Harry's Law
Saturday, NBC, Global, 8 p.m.
Do yourself the favour of watching this show at least once – while you still have the chance. The online universe has been percolating the past week with rumours that the earnest legal drama is next on the chopping block for NBC, which has already cancelled the freshman series Free Agents and The Playboy Club. There's no comparison between those shows and Harry's Law, which stars Oscar-winner Kathy Bates as the formidable Harriet "Harry" Korn, a former patent lawyer who opens up a storefront legal practice, literally, in a shoe store. The show was created by David E. Kelley, whohelmed the legal dramas The Practice, Boston Legal and Ally McBeal, and remains the master at deftly incorporating real-world issues into his plotlines. Tonight's episode is a case in point, with Harry defending a high-school student whose vicious blog outed a closeted lesbian classmate, who then committed suicide. Bates is outstanding in the episode, as is veteran TV player Camryn Manheim, formerly of The Practice, as the vindictive prosecutor who charges the cyberbully with negligent homicide.
Louis C.K.: Chewed Up
Saturday, Comedy Network, 10 p.m.
Here's your chance to find out why everyone raves about Louis C.K. In recent years the acerbic comedian's career has veered into the sitcom vein with the cable series Lucky Louie and, more currently, Louie (which arrives in Canada later this month on the new service FX Canada), but he's first and foremost a standup performer. First broadcast in 2008, this Showtime special features C.K. in top form as he riffs on a dizzying range of topics. In a style reminiscent of the late George Carlin, he crankily covers such topics as his age, weight and sex drive, or lack thereof. At times C.K. touches on relatable human subjects – such as his inability to walk past a Cinnabon stand at the airport – and then he shifts to a completely random topic, like the time he hit a deer with his car. The best moments come in C.K.'s personal reflections on his failed marriage, which produced two children. Although he refers to his two daughters as "buckets of disease" and threatens to enforce extreme tough love in their upbringing, there's clearly affection behind his barbs. Louis C.K. may be the comedy realm's last angry man, but he does it with love.
The Walking Dead
Sunday, AMC, 9 p.m.
And the dead shall walk the Earth. Again. Back for a second season, The Walking Dead has bestowed new respect upon the zombie genre. Adapted from a popular comic-book series, the show's first campaign ran six episodes and set ratings records for the cable channel AMC. And while there were certainly grisly moments, the zombies were used sparingly in the story's initial chapters, which followed the taciturn Georgia deputy Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and a ragtag group fighting for survival in the wake of what looked to be a global zombie apocalypse. The first season closed with the fiery destruction of Atlanta's Centers for Disease Control, thereby eliminating any chance of finding a cure for the infectious zombie virus. As with Mad Men and Breaking Bad, AMC did not send out advance screeners, but in the teaser clips and press materials, it's apparent Grimes is still in charge and leading the dogged survivors out of Atlanta, presumably toward safer environs. Based on early footage, the zombies look much nastier in the second season and their ranks seem to be growing.
The Quon Dynasty
Sunday, CITY-TV, 9:30 p.m. ET
Life is never dull with the Quons. One of last season's livelier new Canadian arrivals, this unscripted series goes behind the scenes at the Lingnan restaurant, an Edmonton dining institution owned and operated by the Quon family. Unlike the Kardashians and other reality-TV clans, the Quons are real people who rarely play to the camera. Patriarch Kinman is the strong, silent type and firmly resistant to change, while wife Amy is a tightly wound chatterbox and self-appointed empress of the popular eatery. Naturally their second-generation kids have different takes on the Canadian dream. Eldest son Miles is a workhorse who dreams of taking over the Lingnan; younger brother Marty is the slacker seeking fame and riches; and sister Mandy is a princess who resents working night shifts at the restaurant. The format is identical to A&E's Gene Simmons: Family Jewels, except in this instance the family is genuine and the scenarios feel unforced. In the first new show, Miles takes a rare night off work and sneaks off to a burlesque show, while Amy pitches a fit when her daughter insists on trying skydiving. The ordinariness of the Quons makes them the quintessential all-Canadian family.
Check local listings.
John Doyle will return.