TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: April 17
A select viewing guide for Tuesday, April 17
REALITY Macy's Million Dollar Makeover TLC, 7 p.m. ET; 11 p.m. PT Welcome to the next generation of product placement. Back tonight for its second season, this series hosted by What Not to Wear's Clinton Kelly focuses on a trio of entrepreneurs trying to make their retail dreams come true. As before, the competition is split into the categories of fashion, food and home, and the finalists are working mother Kathleen, who designed a purse with an illuminated interior, fanatical foodie Pat (lo-cal cheesecake balls) and Dylan (cheap prefab furniture). Celebrity judges Martha Stewart, Tommy Hilfiger and Marcus Samuelsson will determine which contestant will receive the $1-million grand prize, or more to the point, which contestant's product will be stocked at Macy's department stores.
MUSICAL Glee Fox, Global, 8 p.m. ET/PT Get out your dancing shoes. Tonight's long-anticipated episode pays homage to disco with an entire episode themed to the music of Saturday Night Fever. The slender storyline finds the earnest teacher Mr. Schuester (Matthew Morrison) trying to find a new way to reach some of the less-inspired members of McKinley High's student body. His solution involves slapping the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack on the turntable, which naturally leads to inspired versions of Stayin' Alive, How Deep is Your Love? and More Than a Woman. In other news, cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) deals with the unexpected return of the nasty Roz Washington (Nene Leakes).
COMEDY Raising Hope Fox, CITY-TV, 9:30 p.m. ET/PT Good news: Fox has officially renewed this low-rated but much-admired sitcom for a third season, so those fans who have faithfully followed the show can relax. In tonight's second-season closer, the entire Chance family rallies behind single dad Jimmy (Lucas Neff) in his legal battle to retain custody of baby daughter Hope. Working against his case is the TV report by Nancy Grace, playing herself, that depicted the Chance clan as slow-witted rednecks. In keeping with the show's blue-collar roots, the finale features guest appearances from former My Name is Earl regulars Jason Lee, Jaime Pressly and Ethan Suplee.
DOCUMENTARY Frontline PBS, 10 p.m. ET/PT According to popular TV programs like CSI and Bones, forensics have made crime-solving an exact science, right? Guess again. Tonight's new episode of this documentary series exposes the flaws that exist in the field of forensic science. Correspondent Lowell Bergman examines several instances in which mistakes by forensic examiners have resulted in innocent people sent to jail, while the guilty have gone free. His investigation includes a visit to a small Mississippi town where a physician's glaring mistakes in two autopsies helped convict two innocent men who spent more than a decade in prison. Scarier still is the lack of regulation regarding those individuals working as medical examiners and coroners in some regions of the U.S. Case in point: In South Carolina's Marlboro County, the local coroner's regular job is as a construction worker.
MOVIE Stardom Vision, 9 p.m. ET; 6 p.m. PT Long before she was turning heads as Don Draper's sexy French-Canadian wife on Mad Men, Jessica Paré was the main attraction of this well-received Canadian film. Directed in mockumentary style by Denys Arcand, the 2000 feature stars the Montreal-born Paré in her breakout role of Tina, a small town Canadian teen who achieves instant fame when a photographer snaps her picture at a hockey game and sends it to a modeling agency. Under the guidance of her slick manager Renny (Thomas Gibson), Tina becomes an international supermodel and one of the most recognizable faces on the planet. Unfortunately she also draws romantic advances from the randy restaurateur Barry (Dan Aykroyd) and the egotistical diplomat Blaine (Frank Langella). Interestingly, every shot of Pare in the film is a broadcast or reflected image.