Monday: Medium
For reasons we can’t explain, we don’t know a single other person who watches Medium. It’s especially weird because the show, now in its fifth season, is one of the best domestic dramas on television. Sure, Patricia Arquette plays the psychically-talented Alison DuBois, and yes, she sees dead people (sometimes she even is dead people!). But the heart of Medium is the utterly realistic family dynamic between Alison, her husband Joe (a delightfully rumpled and harried Jake Weber) and their three blond daughters. Don’t be put off by the hocus pocus; Medium is more like Family Ties crossed with Law & Order. (NBC, 10 pm)
Tuesday: A Woman Under the Influence
Someone at the Sundance Channel has a sick sense of humor, airing John Cassavetes’ gripping, horrifying, shaming portrait of a housewife and mother come undone at 8:30 in the morning! Make no mistake: we love A Woman Under the Influence—after Opening Night, it’s our favorite Cassavetes movie—but we’d never watch it first thing in the morning. So DVR it, and save it for an earlyish evening where you leave enough time after to wash down Gena Rowlands’ harrowing and moving performance with a little Letterman. (Sundance, 8:30 am)
Wednesday: The Deep End
These days, Tilda Swinton picks up award-worthy and winning roles as easily as she slips into her silk and decidedly unfashionable (but still fabulous) palazzo pants: they’re just made for her. From Benjamin Button to Michael Clayton to Burn After Reading, Ms. Swinton’s become a sort of idiosyncratic supporting gal to Julia and Cate, often turning in performances to rival the leading ladies. Before all this, though, she quietly starred in a handful of indies—including Orlando, Young Adam and this one, The Deep End, a creepy thriller about a mother trying to protect her son. Croatian dreamboat Goran Visnjc (mostly of ER fame) co-stars. (IFC, 6:15 pm)
Thursday: The Millionaire Matchmaker
Starting at 8 pm, Bravo is airing back to back episodes of its weirdly compelling reality show The Millionaire Matchmaker. If you’ve even had a passing interest in MM, the evening’s first episode is the one to catch: Heidi, a millionaire-ess, and Bill, a millionaire, both reach out to Patty (the aforementioned matchmaker) for a set up. There is the requisite cocktail party with single men and women for the moneybags’ to pick from, but things go slightly awry. We won’t blow the ending, but we will tell you: Patty’s tirades about middle-aged men dissing women their own age actually moved us. And that’s saying something, because usually she’s pretty offensive. (Bravo, 8pm)
Friday: Friday Night Lights
We’re a few episodes in to the third season of FNL, and while the show hasn’t yet reached the heights of its first and perfect year, it’s a hell of a lot better than the last one. So far we’ve had plenty of Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler, and his ever-present eye-bags) and his wife Tammy (the criminally beautiful Connie Britton) getting in and out of hot
