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IGYPRH wrote that if Eli Stone wasn’t the best examination of faith on TV, he’d sell his TiVo. Well, he can keep his TiVo, but Eli Stone does have some fairly strong competition in Saving Grace, the cable, female version of Eli Stone. TNT’s drama (Mondays, 10/9pmC) is now in its second season, and it’s still as strong as was when it made its first splash last summer.
Grace has its flaws. It’s yet another police procedural, one part Law & Order and one part CSI. It tries way too hard sometimes to be hip, and Holly Hunter isn’t kidding anyone. She’s 50, and she looks it, no matter how skinny she is and how many times she has to punch guys out for coming on too strong. Most jarring is the bar scenes when there’s way too much laughter and not enough real dialogue to reveal what the people behind the caricatures.
But despite all this, the acting is generally very good. The supporting characters aren’t as interesting as Eli Stone’s supporting cast, but the actors do their jobs well despite a lack of material. Holly Hunter is an Academy Award-winning actress, and she shows why here. Finally, of course, the premise is compelling. Grace is much more unwilling to respond to her George Michael, in this case an angel named Earl, but that’s what keeps this imperfect but interesting show worth watching.
We’re about halfway through the summer, but the regular fall TV season probably won’t be starting for real for a couple of months (only CBS has announced its premiere schedule as far as I can tell). So, how should your TiVo busy until then? I’ll give you a few suggestions over the next week or so.
But there’s never really been a show like Eli Stone. 
On the other (good) end of the doesn’t-suck spectrum was Bravo’s “Step It Up and Dance.” Say what you will about the gays, but you HAVE to agree that they generally make for good TV (see: Project Runway), and SIUAD has got a (nother) gregarious gaggle of them on their hands.
With the rise of original cable programming and with traditional networks buying up those cable networks over the last 
10-15 years, it was inevitable that some of the best cable shows would begin to appear on the broadcast (for now) networks. Sex and the City moved from premium cable to basic cable, and that opened the door for the current steady trickle of shows. Three major hits have or will be making appearances on their parent networks’ airwaves soon, Monk, Psych, and Dexter.
I saw an advance screening of the movie ”Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” last night. It’s a film put together by intellectual heavyweight/gameshow host, Ben Stein. Seriously, this guy is brilliant, and hilarious. Generally speaking, the film attempts to challenge the academic elitist establishment for attacking our freedom. Specifically, the film sets out to debunk Darwin’s theory of evolution, and exposes certain scientists who have been blacklisted for even talking about the concept of Intelligent Design. The movie was compelling, but I couldn’t always keep my finger on why it was. Was it because of the clever humor dropped in at just the right moments (usually in the form of old movie, or instructional film footage)? Yes. Was it because there really seems to be a problem with certain scientists being fired from their jobs for expressing even the possibility of A. I.? 
Doomsday - starring Kate Beckinsale look-alike newcomer Rhona Mitra, Doomsday promises that at the very least you will see lots of stuff blow up and lots of people and/or zombies die. 
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