life with more cowbell

Catching my breath from the live performances to enjoy stories on the tube, especially as the networks are starting to broadcast new episodes after the holiday break.

Even more exciting than the return to old favourites is the appearance of season two of Downton Abbey on PBS and season one of Rizzoli and Isles on Showcase.

Rizzoli and Isles premiered on Showcase last week and continues tonight at 10 p.m. (which means I’ll have to PVR Body of Proof or catch it on demand). The show is set in Boston, and stars Angie Harmon as rough and tumble, tomboyish homicide detective Jane Rizzoli (with Lorraine Bracco as her mom!) and Sasha Alexander as refined, girly ME Maura Isles. Great fun – and loaded with girl power. Check it out at: http://www.showcase.ca/shows/showspage.aspx?Root_Title_Id=265851

Downton Abbey had its two-hour season two premiere on PBS on Sunday night. And when I say two-hour, I mean straight through, no commercials – which is great for viewing but not so much for bathroom breaks. SPOILERS AHEAD: Season two picks up two years after the end of season one, in 1916. Matthew and Thomas are at the front, while back at Downton, Lord Grantham and young William long for a piece of the action. Lady Edith surprises when she decided to learn how to drive, then ends up driving a tractor to help out a local farmer whose hired hands have gone off to war. Lady Sybil decides to go into nursing training, much to the chagrin of Cora, who is loath to let her baby grow up. Mr. Bates and Anna have their marriage plans thwarted when Bates’s bitchy wife (played by Marie Doyle Kennedy) decides to not grant Bates a divorce and generally make his life a living hell by blackmailing him into quitting his job and coming back to her (she’s caught wind of Lady Mary’s secret scandal). And Matthew is engaged, while Mary decides on a recent marriage proposal to a questionable, self-made rich gentleman who has some kind of connection to Matthew’s fiancée. All very mysterious. You gotta love it. Click here for details: http://www.pbs.org/

Seen anything exciting on the tube lately?