fallon; Rob Lowe and Lisa Lampinelli are on Kimmel; CBS’s other talk show host Craig Ferguson, Emmy winner Kristin Chenoweth and Snow Patrol are on Letterman; and Jason Schwartzman and The Office’s Angela Kinsey are on Craig Ferguson. Did I mention that Megan Fox is on Jimmy Fallon?
TV tidbit of the day: The View must be very hard up for guest hosts. First Kate Gosselin, now Heidi Montag? The Hills star will fill the rotating guest co-host spot Oct. 1, replacing Elisabeth Hasselbeck who’s out on maternity leave, reports the LA Times. Ugggh.
