TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: Sept. 28
Your select viewing guide for Friday, Sept. 28
REALITY: Restaurant Takeover (Food Network, 7 p.m.) One of the better recent arrivals on Food Network, this new Canadian-made series should be required viewing for anyone thinking of going into the restaurant business. The no-frills format features two food-industry hotshots lending their expertise to an eatery in desperate need of a makeover. In tonight’s show, celebrity chef Derek Minkensky and designer Cheryl Torrenueva are airlifted in to fix the Sunnybrook Restaurant, which has seen better times. Updating the dated menu and dreary décor is easy, but can they get the customers to return?
DRAMA: CSI: NY (CBS, CTV, 8 p.m.) Back tonight for its ninth season, this sturdy crime-procedural series features a gruesome murder in each episode, but it’s always less graphic than the original CSI or recently-departed CSI: Miami, which accounts for the 8 p.m. timeslot. In tonight’s season-opener, forensics cop Mac Taylor (Gary Sinise) is called in to investigate a fire that killed one of his best friends – a New York City fire chief, ironically enough. The crime scene reveals the blaze was started by the same technique used by a recently-paroled arsonist named Leonard (Rob Morrow), but in this instance the prime suspect has an iron-clad alibi.CBS
DRAMA: Made in Jersey (CBS, Global, 9 p.m.) Imagine The Sopranos merged with Ally MacBeal. That’s pretty much the premise of this new legal drama starring British actress Janet Montgomery as Martina, a young Italian-American lawyer born and raised in New Jersey who works at a swank New York law firm. In tonight’s pilot episode, Martina impresses her snooty lawyer boss Donovan (Kyle MacLachlan) and ends up heading the defense team in the case of a college student accused of killing her professor. Back home in Jersey, Martina has to deal with wiseguy neighbours and a meddling Italian mama (Donna Murphy) who just wants her to meet a nice boy. A realistic setup? Hey, fuhgeddaboutit!
DRAMA: Blue Bloods (CBS, CTV, 10 p.m.) For fans of old-school cop shows, the return of this series is the highlight of the new TV season. In tonight’s third-season opener, NYPD detective Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) is concerned when he learns a dangerous criminal from his past, played by the always-scary Michael Madsen, has been released from prison and is possibly seeking revenge. While Danny expects a frontal attack, the crook pulls a surprise move by kidnapping his partner Jackie (Jennifer Esposito). Former High School Musical fixture Corbin Bleu guests as a rookie uniform cop.CBS
MOVIE: MacGruber (MuchMusic, 9 p.m.) Sometimes the most unlike Saturday Night Live sketches are turned into movies. Following the vein of films like Wayne’s World, Coneheads, A Night at the Roxbury and The Ladies Man, this 2010 comedy takes an SNL sketch and stretches it into a full-length feature. The original MacGruber was, of course, a parody of the eighties TV series MacGyver, which starred Richard Dean Anderson as a remarkably inventive secret agent. In this spin, Will Forte resumes his portrayal of MacGruber, who we learn is a former Green Beret, Navy Seal and Army Ranger all rolled into one. MacGruber has been in retirement since the death of his wife (Maya Rudolph) years before, but he’s convinced to reenter the world-saving game when his old enemy Dieter (Val Kilmer) steals a nuclear weapon. He’s a hero for our time.Greg Peters