TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: January 3
A select viewing guide for Thursday, January 3
REALITY Move This! (HGTV, 7 p.m.) Do you have a dreary vocation but possess a boisterous personality along with colourful relatives and wacky co-workers? Then you just might qualify for your own reality-TV show on HGTV! This new, allegedly unscripted series documents the daily work routine of Lenny Miller, who has owned and operated his own moving business in Midland, Ontario, for the past 15 years. In the opener, Lenny relocates a customer with a huge jukebox and carnival game collectibles while trying to referee a squabble between his wife and daughter. And then, Lenny moves an animal breeder and somehow a python gets loose! Good times.
SCIENCE The Nature of Things (CBC, 8 p.m.) Time to separate science fact from science fiction. In one of the best episodes from last season, B.C. molecular biologist Jennifer Gardy burns up the air miles on her quest to prove or debunk several popularly held beliefs. At the University of Manitoba, Dr. Gardy submerges herself in ice-cold water to ascertain whether or not humans really do lose most of our body heat through our heads. And in New York, she issues a challenge to “competitive eater” David O’Karma to find out if wolfing down your food actually causes you to gain weight. Why wasn’t high school science this interesting?
DRAMA Person of Interest (CBS, CTV, 9 p.m.) Big Brother is still watching you–and it knows if you’re about to become involved in criminal activity. Finally back in new episodes, this smart crime drama makes good use of an inanimate character called “The Machine,” a software program developed by computer billionaire Finch (Michael Emerson) that identifies individuals about to perpetrate or be a victim to a monstrous criminal act. In tonight’s new episode, The Machine spits out the name of a high-schooler with a genius-level IQ. The only solution: Finch has to go undercover as a nerdy substitute teacher.
FASHION What Not To Wear (TLC, 10 p.m.) There is more to watch on TLC than Extreme Cougars (not a wildlife program) and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Back tonight for its 10th season, this popular series follows style mavens Stacy London and Clinton Kelly performing rescue missions for the fashion-challenged. The new season will feature a celebrity theme and tonight’s opener has the pair working their makeover magic on the eighties-era pop star Tiffany, now 41 and veering into “mom jeans” territory.
MOVIE A Simple Wish (Vision, midnight) Hamilton-born Martin Short starred in more than a dozen feature films through the nineties, but this 1997 fantasy-comedy stands out in the crowd. Short is typically endearing as the dim fairy godmother named Murray, whose first assignment is to help eight-year-old Annabel (Mara Wilson) realize her wish that her father Oliver (Robert Pastorelli) become a Broadway star. Murray accidentally turns the kid’s father into a statue, and then has to contend with the evil machinations of a former fairy godmother turned witch named Claudia, played with fitting malevolence by Kathleen Turner.