Monday: Wet Hot American Summer
Does anyone do absurd comedy better than David Wain? Sure, Role Models might have been the most formulaic Judd Apatow movie that Judd Apatow didn’t have anything to do with, but the last act—a full on LAIRE (Live Action Interactive Role-playing Explorers) battle royale complete with KISS make-up and a joke about Marvin Hamlisch—was just about the craziest comedy set piece we’ve seen in a long time. Mr. Wain’s first film, Wet Hot American Summer, is all crazy set pieces; a spoof of summer camp comedies pitched at such psychotic levels that a talking can of mixed vegetables plays a prominent role. We’d like to see Mr. Apatow attempt something like that. [Starz Comedy, 6:30 p.m.]
Tuesday: Fringe
There hasn’t been a new episode of Fringe in seven weeks (!), a time period that makes the dual six-week hiatuses of Gossip Girl and 90210 seem brief by comparison. The freshman series returns tonight with a new episode, and here’s hoping the long break hasn’t dulled what was becoming a very fine show. Fringe has its flaws—there are times when it isn’t as smart as it thinks—but it’s undeniably entertaining and routinely cover-your-eyes-with-a-pillow scary. Plus, Joshua Jackson and John Noble, as Peter and Walter Bishop, have one of the better father-son relationships on television. [Fox, 9 p.m.]
Wednesday: The Unusuals
Despite being called The Unusuals, we doubt this new series, from Rescue Me executive producers Peter Tolan and Denis Leary and Bones’ Noah Hawley, will be anywhere near as bizarre as the previous 10 p.m. police show that aired on ABC. That would be Life on Mars, which wrapped up last week with a finale that could only be called bananas—it ended with the entire cast literally going to Mars. We’ve seen plenty of commercials for The Unusuals, and while the series looks fairly standard, we can’t help but love the pastiche cast—Adam Goldberg, Lost’s Harold Perrineau, Amber Tamblyn, and, 2009 potential breakout star, Jeremy Renner. If you don’t know Mr. Renner just yet—he had a small appearance in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford—you will by the time Kathryn Bigelow’s highly anticipated film, The Hurt Locker, hits theaters sometime this summer. [ABC, 10 p.m.]
Thursday: Harper’s Island
Because Harper’s Island is going up against Private Practice and John Wells’ new series Southland, we can’t help but feel it isn’t long for this world. But we have to give CBS credit for trying something relatively outside the box. The thirteen episode series is a murder mystery dressed up like a reality show; think Ten Little Indians by way of Survivor. Set during a destination wedding on the fictitious Harper’s Island off the coast of Seattle, each episode ends with one of the characters getting killed off. That the cast is peppered with a bunch of non-stars (the most recognizable names are Harry Hamlin and Richard Burgi) means viewers will be without any preconceived notions of who the killer is, a nice trick that will undoubtedly keep people interested… if they bother to watch at all. [CBS, 10 p.m.]
Friday: True Romance
If there is a better movie to watch on a Friday night, we haven’t found it. True Romance has it all—sex, violence and complete lunacy. There’s Gary Oldman as a Rastafarian pimp with a glass eye, Val Kilmer as the ghost of Elvis, Brad Pitt as a stoner burnout, and, of course, Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper as a pair of seen-it-all-before old-timers, locked in a duel to see which one will chew through the scenery first. (Spoiler alert: It’s Walken.) [Encore Action, 10 p.m.]
