Shark
Week returns to eat us alive
Discovery's Shark Week has been thriving for 20-plus years with its annual
look at great white shark attacks. To remain successful, Shark Week needs to
sustain our hysteria about getting bitten by a great white, despite the overwhelmingly
low odds.
This year's kickoff program, "Great White Invasion" (Sunday, 8 p.m.),
tries to convince us that "all over the world, great whites are coming
closer to shore." As the narrator warns, "We think of great whites
as living far out in the ocean and distant from people. BUT NOTHING COULD BE
FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!"
OK, I admit to being frightened by that idea, but will it frighten me again
next year? Probably not, and that's why Shark Week will have to up the ante
yet again. I wouldn't be surprised to see a program entitled "Don't Look
Now, But a Great White Shark Is Lifting the Latch on Your Bedroom Window…"
‘Rescue Me'
Wednesday, 9 p.m. (FX)
Denis Leary's NYC firefighter dramedy is as good as ever in its final season.
This week, Leary's character, hothead Tommy Gavin, is on edge due to a TV station
interviewing him about 9/11 for a mawkish 10th anniversary feature. Tommy gets
increasingly annoyed by the reporter's dumb questions and finally loses it when
she asks, "What would have been a happy ending on that day?"
"There are no happy endings," Tommy hisses.
Given all the misery in this episode, it's hard to imagine a happy ending for
"Rescue Me." But who knows — things could turn around by the
Sept. 7 finale. I sure hope they do. CV
