“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 that there was any such thing as “the good old days.” The show can be fascinating, but also infuriating. The staunch libertarians can sometimes dismiss arguments that perfectly reasonable (read: liberal) Americans espouse, and some of the “experts” that back up their biases are occasionally dubious. Plus, Penn’s smug voiceovers can tapdance right on your last nerve (and if you saw him on “Dancing with the Stars,” you know how bad his dancing can be).
“The Cho Show”
Thursday 11pm, VH1
Margaret Cho is kind of awesome. I’ve seen her stand-up act live, and can attest that she is a riot. A filthy, filthy riot. She’s also a pioneer, the first Asian-American to get her own TV show (the short-lived “All-American Girl”), and a celebrity who has been open about her struggles within and without the Asian community as well as her fluid sexuality and body size issues. Now she’s getting her own show a la Kathy Griffin’s “Life on the D-List,” and here’s hoping it turns out better than her last one. It certainly looks funnier, as it features Cho, her gay attendants, her diminutive assistant, and her adorable parents, plus appearances by her comedian friends, like Joan Rivers and Wanda Sykes. This season, look for Cho to make an attention-baiting sex tape, and go off the grid with her crew, only to run into a forest-dwelling Gary Busey.
“America’s Toughest Job”
Monday 9pm, NBC
If you enjoy educational docu-shows like “Deadliest Catch” or “Ice Road Truckers,” this might be the competitive reality show for you. The producer of both of those gems is behind this new one, in which 13 contestants leave their cushy jobs to try their hands at some of the more rigorous gigs out there. So you’ve got Wall Street brokers, school teachers, karate instructors, and a former cage fighter being put to work crab fishing, digging for gold, manning an oil rig, and more. Each week they take on a new task, and each week one is sent packing based on job performance and what their co-workers think about them. Whoever’s left gets the communal salary pot.
