I couldn’t help myself. Despite having already extolled the many virtues of Top Gear a couple months ago, Monday night’s episode was too good to pass up. By the bye, if you’ve never seen this BBC America institution, you’re missing out. It has action, intrigue, comedy and steel smashing into more steel. What’s not to like? It has quickly become one of my favorite shows on television. The best part is you don’t have to be a car enthusiast to enjoy its many charms.

Normally, a sixty-minute episode will feature a couple segments that are ho-hum in nature. Not on Monday. The whole damn affair was brill. The masked driver known simply as, “The Stig” — whom I neglected to mention in my earlier review — had the pleasure of test-driving a posh Lexus IS F. He shredded the track, which is nothing new, and sold me on the Lexus’ four-door power. Too bad I can only afford a Ford Festiva.

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I’ve reviewed a number of good shows already here at the Babble. BBC America doesn’t appear to be slowing down, as they have a host of new series, movies and fresh seasons of established faves on tap for 2009. Here’s a quick preview of what’s in store for the coming months.

• Mistresses – Debuts this Friday night at 8pm. Its normal time slot will be Fridays at 9pm. Four 30-something friends ponder their relationship woes. They all share one thing in common: infidelity. Looks like a Brit version of Sex and the City. Let’s hope it’s not as obnoxious. I’ll give it a watch and do a more extensive review down the road.

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You would think after running for 11 seasons I would have seen Top Gear, but it wasn’t until a a couple months ago that I caught a few episodes of this highly entertaining motor show. I’m glad I did because I dig exotic cars and the Brits’ dry sense of humor. Top Gear has plenty of both, so count me as a new fan of this oldie-but-goodie BBC America staple.

Lead host Jeremy Clarkson has been with the series since 1988. At 6′5″, Clarkson is an imposing figure with an unquenchable thirst for speed. Co-hosts Richard Hammond and James May join Clarkson in a bevy of asphalt hi-jinks. Together, these three auto aficionados span the globe in search of the fastest factory manufactured sports cars. In addition, they pick at each other like bickering brothers, but it’s all good-natured rowing.

After the jump, I’ll take a peek under the hood of this high throttled show. Fasten your seatbelts. Read the rest of this entry »

So we’ve been doing these ‘Tonight on the Tube’ articles for awhile. Occasionally we even get a comment from you guys about a particular show you watch or are excited about. But all in all these go down pretty quietly. Are you liking them? Do you find them helpful? Too wordy? Not informative enough? This is your blog and we want this particular feature to benefit you as much as possible.

As such, we’re going to start experimenting with how we present this information to you. Do you want to see a full listing of what’s new on television tonight, or would you rather we use this space to spotlight a few key episodes or specials? Maybe you don’t want any of that and would prefer a basic list. Or maybe you just want me to ramble on about my belly button lint for five or six hundred words. And I can totally do that. Today it was the brightest blue you ever saw. Really, I should knit a sweater with it.

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8:00p/7:00 Central

• Cuddy moves in with House on FOX?! It’s not like that; her house is just being worked on; but you know it’s like that. Oh, and someone’s dying and only House can save them. But you knew that.
• The investigation into a petty officer’s death leads CBS’s NCIS team into the world of underground street fighting. It’s domestic squabbling on Lifetime’s Rita Rocks at the half hour.
• Tyra Banks is on hand for the big “makeover” installment of NBC’s The Biggest Loser. MyNetwork TV has the 2008 World Music Awards, while BBC America is offering up a “Winter Olympics” special edition of Top Gear, followed by Gavin & Stacey at 8:40p/7:40 Central.

9:00p/8:00 Central

• Mike Rowe gets to see what life is like as a maggot farmer on Discovery’s Dirty Jobs. History takes a look at “Sex in Space” on The Universe. With “Sex” in the title, it’ll probably be the highest-rated episode of the entire series so far. And ECW is new on Sci Fi.
• Jane goes undercover on CBS’s The Mentalist to see if a National Guard unit member is killing the rest of his unit. A crook who winds up embedded in a vault wall turns out to be after something of Walter’s on FOX’s Fringe.
• But none of that really matters because tonight is the one hour season premiere of According to Jim on ABC. Oh how we’ve missed you, Jim Belushi. Tonight, a Christmas blankie goes missing, as does Cheryl’s best friend. It’s up to Jim to save the day!

10:00p/9:00 Central

• The name of TruTV’s Rehab: Party at the Hard Rock Hotel just seems an oxymoron to me. There’s so much reality this hour it’s not funny … it’s reality. Like the third season premiere of The Bad Girls Club on Oxygen, now expanded to a full hour and promising a whole new crew of women with bad habits that are hindering their lives.
• How about BET’s Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is? Or do you prefer Health’s Deliver Me? There’s also Lifetime’s Blush: The Search for the Next Great Make-Up Artist, Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Orange County, A&E’s The Rookies: Tampa, Animal Planet’s Living With the Wolfman season finale, History’s Extreme Trains, and BET’s Brothers to Brutha at the half hour.
• It’s the season finale of Paris Hilton’s My New BFF on MTV. Find out which person she picks to be her new best friend for as long as the cameras are still running. I’m sure she’s already bored. Maybe she’ll put them on Sci Fi’s Cha$e, and send her henchmen after them to kill them for her amusement.
• Just for fun, the Discovery Channel has put together a show extrapolating what could happen should a massive earthquake hit the nation’s most populous city on Sci-Trek: New York Earthquake. Just for fun!
• William Shatner has his own talk show. The man just keeps on going! Now, I love me some Shat, so expect this to be pretty damned entertaining. In tonight’s back-to-back premiere he sits down with Valerie Bertinelli and Tim Allen on Biography’s Shatner’s Raw Nerve.
• NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit looks at a rape case. I know, right?! Still, this case stirs up memories from Det. Benson’s past. It’s just a missing doctor on CBS’s Without a Trace. Not nearly as dramatic.
• Eli Stone’s visions have him in his father’s body on his brother’s birthday, but it all ties into his case. He’s trying to help a sixteen-year old boy emancipate himself from his powerful and intimidating father on ABC’s visionary, musical and probably canceled (they didn’t pick up the back-half order) show.

11:00p/10:00 Central

• You know what I want to see on MTV’s Paris Hilton’s My New BFF reunion special? I want them to trot out the winner and have Paris say, “Who are you?”
• A&E is back with an hour of The Rookies: Jefferson because they were feeling slighted after an hour of Tampa. And WE looks at Cosmetic Surgery from Hell, and believe you me there’s been some nasty looking results out there. Have you seen “the cat lady?”
• TBS has a new Frank TV as well. I really want that show to be better than it is because I like Frank Calliendo. He’s great at impressions and he seems like a really nice guy. Maybe he just needs some better writers. It has its moments, but not enough of them.

NBC

The new fall season kicks it into high gear tonight with no less than nine series or season premieres. With so many good shows on at the same time on Monday nights, I’m ready for the proposed staggered schedule to begin. Thank god for DVRs and online streaming. With the return of CBS’s comedy Monday as well as the much anticipated third season launch of Heroes, you’ve already got a big night of television. But that’s not all!

Heroes is hoping to rebound from a lackluster and strike shortened sophomore slump. This third volume, entitled “Villains” looks to up the stakes and possibly bring powers to previously unpowered fan-favorites (HRG? Suresh?). It’s a bit much to have a pre-premiere red carpet show for a drama show, but I guess NBC doesn’t really have any other major buzz shows to hang their hats on anymore, do they? And if Heroes doesn’t reconnect this year, the network could be in big trouble. Check out the full listings after the jump.

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