“Penn & Teller: Bullshit!”Thursday 10pm, Showtime Tonight’s episode marks the sixth season finale for the comedian team’s documentary series, in which they debunk various cultural myths or political standpoints. In the past season alone the pair has investigated NASA, the green movement, dolphins, world peace and the war on porn; in tonight’s episode, the notion […]

“2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony”Friday 8pm, NBC Oh, I am so excited! Normally I don’t care for sports. Anything with “–ball” on the end typically has me falling into a coma by halftime, or rolling my eyes at the crass commercialism of it all. But the Olympics! The Olympics I get completely geeked out about. […]

“90210”Weeknights 5pm, SOAPNet In case you didn’t know, the CW is going back to West Beverly High this fall with its hotly anticipated spin-off, “90210”—the “Beverly Hills” part was apparently, like, so ’90s. We’ll have to wait until September to see how the new class shapes up (here’s a promising tidbit: Jessica Walters, the magnificent […]

“So You Think You Can Dance”Wednesday 8pm, Thursday 9pm, Fox Like its singing sibling “American Idol,” the 2008 edition of this dancing competition has been largely disappointing. There have been a few bright notes—that Bollywood number a few weeks ago, some amazing Mia Michaels routines—but the dancers that made the Top 20 were, for the […]

“Hurl!”Tuesday 9pm, G4 We can all agree that boys are stupid, right? In case you need further proof, I give to you “Hurl!”, the new game show launched by G4, the TV network dedicated to videogames. “Hurl!” combines two incredibly stupid things—eating competitions and nausea-inducing physical challenges—to create a perfect storm of stupid…and a compulsively […]

“Greatest American Dog”Thursday 8pm, CBS A couple years ago, Bravo aired a show called “Showdog Moms & Dads.” It followed the lives of aspiring pet entertainers and their talented canines, and it was spectacularly crazy, climaxing with a harried Hispanic woman explaining to the cameras that her ill-tempered pet Chihuahua kept biting her in the […]

“Secret Life of the American Teenager”Tuesday 8pm, ABC FamilyDid you like Juno? Of course you did. So now here comes Hollywood to force lesser clones of the indie smash down your throat, starting with this new series on the increasingly edgy ABC Family. But wait—there is good news. While this is another story of a […]

“I Survived a Japanese Game Show”Tuesday 9pm, ABC There’s a great episode of “The Simpsons” where the family gets stranded in Japan and, to earn plane fare home, they subject themselves to the unspeakable humiliations of a Japanese game show. I’m guessing the producers of this series saw that one, since this is pretty much […]

“Flipping Out”Tuesday 10pm, Bravo This show follows the fortunes of Jeff Lewis, an L.A. house flipper who buys undervalued properties, renovates them and then quickly sells them for millions of dollars. He’s also a major drama queen. Although his business ventures generate their fair share of sturm und drang, people really tune in to watch […]