PBS Primetime Programming for the Week of October 14

Here we are, mid-October and the first show of the television season has fallen, fallen like a soldier in a Ken Burns movie about World War II, fallen like an ancient Ming vase held by a butterfingers of an assessor, fallen like a fish down the gullet of a grizzly. What will happen next? Which show will disappear? Well, who knows, but I have a suspicion that it'll go down like a crossword puzzle before Will Shortz, like a moldy old wood plank in an old house undergoing home improvements, like a constitution before Dick Cheney.

Sunday, October 14:

8:00 - 9:00PM

Nature - “The Good, the Bad, and the Grizzly.” Okay, this I love. This is my kind of title for a show. It's moderately humorous, it tells you exactly what the show is about, and it references a really, really good movie. Go Nature, I applaud you.

9:00 - 10:30PM

Mystery! - “The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Series VI: In the Blink of an Eye”. The death of a paparazzo prompts Lynley and Havers to investigate. In this country I don't think they investigate the death of paparazzo, but they are more civilized there. This is just another reason why England is a place I'd love to live.

10:30 - 11:00PM

Antiques Roadshow FYI– “119.” This is a “magazine-style spin-off” of Antiques Roadshow. They’re going to take a look at some past items that have appeared on the show, along with the owners, and do a whole “where are they now” kind of thing. It just generally sounds like a good time, doesn't it?

Monday, October 15:

8:00 - 9:00PM

Antiques Roadshow - “Philadelphia (Hour Two).” I am hoping someone brings in the Liberty Bell — that, or the Rocky Balboa statue. Seriously, how much fun would that be, watching the appraisers take a look at the Liberty Bell, see the huge crack in it and deem it worth about $100? Good times.

9:00 – 11:00PM

The Mysterious Human Heart – "Endlessly Beating" and "The Spark of Life". The first hour of this two hour extravaganza on an organ which the Grinch had too little of focuses on the muscular aspects of the heart. The second hour, ah, that focuses on the electrical mechanisms that make the whole thing work.

Tuesday, October 16:

8:00 - 9:00PM

Nova - "The Ghost in Your Genes". Tonight's show is going to explore the long-held theory that all our inherited traits are passed on in the genes. Some of the scientists interviewed here think that our environment makes changes to our DNA without affecting a gene's makeup. This totally sounds like something Nova scienceNOW did last year.

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

Visit Josh Lasser's author page — Josh Lasser's Blog