On the TV, May 5

Posted by: Antalya  •  May 5, 2008 @ 5:54pm

8:00 PM

• the big bang theory on CBS

• bones on FOX

• dancing with the stars on ABC

• gossip girl on CW

• greek on ABC FAMILY

8:30 PM

• how i met your mother on CBS

9:00 PM

• cities of the underworld: secret soviet bases on HISTORY

• dirty jobs on DISCOVERY

• house on FOX

• jon and kate plus eight on TLC

• one tree hill on CW

• two and a half men on CBS

• wildfire on ABC FAMILY

9:30 PM

• rules of engagement on CBS

9:32 PM

• samantha who? on ABC

10:00 PM

• csi: miami on CBS

• medium on NBC

10:30 PM

• the paper on MTV

TCM watch: Tonight at 9:30 pm, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (an aging military man looks back on the loves and friends who shaped his life) and I Know Where I'm Going (a determined young Englishwoman, played by Wendy Hiller, sets out to accomplish her goals even at the risk of her heart) at 12:30 am. Starting tomorrow morning, there will be a marathon of Rudolph Valentino movies, so if you've ever wondered what all the fuss was about, now's a good chance to find out. Some of the scheduled movies include Stolen Moments (love turns a young innocent into a blackmail victim and murder suspect) at 7:15 am, The Conquering Power (a young man falls for his wicked uncle's stepdaughter) at 9:15 am, and The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (a young Argentine fights for France, his father's country, in World War I) at 10:45 am.

I push silent movies pretty hard, here and elsewhere, and I admit I find them fascinating, no matter how good or bad they are. Particularly, it interests me how strongly the early talkies were influenced by silent movies, and how gradually they eased away from those techniques and movies slowly evolved into, well, Iron Man and Baby Mama and Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. I'm no expert, by any means, but it's all related, innit? It frustrates me when people dismiss older movies because the style of acting or the way they were written seems too broad, too melodramatic, but I firmly believe that, say, Katharine Hepburn would have been one of the finest actors of her time no matter when she had been born. She would have adapted, as the movies did.

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