TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: February 25
A select viewing guide for Monday, February 25
HISTORY Gangsters: America’s Most Evil (A&E, 6 p.m.-10 p.m.) The romanticized notion of the American gangster has been around since the days of Al Capone. This offbeat series pays glowing homage to several lesser-known crooks whose lives should serve as cautionary tales for anybody considering a career in crime. Tonight’s marathon begins with a profile of Juan Raul Garza, who made untold millions in the nineties by running drugs across the infamous “Marijuana Boulevard” between Mexico and Texas and closes with a profile of Jemeker Thompson, aka “The Queenpin”(shown here), who made a fortune from the L.A. crack epidemic in the eighties before a former boyfriend snitched her out. And today, she’s an evangelical minister!
REALITY The Biggest Loser (NBC, 8 p.m.) Still going strong in its 14 th season, NBC’s weight-loss competition series continues to hold its own in U.S. ratings, even up against stiff network competition like The Bachelor, Bones and How I Met Your Mother. Tonight’s new episode features a “Face Your Fears” theme, which requires the six remaining dieters to take part in all manner of unseemly challenges. One unlucky soul is suspended over a shark tank, another has to sing in public and the contestant named Bingo is forced to eat vegetables. Be afraid.
REALITY Market Warriors (PBS, 9 p.m.) For those viewers keen on garage sales but put off by the dumbness and avarice of cable programs like Storage Wars and Storage Hunters, have we got a show for you. Now in its second season, this slick series puts forth a daunting weekly challenge to four professional treasure hunters–called “pickers” in the trade–whose specialty is finding precious objects to flip for profit. Tonight’s show takes the pickers to Oronoco, Minnesota, to scour the stalls at a sprawling flea market. The challenge: Find an antique toy among more than 300 vendors.
DRAMA Hawaii Five-O (CBS, Global, 10 p.m.) Even the toughest cops need to get away from it all, right? In tonight’s new episode of the remake of the seventies crime drama, alpha cop Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) and his best cop buddy Danno (Scott Caan) decide to take a relaxing boat cruise to get away from the stresses of catching bad guys. Once at sea, however, their boat is hijacked by a gang of thugs who leave them to perish in the middle of the ocean. Paddle, Danno, paddle!
MOVIE Demolition Man (AMC, 10:30 p.m.) How much has the science-fiction film genre evolved in the past two decades? Judge for yourself by watching sci-fi feature that had moviegoers lined up around the block in 1993. The story opens in 1996 with super-cop John Spartan (Sylvester Stallone) chasing the psychopath crook Simon (Wesley Snipes) all over Los Angeles and killing a few innocent bystanders along the way. The violent pair are then cryogenically frozen until the year 2032, when Simon is brought back to assasinate the leader of an underground rebel group and Spartan is defrosted to teach the winsome rookie cop Lenina (Sandra Bullock) the old-school method of catching crooks. So dumb it’s fun.