TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: March 5
A select viewing guide for Tuesday, March 5
FOOD You Gotta Eat Here! (Food Network, 7 p.m.) Is it a comedy show or cooking series? Recently returned for a second campaign, this show’s no-frills format follows the very amusing John Catucci all over Canada in his search for unique comfort-food experiences. Naturally, each restaurant visited takes immense pride in serving one damn-the-torpedoes high-calorie dish, which the host is more than happy to scarf down at a moment’s notice. In tonight’s first show, he’s in Vancouver to visit a popular eatery called The Reef, where customers can’t get enough of a unique Canadian-Caribbean hybrid: Jerk Chicken Poutine. Say irie, Big John.
REALITY Betty White’s Off Their Rockers (NBC, 8 p.m.) It may make America’s Funniest Home Videos look like Masterpiece Theatre, but this hidden-camera series hosted by 91-year-old Betty White continues to draw huge ratings south of the border. On some weeks, the viewing audience peaks at more than six-million U.S. viewers, or approximately double the audience of Community and 30 Rock combined. Tonight’s new episode brings a guest appearance by stunt performer Steve-O, best known for risking his life and limb on MTV’s Jackass, who takes part in several of the prearranged sight gags. And really, is there anything funnier than watching the reactions of average folk when a senior citizen pretend to fall asleep on a bed in a department store? That’s comedy gold.
DRAMA NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS, Global, 9 p.m.) The people who choose the Emmys may opt for the intense political intrigue of the Showtime series Homeland or the period-piece drama of Mad Men, but far more Americans are watching this show. Now in its fourth season, the NCIS spinoff garners more than seven times the U.S. viewing audience of Homeland and Mad Men, which is why CBS is currently making plans to make a spinoff of the spinoff. Viewers keep watching because they’re hooked on the gung-ho heroic drama that never equivocates between good guys and bad guys. In tonight’s new outing, NCIS agent Sam (LL Cool J) panics when his former CIA agent wife Michelle (Aunjanue Ellis) is called back to active duty.
DRAMA Body of Proof (ABC, Citytv, 10 p.m.) Now in its third season, this medical drama hands a juicy role to Dana Delany, formerly of Desperate Housewives and China Beach. The divine Ms. D cuts a formidable as the no-nonsense neurosurgeon Dr. Megan Hunt, whose surgical prowess was cut short by an auto accident, after which she began a new career as a medical examiner. In tonight’s new episode, Dr. Hunt and her new cop partner Tommy (Mark Valley) investigate a murder case that has all the signs of a case of extreme child abuse. The deceased’s parents swear their daughter was killed by Satan after being possessed, which leaves Dr. Hunt deeply concerned for the couple’s surviving daughter.
MOVIE The Banger Sisters (Vision, midnight) Some people simply refuse to let go of the sixties. In this 2002 comedy, Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon play Suzette and Vinnie, two fiftysomething ladies who were quite the famous groupies back in the Summer of Love (the mantle of “Banger Sisters” was bestowed upon them by Frank Zappa). The pair lose touch and 30-odd years later, Suzette, still living the rocker lifestyle, decides to look up Vinnie and is shocked to discover that she’s now a demure society doyenne with two teenage daughters. Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush lens support as Suzette’s love interest.