Weekend Preview: The Premieres of 'The Newsroom' and 'The Great Escape'

The Newsroom/True Blood (HBO, Sunday) – I tend to give Aaron Sorkin the benefit of the doubt because he wrote A Few Good Men and The Social Network, which are two movies I can watch just about any time they’re on cable. That said, I don’t know if you guys have read some of the reviews for “The Newsroom,” but a lot of them have been, uh, not glowing. Yikes.

Falling Skies/The Great Escape (TNT, Sunday) – Series premiere of “The Great Escape.” The reality series pits three teams of two against each other in a race to get out of whatever location they’re in for that episode, with the premiere taking place in Alcatraz. If one of the teams isn’t Nicolas Cage and Sean Connery, I am going to be incredibly disappointed.

Common Law (USA, Friday) – This show is basically every cop show you’ve ever seen, but instead of the chief being a gruff hardass, he’s a former gruff hardass who got into therapy and zen and hippie stuff. That is literally everything you need to know about this show.

Comedy Bang! Bang!/Bunk (IFC, Friday) – Tonight’s episode of “Comedy Bang! Bang!” features Jon Hamm, as well as Nick Kroll (Ruxin from “The League”) in character as a Mexican radio DJ named El Chupacabra. They teamed up for one of my favorite bits on the podcast, so I’m really looking forward to it.

Motive & Murders/Evil, I (ID, Friday) – People who spend their Friday nights watching this stuff terrify me.

Redneck Island (CMT, Saturday) – The biggest letdown about “Redneck Island” is that it is not a sequel to Whiskey Business starring Pauly Shore where everyone in Shinbone goes on vacation together. Please, CMT. I need more of that in my life immediately.

The Glades/Longmire (A&E, Sunday) – What’s the deal with these shows? Are we watching them or not? I suppose technically it’s my job to answer that question, but I don’t have one, so here’s a GIF of Prince from Purple Rain:

GIF via

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