TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: Oct. 26
Your select viewing guide for Friday, Oct. 26
REALITY: Kitchen Nightmares (Fox, Global, 8 p.m.) Bombastic Gordon Ramsay is still trying to revitalize the dining industry, one restaurant at a time. Back tonight for its fifth season, this American version of a popular British series follows the belligerent Ramsay on his rescue missions to foundering eateries all over the U.S. Tonight, he’s in Boston to overhaul an Italian eatery called La Galleria, which is slowly being run into the ground by co-owner sisters Rita and Lisa. Soon after arriving, the mad chef ascertains that the sisters have lost control of their staff and, more unforgivably, the Italian dishes they’re serving are bland and tasteless. Turn down the volume for Ramsay’s expletive-laden makeover.
DOCUMENTARY: Engraved on a Nation (TSN, 8 p.m.) Kudos to TSN for this running series of documentaries celebrating the CFL and its place in Canadian sports culture. Tonight’s film, Playing a Dangerous Game, was directed by John Walker and rewinds the clock to the 1969 season. In the middle of the ongoing FLQ crisis, league commissioner Jake Gaudaur decided to hold the 1969 Grey Cup game in Montreal in hopes of promoting national unity. To underscore the occasion, Gaudaur invited then-Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau – the FLQ’s arch nemesis – to perform the ceremonial kickoff. With the entire country watching, the resulting Grey Cup game between the Ottawa Rough Riders and Saskatchewan Roughriders was that rare merge of political tension and sports drama.
REALITY: Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids (TLC, 9 p.m.) Wedding season has come and gone, but TLC is still cranking out wedding-themed programming. Back tonight for a third season, this series focuses on the process of creating unique bridesmaid frocks at the Bridals by Lori salon in Atlanta. As anyone might have predicted, most of the on-screen action arises from pre-wedding disagreements between brides-to-be and their ladies in waiting. In tonight’s season’s opener, a bride and her identical twin team up against their tearful younger sister, while another bride gets into a huge fight with her mother over the low-cut dresses for the bridesmaids. As before, the show presents a solid argument for elopement.
DRAMA: Blue Bloods (CBS, CTV, 10 p.m.) Yes, Tom Selleck is still on this popular crime drama. Although the former Magnum P.I. hunk’s portrayal of New York police commissioner Frank Reagan has faded slightly in favour of storylines favouring his cop son Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) and prosecutor daughter Erin (Bridget Moynihan), Selleck still shows up every few episodes to remind viewers why they began watching the show in the first place. In tonight’s new outing, Frank awards a NYPD detective with a medal for his undercover work in busting a Malaysian drug lord, but then feels guilty when the same cop is abducted by the bad guy’s brother. Selleck still has the best moustache on television.
MOVIE: All the President’s Men (TCM, 10:30 p.m. ET; 7:30 p.m. PT) It’s the movie that inspired many people to go to journalism school. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, this 1976 film version of the 1974 book by former Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein provides a definitive account of the infamous Watergate scandal. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play Woodward and Bernstein, respectively, who stumble upon a possible connection between a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex and a White House staffer. As the odd couple’s investigation veers closer to the administration of sitting U.S. president Richard Nixon, Woodward and Bernstein receive cryptic advice from an unknown source known only as “Deep Throat.” The late Jason Robards earned an Academy Award for his portrayal of Post editor Ben Bradlee.