MONDAY
The three Americans who were freed recently from a leftist guerilla organization in the jungles of Colombia traveled home to Florida for the first time in more than five years on Saturday after undergoing 10 days of treatment in an Army medical center in Houston. Their highly publicized rescue by the Colombian military on July 2 served as a reminder that the large South American nation still has lots of problems, like political strife, a slowing economy, poverty, crime and drugs. (Did you see that VBS.tv documentary on Colombian scopolamine? Scary!) But tonight, Anthony Bourdain focuses on the brighter side of Colombian culture in the latest installment of No Reservations. In fact, Mr. Bourdain was apparently so taken with the country that he described it as a “Vacation Wonderland.” He wrote on his blog:
So are things really looking up for Colombia? Tune in to the Travel Channel tonight at 10 p.m. and see for yourself. Otherwise, the History Channel will make you feel a little better about that one really bad tattoo you wish you’d never gotten with its two hour special Ancient Ink, which looks at tattooing through the centuries from the aborigines of Maori to Thai monks to New York’s vampire clubs. (9 p.m.)
TUESDAY
It looks like the educational networks are your best bet again. At 10 p.m., National Geographic Channel’s five-part mini-series, Earth: The Biography, concludes with the episode “Rare Planet,” which pretty much seems to be about how humans have ruined the environment. And at 9 on Discovery Channel, the seafaring crabbers of Deadliest Catch battle Arctic ice and “Bering Sea dementia.”
WEDNESDAY
Tonight is a sad night for Bravo. It’s the last time a new season of the Emmy-nominated reality series Project Runway will debut on the channel before moving to its new home, the considerably less hip women’s network, Lifetime. As Gawker and other publications noted last week, Bravo’s been a bit elusive in terms of promoting the new cast. Unlike with past seasons, publicity has been minimal—Bravo just started airing commercials in recent days, and even those have only featured previous cast members—which is odd considering Project Runway is its most popular show. So is the network bitter about losing it to Lifetime? Or are the new designers total duds? In either case, it seems like a pretty anti-climactic auf wiedersehen for the show, which has moved to the 9 p.m. time slot. Sigh.
THURSDAY
As far as low-end beers go, you can’t go wrong with Budweiser. And we don’t mean Budweiser Select, or Bud Lime or—shudder!—Bud Ice. We’re talking about a good, old-fashioned bottle of the King of Beers. But how has Budweiser remained at the top of the brewing industry after losing market share yet gaining competition from the snobby craft/microbrew scene? CNBC has the answer tonight at 9 p.m. with American Originals: Budweiser. U-S-A! But if you want to make it a sober night, the original summer blockbuster, Jaws, is on AMC at 8. Also at 8, G4 has a preview of the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight.
FRIDAY
Sometimes after a long, hard week of work, there’s nothing better than coming home, plopping yourself down on the couch, and lazing out with a few back to back episodes of Law & Order: SVU that you’ve probably already seen 27 times (USA, 6-9 p.m.).
