“90210”
Tuesday 8pm, CW
If you’re one of the legions who tuned in for last season’s premiere, and then promptly tuned out because it sucked, I urge you to give this Spellingvision redux another shot. Now in its second season, lessons have been learned, the cast has been tweaked and the show has become infinitely more entertaining. Most of the credit goes to AnnaLynne McCord’s Naomi, who balances her delicious bitch-on-heels diva with surprisingly sympathetic character moments, and the fact that the producers apparently realized that everyone in America hates both the new Brenda-type character, Annie, as well as the irritating actress who plays her. In roughly three episodes they have turned Annie’s life into a living hell involving social ostracism, quasi-date rape, nude photos texted to the entire school and the crushing guilt that she killed a man while driving drunk—and still hasn’t told anyone about it! Fingers crossed that she spontaneously combusts come sweeps.
“Private Practice”
Thursday 10pm, ABC
When last we saw the doctors of Oceanside Wellness, things looked bleak: The business was on the verge of financial ruin, a power struggle left its leader packing up her desk, and one of the staff was fighting for her life after a crazed patient showed up at her doorstep intending to snatch the still-gestating baby right out of her womb. Yikes! The “Grey’s Anatomy” spin-off found its identity in Season 2 by firmly embracing its wilder, soapier elements (not that “Grey’s” isn’t out there—ghost sex, anyone?), and you can look for even more of that as its third season begins tonight.
“Bored to Death”
Sunday 9:30pm, HBO
At first I thought HBO had simply retitled “Entourage” to reflect our nation’s ennui with its go-nowhere premise. But no, the cable net actually has a new comedy, an idiosyncratic little piece about a slacker writer who decides to get out of a massive personal slump by pretending to be a private detective. It stars Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore) as a fictional version of series writer/creator Jonathan Ames, whose love of Raymond Chandler novels leads him into a life of danger, sex and deceit he maybe has no idea how to handle. Also on hand are Ted Danson as Jonathan’s editor boss, Olivia Thirlby as Jonathan’s ex-girlfriend, and the indispensable Zach Galifianakis, who basically does the Zach Galifianakis thing as Jonathan’s comic artist best friend.