TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: January 11
A select viewing guide for Friday, January 11
REALITY Food Factory (Food Network, 7 p.m.) Sometimes you just want a show that keeps it simple. This Canadian-made series takes viewers to the production lines of popular snacks, beverages and baked goods to track the production process from raw materials to final packaging. The reason to watch stems entirely from the diverse range of foodstuffs on display. In tonight’s first show, be amazed and amused at the amount of energy put into the creation of tortilla shells, pre-cooked apple danishes and refined sugar! Don’t watch while hungry.
NEWS Marketplace (CBC, 8 p.m.) Still one of the sturdiest programs on CBC’s schedule, this consumer-watchdog series tackles a topic to which everyone can relate: telemarketers. Selling computer repairs, phony lotteries and–most of all–duct-cleaning services, the telemarketers are the bane of the average person’s existence and refuse to accept no for an answer. The Marketplace team travels to the other side of the planet to visit a call center where the operators work around the clock and have a good chuckle at people who claim they registered for the “Do Not Call” list. Tom Harrington and Erica Johnson host.
REALITY Shark Tank (ABC, CTV, 9 p.m.) Now here’s a show with legs. The fourth season of ABC’s brash reality-entrepreneur search series is currently pulling in standout ratings and has a growing presence on social media sites. It’s very likely Canadian viewers are watching because it’s faster and funnier than our own Dragon’s Den (even though Dragon’s Den regular Kevin O’Leary holds forth as one of the Sharks, as does former DD regular Robert Herjavec). In tonight’s new outing, two hucksters from New York try to interest the Sharks in investing in a capsule that allegedly keeps a hot beverage at the perfect temperature. And wait until you meet the husband-and-wife team from Utah pitching a method to make ice cream at home using liquid nitrogen. Get out the safety goggles!
DRAMA Banshee (HBO Canada, 11 p.m. ET) Looking for something a little nasty to fill up your Friday nights? Debuting tonight, this new HBO series is set in a small Pennsylvania town called Banshee, which only looks peaceful on the surface. Most of the citizenry are law-abiding Amish people but things get interesting with the arrival of the ex-convict Lucas (Antony Starr) who promptly steals the identity of the recently-deceased sheriff and attempts to reconnect with his nasty ex-lover Carrie (Ivana Milicevic) who moved to the town years before. The creepy cast of supporting characters include an Asian transvestite and a local crime boss with a dog that eats people’s fingers. This is a dark ride.
MOVIE The Fugitive (AMC, 8 p.m.) One of the highest-grossing films of 1993, this feature takes the premise of the sixties TV series of the same name and turns it into a breathtaking action movie. Harrison Ford turns in a typically stolid performance as Dr. Richard Kimble, a Chicago physician unjustly accused and convicted of killing his wife. En route to prison, Kimble survives a spectacular bus-train collision and is running over hill and dale from the cops in pursuit. Tommy Lee Jones, recently Oscar-nominated for Lincoln, delivers an Oscar-winning performance by the dogged U.S. marshal Sam Gerard, and watch for Glee’s Jane Lynch in a cameo role as a hospital medic.