TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: Nov. 7
A select viewing guide for Wednesday November 7
REALITY House Hunters International (HGTV, 7 p.m.) So you think relocating to a new neighbourhood is stressful? Imagine the staggering logistics of moving to the other side of the world. Far and away the best entry in the sprawling House Hunter TV franchise, this spinoff follows prospective home buyers and their agents navigating the real-estate market in foreign lands. Tonight’s episode introduces viewers to a very nice young couple named CJ and Denise, the latter having accepted a new job in Nassau, Bahamas. While Denise wants a beachside domicile with a spectacular ocean view, her husband is more concerned about finding a home with a large garage where he indulge his hobby of fixing old cars and motorcycles. Their savvy realtor helps them reach a fair compromise.
SCIENCE Nature (PBS, 8 p.m.) While most episode in this venerable science series, currently in its 31 st season, focus on a specific creature or theme, tonight’s lighthearted episode is a slight deviation. The program celebrates inexplicable cross-species relationships that occasionally surface in the animal kingdom. To that end, we meet a goat that has become a guide dog to a sightless horse; a goose head over heels in love with a tortoise; a doe that regards an imposing Great Dane as its mother; and a gibbon that happily lives with a family of capuchins. Evolutionary biologist and primatologist Dr. Lauren Brent shares her research on the odd-couple behavior and reveals what it shows about the benefits of friendship.
COMEDY Modern Family (ABC, Citytv, 9 p.m.) Still one of TV’s top-rated comedies–and a three-time Emmy winner for best comedy–this show appears to have picked up the storytelling pace in its fourth season. In tonight’s new episode, addled parents Phil (Ty Burrell) and Claire (Julie Bowen) receive a late-night phone call informing them that eldest daughter Haley (Sarah Hyland) has been arrested for underaged drinking. Being Phil and Claire, they naturally overreact and bring her brother Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), the family lawyer, to the police station, and unwisely leave Mitchell’s life-partner Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) to watch over the kids. In other news, Pritchett patriarch Jay (Ed O’Neill) is desperately trying to keep a surprise visit from his ex-wife Dede (Shelley Long) from his very expectant, and very moody, current wife Gloria (Sofia Vergara).
REALITY Ice Pilots NWT (History, 10 p.m.) The flyboys are back. Launching its fourth season tonight, this program documenting the daily work routine at the Yellowknife-based airline Buffalo Airways is hands down the best reality show ever produced for Canadian television. The watch-factor stems largely from the Second World War-era prop planes flown by the pilots over the frozen tundra and the presence of cranky Buffalo proprietor Joe McBryan, who runs the airline with a firm hand and occasional assistance from his son, Mikey. In tonight’s kickoff episode, the entire northern aviation community is shaken by three crashes in the space of a month, which ramps up the airline’s usual safety procedures. When a visiting film crew needs a dangerous aerial stunt performed in a vintage DC3, sixtysomething Joe fulfills the request the old-fashioned way: By doing it himself.Ed Araquel
MOVIE Call of the Wild (TCM, 10 p.m. ET; 7 p.m. PT) Back during the darkest days of the Great Depression, the Great White North was actually considered an exotic setting. Based on the novel by Jack London, this 1935 actioner cast Clark Gable as the foolhardy prospector Jack, who heads off to Alaska in hopes of striking it rich in the gold rush. After rescuing a sled dog named Buck from its cruel owner, Jack and his pal Shorty (Jack Oakie) head out to stake their claim, but immediately run into the beautiful Claire (Loretta Young), whose miner husband has become missing in the wilderness. All of which presents Jack with a unique dilemma: Does he go after the girl or the gold?