A month of madness ends this weekend with the biggest television event on the planet. Yep, that World Cup thing will end, with hundreds of millions of people watching the final. Life becomes tedious for a while, until the European soccer season starts. No, wait. That's just me. There are a few non-sports shows this weekend, but not many. CBC ends its World Cup coverage with Popsicle Soccer Day in Canada on CBC (noon). A Toronto FC game is followed by the third-place game from South Africa (Uruguay against Germany, 2:30 p.m.) and then, women's soccer from Nova Scotia, Quebec and Alberta, including the famous Giddy Up Cup, part of the Calgary Stampede. The menu is this - the greatest show on Earth and two good things for non-sports fans.
The Bridge (Saturday, CTV, CBS, 8 p.m.) At last, CBS starts the U.S. airing of this Canadian-made crime drama, the one loosely based on the career of Craig Bromell, the former and controversial head of the Toronto Police Association. What you get tonight is the two-hour pilot episode, with Aaron Douglas playing the Bromell-type character, Frank. He's mad at the bosses and gets the union riled up. Then he leads the union himself. We get a look at the gnarly, dark politics of the police and the grey areas where cops and criminals co-exist. It's actually the best part of the series, as later episodes become more predictable and less nuanced. So far, The Bridge is getting lukewarm reviews in the United States. The view from Entertainment Weekly is this, "Another Canuck cop drama imported by CBS, The Bridge is (meagre-praise alert!) better than Flashpoint. There's a nifty, Wire-esque exploration of police bureaucracy. As a rabble-rousing union chief, Battlestar Galactica's Aaron Douglas is no McNulty. And the criminals, like the truck-driving killer grandma, are just lame. Oh, Canada." Our criminals are lame? What an insult.
World Cup Final (Sunday, CBC, 2:30 p.m.) And then there were two - Spain against the Netherlands. Things to watch for - if Fernando Torres doesn't start for Spain, the plan is to play possession soccer and stifle Dutch attacks. Watch too for Dutch players Arjen Robben and Dirk Kuyt. Robben has the speed of a sprinter and might terrorize an awed Spanish defence. Watch too how both wingers switch from left to right wings, making them impossible to man-mark. This is Spain's first final and the third for the Netherlands. Having lost in 1974 and 1978, a loss here would be devastating for the Dutch, who have a habit of showing great promise and then failing to fulfill it. They do, mind you, have the most extraordinary supporters - the vast "Oranje Army." After the semi-final games, Germany manager Joachim Low said of Spain, "They can hardly be beaten." A few months ago, I wrote, "This is Spain's World Cup to lose." That doesn't mean the result is a foregone conclusion. Far from it - this could be a classic final.
Citizen Black (Sunday, CBC NN, 10 p.m. on The Passionate Eye) With Conrad Black in the news again, thanks to a U.S. Supreme Court decision, this is a very timely repeat. Citizen Black is Debbie Melnyk's sly doc, made in 2004, about trying to make a film about Black. Melnyk, who with producer Rick Caine also made the jaunty The Frank Truth, began trying to profile Black before his legal and financial woes. As her attempts continued, Black's media empire essentially collapsed around him. He declined a formal interview, but Melnyk just kept traipsing around after him. You can tell here that Black rather enjoyed the regular encounters with the filmmaker, because he turns on the charm, attempts to be witty and seems to feel he's got a sympathetic ear. Melnyk, for her part, seems to develop an affection for him. At least for a time, Black was tickled by the cat-and-mouse game with the persistent lady filmmaker. This isn't an exposé or a defence of Black. It's a wacky journey taken in an attempt to figure out the man and what happened to him. There are numerous bits of commentary from his enemies and admirers. The missing element, though, is Barbara Amiel.
Check local listings.