TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: Feb. 15
A select viewing guide for Wednesday, Feb. 15
REALITY Survivor: One World CBS, Global, 8 p.m. Get ready to outwit, outlast and outplay all over again. Survivor returns for its 24th campaign and the format remains virtually identical to the first season; Jeff Probst is still the host, for heaven’s sake. The new edition takes place on the remote island of Upolu in Samoa and tonight’s opener introduces the 18 contestants, who are promptly divided into two tribes, the Salani and the Manono. The group of castaways includes a lawyer, a plastic surgeon, a phlebotomist and a timeshare sales rep. Let the games begin!
COMEDY Are You There, Chelsea? NBC, 8:30 p.m.; Global, 9 p.m. Is it possible Chelsea Handler is revealing too much of herself in this midseason series? Based loosely on her bestselling autobiographical tome Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea, the premise purports to depict a twentysomething version of Handler (played by former That Seventies Show regular Laura Prepon) when she was still toiling as a cocktail waitress in her native New Jersey. In tonight’s episode, Chelsea dates a lonely marketing executive solely in hopes of helping her fellow waitress Olivia (Ali Wong) land a job. And when Olivia gets the gig, she dumps the guy.
DRAMA Criminal Minds CBS, CTV Two, 9 p.m. Still the most disturbing program on network television – and still a top-10 show in both Canada and the U.S. – this crime-procedural series normally takes place in dreary American locales like Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri, but tonight’s episode was filmed on the sunny beaches of southern California. The bad news: FBI profiler David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) and his Behavioural Analysis Unit are in the Golden State to investigate a series of mangled bodies hidden in lifeguard towers. What did you expect? Beach Blanket Bingo?
DRAMA CSI CBS, CTV, 10 p.m. Like a smart sports franchise, this crime drama keeps changing up its players. The show began its current 12th season with the new character of D.B. Russell, played by Ted Danson, to replace the departed Laurence Fishburne. The character of Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) left two weeks ago, so tonight’s episode introduces the new character of CSI investigator Julie Finlay, played by the Oscar-nominated actress Elisabeth Shue, who is a former colleague of Russell and is conveniently the only person with the forensic knowledge required to solve the brutal murder of a female victim. Welcome aboard.
MOVIE The Wings of the Dove Vision, midnight ET; 9 p.m. PT One of the best British films you’ve never seen, this 1997 drama earned a best-actress Oscar nomination for Helena Bonham Carter. Based on the novel by Henry James, the story takes place in turn-of-the-century London with Bonham Carter cast as the free-spirited Kate Croy, who, following the death of her mother and her father’s descent into opium addiction, becomes the ward of her meddlesome Aunt Maude, played with gusto by Charlotte Rampling. Although Maude insists Kate marry the well-heeled Lord Mark (Alex Jennings), her heart belongs to the muckraking journalist Merton (Linus Roache), who in turn is entranced by the winsome American heiress Millie (Alison Elliott). Do not expect a storybook ending to this bizarre love triangle.