Here’s what Willis, and everyone else in TV land, will be talking about in the week ahead …
1. Justified Returns!
And it’s still one of the best dramas on TV. When we meet up with Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (the Emmy-worthy Timothy Olyphant) in season two (Wednesday, 10PM, FX), he’s trying to juggle a new relationship with his ex-wife (Natalie Zea), while taking on a family of moonshiners led by plotting mama Mags Bennett (Dexter and The Riches‘ Margo Martindale) and also trying to keep tabs on his frienemy Boyd Crowder (Walt Goggins, ditto the Emmy-worthiness), who’s in a dark place after the death of his daddy in last season’s finale.
2. Another Friends-ly Return to Primetime
The good news: Two of our most favorite primetime fellas, Friends star Matthew Perry and Lost alum Jorge Garcia, return to the tube this week with the premiere of Perry’s ABC sitcom Mr. Sunshine (Wednesday, 9:30PM). The bad news: Though both actors have considerable comedy skills, the show, at least the pilot, offers few laughs. Perry plays the manager of a Los Angeles sports arena (The Sunshine Center), who begins to realize he has made very few personal connections as he hits his forties. The series could have been a more straight-comedy version of Men of a Certain Age, but it doesn’t match that show’s humor or heart. Here’s hoping it gets better in subsequent episodes, because otherwise, viewers are just going to be thinking how much they’re missing that other Friends alum, Courteney Cox in Cougar Town, whose show is being temporarily pre-empted for Sunshine.
3. Parks and Recreation, Ron and Tammy
Also back for a second round this week: Megan Mullally, as the on-screen ex-wife of Parks and Recreation‘s Ron Swanson, played by Mullally’s real-life hubby, Nick Offerman. In “Ron & Tammy: Part Two” (Thursday, 9:30PM, NBC), Tom (Aziz Ansari) takes revenge on Ron for dating Tom’s ex-wife by setting up his own date with Tammy (Mullally). Let the fur, or rather bits of Ron’s trademark moustache, fly.
4. 53rd Annual Grammy Awards
Sure, no one really cares much about who wins these things anymore, except for the record companies who can slap “Grammy Winner” on the CD cases (not that anyone’s really buying CDs anymore …), but the Grammys (Sunday, 8PM ET, CBS) are still worth a drive-by viewing, just on the off chance that something interesting happens. Eminem leads all nominees with 10, Bruno Mars is runner-up with seven, and Jay-Z, Lady Gaga and Lady Antebellum each have six nods, and both Eminem and Gaga are amongst the performers on the show. Cee Lo Green will also perform (a fam-friendly version, of course) of “Forget You”; The Biebs, Usher and the Karate Kid, er, Jaden Smith, perform together; so do Mick Jagger and Raphael Saadiq; and so do Rihanna and Drake. And speaking of Rihanna, not only will she and ex-BF Chris Brown both be in attendance, but they’re competing against each other for the Best Rap/Sung Collaboration award.
5. Pop Art
Behold what’s sure to be the next occureality (that’s reality shows focusing on a specific occupation, of course) trend: balloon art. Monday’s premiere of TLC’s The Unpoppables (8PM) kicks it off, as viewers meet the team from New Balloon Art, a company that fashions thousands of balloons into wearable dresses, sit-on-able couches and fantastic sculptures of everything from real humans to the Eiffel Tower.
6. Turn Off the Friday Night Lights
Sad, but true: after five seasons, it’s game over for Friday Night Lights, which airs its series finale on DirecTV’s 101 Network on Wednesday (9PM). Expect to shed plenty of tears, as the finale, set at Christmas, brings back old faces to Dillon and is said to include at least one major plot twist. For those of us non-DirecTV-ers, NBC will begin airing the show’s final season on April 15.
7. The Jersey Shore BREAK Up
As in, during Ronnie and Sammi‘s latest Jersey Shore split, coming on this week’s episode (Thursday, 10PM, MTV), Ron Ron gets so angry that he trashes some of her stuff. The preview also includes a shot of Sammi getting into a town car and supposedly leaving Seaside Heights, which would be for the best, since this tempestuous two has become as tiresome as that couple we all knew in college, the one that broke up at least once a week.
8. Saturday Night Live … with a Censor Button?
Comedian Russell Brand makes his first appearance as Saturday Night Live host this week (Saturday, 11:30PM, NBC), which should make NBC censors nervous. And, it’s a double bill of bad boys: Chris Brown is the musical guest.
9. NeNe vs. Kim, Round (I’ve Lost Count)
The Real Housewives of Atlanta season three reunion (part one) airs Sunday (10PM, Bravo), and the main event is yet again a smackdown between NeNe Leakes and Kim Zolciak. Thank goodness NeNe is bouncing back with Celebrity Apprentice next month … a chance to get her NeNe mojo back.
Charlie Sheen, Russell Brand and Louis C.K. are getting most of the attention, but I’m most excited that one of the best new shows of last TV season — Wilfred — returns for its second season on FX tonight (10PM ET). Season one of the series ended with a cliffhanger — had Ryan (Elijah Wood) […]