THIS WEEK’S TOP TV TIPS
SUNDAY
The 86th Annual Academy Awards Better known as The Oscars,
Ellen DeGeneres will once again host the ceremonies coming live from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. Leading the pack with 10 nominations each are Gravity and American Hustle, followed
by 12 Years a Slave starring Britains’ Chiwetel Ejiofor. Pharrell Williams and Idina Menzel are slated to
perform.
ABC, CTV
MONDAY
Bates Motel / Those Who Kill
There are two notable entries from A&E tonight. First up is Bates Motel – the prequel to Alfred Hitch
cock’s Psycho — back for its second season with Norman ( Freddie Highmore) unable to stop thinking about Miss Watson’s ( Kee
gan Connor Tracy) death.
That’s followed by the new crime drama, Those Who
Kill, based on a Danish series and starring Chloe
Sevigny as Catherine Jensen, a homicide detective. Together with her partner, forensic psychologist Thomas Schaeffer (James
D’Arcy), she tracks down serial killers in Pittsburgh.
A&E
Almost Human
It’s the season one finale for this crime drama featuring Michael Ealy as Dorian, the android partner of Det. Kennex ( Karl Urban). The series is set thirty years into the future, when policing has become so dangerous every cop is assigned an android to help protect them. In the season finale, Kennex and Dorian investigate a string of murders by a copycat of the serial killer who had been put in jail by Kennex’s father (guest star John Diehl) years earlier. As the investigation proceeds, biotechnology from the future sheds light on crimes of the past.
Fox, Global
TUESDAY
About a Boy This new sitcom, based on
Nick Hornby‘ s 1998 novel, stars Minnie Driver as a selfrighteous, single mother of Marcus ( Benjamin Stock
ham) who moves from England to San Francisco and butts heads with her new neighbour, Will ( Dave
Walton). The novel also saw the light of day as a movie starring Hugh Grant back in 2002. In tonight’s episode, Will opts to spend the evening with Marcus after his plans for a guys’ night out fall apart.
NBC
WEDNESDAY
Big Brother Canada
Arisa Cox is back as host for the second season of this homegrown reality TV show that earned a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Cross-Platform Project in a season that saw online fans stream over one million hours of video. New this season is the Big Brother Canada Side Show, hosted by Cox, which airs Thursdays following each eviction episode. Season one houseguests Gary Levy and
Peter Brown will participate in the Side Show.
Slice
THURSDAY
Motive When it debuted last year, this new ‘whydunit’ scripted series was an instant hit, with its format of revealing the killer and victim at the beginning of each of the 13 episodes, and then working out why the crime was committed. Returning as Det. Oscar Vega is Louis Ferreira, with Kristin Lehman co-starring as Det. Angie Flynn. New this season is Mark Cross ( Warren Christie) as the team’s confident new commander who has a past with Flynn that she would prefer to leave behind her. In the premiere, the detectives investigate an apparent suicide who may have had some unwanted help ending his life.
CTV
Spun Out Also hailing from the CTV network is this new comedy that follows the ups and downs of a public relations agency staffed with people who can spin everyone’s problems but their own. Their client’s problems are no match for the workplace rivalries, successes and hys- terical failures of this dysfunctional group. Heading up the cast is Kids in the Hall’s Dave Foley, along with Paul Campbell and Rebecca Dalton. CTV
Community Maybe having so many sitcoms on Thursday is designed to get us through to the weekend. In tonight’s new episode of the sitcom set in Greendale community college, two designers betatest a new networking app, and a battle for top ranking breaks out with Jeff ( Joel McHale) and Shirley ( Yvette
Nicole Brown) in the thick
of it. Hickey ( Jonathan Banks) wisely decides to go underground until it blows over.
NBC, City
FRIDAY
The Next Step Back for a second season, this dance-filled drama follows the lives of an elite group of young performers who train at the Next Step Studio. The premiere kicks off on a high note with the team having just won the regional competition, but the joy is shortlived when the A-Troupe learn they must re-audition with other hopefuls in order to make the studio’s national team. The scripted show stars Brittany Raymond as Riley and
Trevor Tordjman as James. Family Channel
Shark Tank Tensions are high in this new episode in which Mark
Cuban’s has an angry response to a engineer’s pitch for a bicycle lighting system and a mother is brought to tears by the reaction to her line of clothing for crawling babies. And while it may not change the world, an inventor from Rochester pitches a line of modular shoelaces that allows people to customize their running shoes.
ABC