TV Surveillance

Ah, sweeps. The time of the year that networks pull out all stops – event programming, stunt casting, major deaths – is both good and bad for television.

Sure, it brings us some really gripping television – like a character’s death last week on “FlashForward” – but it also introduces us to clear ratings-grab material – like the triple cross-over event between the “CSI:” programs – that usually sucks.   
Here are four programs that will use the ratings-bait period to improve not only their numbers, but their stories as well.

What to watch

SHOW: House
EPISODE: “Teamwork”
WHEN: 8 p.m. Monday on FOX

The writers haven’t been able to keep the quality as high for the rest of the season as they did for the amazing two-hour movie-like premiere, but it has been nice to see the old gang back together, right. Well, get ready to be pissed, because this episode sees one of the original cast members leave the hospital and the show for good. Though the move feels a little suspicious, hopefully it means even bigger things for the other team member who’s closest to the one departing.  



SHOW: The Prisoner
EPISODE: “Arrival” through “Checkmate”
WHEN: 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday on AMC

This mini-series remake of the uber-classic 1967 British program of the same name features an impressive cast – Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel – and looks to be aiming for a similar trippiness, but we know how these things usually go. But come on, Mad Men is over, it’s only six hours and at least it seems ambitious (which is more than you can say for most mini-series).  It surely won’t touch the original, but it will be fun to see Gandalf and Jesus go head-to-head for three days.

What to DVR

SHOW: Glee
EPISODE: “Ballad”
WHEN: 9 p.m. Wednesday on FOX

This over-the-top, kinetic newbie treats every week like sweeps week, with its breakneck-paced stories and intense drama. Though I was initially skeptical whether Ryan Murphy and his team could keep up the infectiousness seen in the pilot from week-to-week, Glee has completely won me over, even if the adult conflict interests me more than whatever goofy hijinks are happening with the students. 

SHOW: Melrose Place
EPISODE: “Cahuenga”
WHEN: 9 p.m. Tuesday on the CW

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the Melrose Place  reboot isn’t awful. Sure, most of the cast cannot act a lick, the plots are ridiculous and the murder mystery didn’t go over as well as the writers hoped, but there’s reason for hope: Heather Locklear is back and this episode sees her resume the role that made her famous in the ’90s, which means she’ll go toe-to-toe with the only current cast member who has any chops: Katie Cassidy. Plus, to make room for Locklear, Ashlee Simpson Wentz was fired and the murder mystery has been solved.  

Rant of the week

I feel like I’m beating this dead horse too much already, but if there was any question whether or not Mad Men was the best program on television, last Sunday’s finale squashed it. After making us dwell impatiently with the Drapers and their marital issues for most of the season while a number of the Sterling Cooper standbys got the shaft, “Mad Men” mastermind Matthew Weiner made up for it in what has to be the quickest-paced and coolest hour of the program ever.

It’s a testament to Weiner and his writing staff that they can craft both extremely slow and difficult-to-watch efforts like last week’s JFK-assassination-centric hour and then just blast viewers with a legitimately feel-good finale that many are relating to a heist film. As last week’s episode played out like a more suffocating “Revolutionary Road,” the finale zoomed along like “Ocean’s Eleven”– and both were great.