TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: July 27
A select viewing guide for Friday, July 27
MUSIC: One 2 One with Conor Maynard (YTV, 7 p.m.) Lock up your daughters. Tonight’s edition of the recently launched One 2 One series puts the spotlight on rising pop star Conor Maynard. Hailed as Britain’s answer to Justin Bieber, the 19-year-old singer has been making waves on these shores with the infectious single Can’t Say No. Taped on a recent tour stopover in Toronto, this special has Maynard chatting with YTV host Carlos Bustamante and performing three songs before a crowd of screaming young girls. Watch your back, Biebs.
SPORTS: XXX Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony (NBC, CTV, 7:30 p.m.) The biggest sports spectacle on Earth begins with tonight’s opening ceremony in London. The splashy kickoff is produced by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting) with a reported budget of roughly $40-million (US). Boyle and his production team have been seriously secretive about not disclosing details of the ceremony (even creating the Twitter hashtag #savethesurprise) except to reveal that the event will pay homage to British history from 1896 to present day. For fans of numbing statistical data, the ceremony will feature 10,000 adult volunteers and 1000 child volunteers and a 23-ton bell. Let the games begin!
REALITY: Salvage Hunters (Discovery, 8 p.m.) Treat yourself to one of the better new reality programs in recent memory. The format focuses on modern-day treasure hunter Drew Pritchard as he rambles all over the U.K. in search of centuries-old artifacts and objets d’art. Once procured, the items are hauled back to Pritchard’s sprawling showroom/workshop in North Wales to be restored and sold for profit. The watch factor stems from Pritchard’s unerring ability to separate the gems from the junk, which is evident in tonight’s new episode in which he scours the sheds of a stately mansion.
DRAMA: Blue Bloods (CBS, CTV Two, 10 p.m.) Tonight’s episode of this well-regarded crime drama shifts the focus to Bridget Moynahan, who plays the no-nonsense district attorney and single mom Erin Reagan. The storyline finds Erin reopening an 18-year-old rape case that was originally handled by her career-cop father Frank (Tom Selleck). At the same time, Erin’s cop brother Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) investigates the seemingly senseless murder of three teenagers in a public park.
MOVIE: Spider-Man (Showcase, midnight) Hey, wasn’t this movie just in theatres? In fact, this is the 2002 film version of the same story recently and inexplicably remade as a blockbuster summer movie. Directed by Sam Raimi, this film sticks closely to the comic book origins with Tobey Maguire cast as Peter Parker, your average teenage loner bitten by a radioactive spider and bestowed with miraculous powers, including superhuman strength and agility. At first, Peter uses his newfound abilities for commercial gain, including winning a wrestling match, but when his own Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) is murdered by a fleeing burglar, he discovers that with great power comes great responsibility. Film veteran Willem Dafoe steals the show as the ruthless businessman Norman Osborn, a.k.a. The Green Goblin.