TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: March 6
A select viewing guide for Wednesday, March 6
REALITY My Strange Addiction (TLC, 7 p.m.) Stand aside, Honey Boo Boo. The dubious honour of TV’s most disturbing series now goes to this offbeat documentary-style series that appears to have stepped up the ick factor for its fourth season. As the title suggests, the format profiles individuals whose anxieties are relieved through the consumption of non-food items or ritualistic behaviour. Tonight’s first show introduces viewers to Nicole, a 19-year-old New Yorker addicted to eating deodorant. Nicole prefers the stick variety, but is quit happy to consume spray deodorant when the mood hits her. In the second show, we meet Caryn, who gobbles several cans of cat food daily (which, weirdly, is an improvement over the lady addicted to eating cat fur) and Alicia, who is addicted to smelling mothballs. Whatever gets you through the night, baby.
COMEDY The Ron James Show (CBC, 8:30 p.m.) Recently relocated to Wednesday nights, this old-school mix of standup comedy and sketch humour works off the energy of Ron James, the pride of Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. Each half-hour show tackles a specific them and tonight’s episode tackles the rather broad concept of “getting around.” To that end, James plays an average guy confused by the complicated parking signs in his neighbourhood and a scientist who invents a teleportation device with wacky side effects. And in his weekly “Ode to the Road” segment, Ronnie rolls into Drumheller, Alberta, which boasts a museum with Canada’s largest collection of dinosaur fossils. We are Canadian.
DRAMA Law & Order: SVU (NBC, CTV Two, 9 p.m.) Now in its 14th season, the sole survivor in the Law & Order franchise continues to integrate real-life events into plotlines. Exhibit A: Tonight’s new episode starring Anna Chlumsky (remember when she was the precocious child star of My Girl) as the author of a freakishly successful S&M romance novel, à la Fifty Shades of Grey, who claims she was sexually assaulted by a famous TV talk-show host. While detectives Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Rollins (Kelli Giddish) try to convince the alleged victim to press charges, the SVU squad digs into the author’s background and uncovers some unpleasant evidence that could derail the young woman’s literary career.
DRAMA Homeland (Bravo!, 10 p.m.) If you still haven’t seen this Emmy-winning cable series, here’s your chance to watch it from the beginning (so long as you don’t mind sitting through the commercials). The premise stars Claire Danes as the dour CIA operative Carrie Mathison, who is one of very few Americans not waving the flag when the U.S. marine sergeant Brody (Damian Lewis) is rescued after eight years of captivity in Afghanistan. The reason: Carrie has good reason to believe that the homecoming hero is really a sleeper agent for al-Qaeda.
MOVIE Agnes Browne (Vision, midnight) Anjelica Huston is currently starring in the NBC drama Smash, but she really has directing in her blood. The daughter of legendary director John Huston, who directed such classics as The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen, Ms. Huston produced and directed this charming 1999 film and also took on the title character. Set in Dublin, circa 1967, the story focuses on the hard-luck Agnes, whose husband dies and leaves her with seven kids and considerable debt. To make ends meet, she’s forced to borrow money from a loan shark and take a humbling job selling fruit and vegetables in the market. In the midst of all her woes, Agnes secretly wishes to attend an upcoming Tom Jones concert. Hey, it’s not unusual.