By Dean Robbins
The Oscars won’t suck
I say this every year, but I really think the “Academy Awards” will be better than usual (Sunday, 7 p.m., ABC). The producers are reportedly studying past disasters to weed out the deadliest elements, and hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are sure to be an improvement over last year’s Hugh Jackman.
After watching January’s Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award ceremonies, we can be pretty sure who will win the Oscars, but we can also be pretty sure that the acceptance speeches will be entertaining. Best Supporting Actress Monique will have everyone crying, Best Director James Cameron will have everyone gagging and Best Actress Sandra Bullock (or, I hope, Meryl Streep) will have everyone laughing.
The only train wreck will be Best Actor Jeff Bridges, so brilliant onscreen in “Crazy Heart” but so scattered in his acceptance speeches so far. Maybe he just needs some talented screenwriter to pen him a few lines. He can come to the podium in character as “eloquent Jeff Bridges.”
‘Southland’
Tuesday, 9 p.m. (TNT)
This gritty L.A. cop show premiered on NBC in spring 2009 and got picked up for fall. But NBC canceled it at the last minute, before the second-season premiere in October. The network reportedly found “Southland” too gritty.
A more likely reason is that NBC found “Southland” too artful. The series features overlapping, emotionally challenging storylines, with no music, sentimentality or easy narrative connectors to cushion the experience for viewers. It’s a better fit for cable, and TNT deserves our thanks for picking up the series’ unaired episodes.
“I had a horrible day,” a detective tells his wife after a messed-up stakeout.
Luckily, his horrible day makes for a wonderful hour of TV for the rest of us. CV
