An extreme game show that combines elements of Survivor, Weakest Link and Fear Factor, Dog Eat Dog just lies there, misproportioned and inert, like a Frankenstein that starts at the top with Anne Robinson's head and ends with Jeff Probst's socks and hiking boots.
Six contestants, vying for a $25,000 prize, first get acquainted in some sort of daylong boot camp (shown to us only in brief glimpses), where they assess each other's aptitude for trivia and physical skill. Once on the set, a cavern of blue steel that looks like the Batcave redone as a fitness club, they thin their ranks with brief endurance challenges involving balancing, climbing, swimming and so on. In a final trivia round the contestants (at least in the first two shows) all but collapse under the strain of having to exercise their brains. Even under the gun would you guess that Secretary of State Colin Powell has already done stints as President and Vice President?
The one half-decent thing here is the game's host, former Baywatch babe Brooke Burns. Smooth, shapely and blonde, she keeps the activities moving along with the smiling efficiency of a laboratory assistant who hasn't been informed that the experiment has already failed.
Bottom Line: Junkyard Dog
A Warrior's Journey
AMC (Tues., July 2, 8 p.m. ET)
Show of the week
When he died of a brain edema at age 32 in 1973, martial-arts superstar Bruce Lee left behind 33 minutes of footage—three fight scenes—for what was to have been his last, self-directed project, Game of Death. (A late-'70s movie by that title used 11 minutes of the old footage and Lee stunt doubles.) Lee envisioned a story of almost classical simplicity: Recruited to recover a treasure from a pagoda, he fights his way up, floor by floor, at each stage overcoming a warrior exemplifying a different style of fighting. This 90-minute documentary, which veers toward monotonous piety when laying out Lee's philosophy of life, combat, whatever, concludes with all three fights—including the climax, in which Lee faces off against basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who had been one of Lee's private students). This tightly choreographed but lightly comic mayhem is the work of a giant talent who knew what he wanted from himself and his camera at every second.
Bottom Line: A true martial artist
Court TV (Wednesdays, 10 p.m. ET)
Dunne, who routinely chronicles low doings in high society for Vanity Fair, hosts this hourlong documentary show that examines real-life criminal cases among blue bloods and arrivistes. In the second of six scheduled episodes, for instance, a horse-country billionairess claims self-defense in the fatal shooting of her lover, a polo player. This doesn't sit well with the police, who conclude that the victim was chowing through breakfast at the time of death. Dunne takes us through the murders at a brisk clip, pausing to express his thin-lipped disapproval of the way these ruthless rich people try to wriggle free of the barbed hook of justice. It's a bit tacky, what with video clips of women wearing tiaras at Palm Beach balls, but that's what makes it fun—at least for hoi polloi.
Bottom Line: Death styles of the rich and famous
Showtime (Fridays, 10 p.m. ET)
One minute the Earth is a blue-and-green marble, sitting implacably in the deep indigo of the universe. The next minute, fiery smoke rolls across the continents. The entire planet collapses into a whirlpool of pulverized matter and vanishes. The only survivors are the five members of a shuttle crew who witness the cataclysm while floating above the stratosphere on a routine mission. Adrift in space, they are rescued by a sage old alien, who appears to them in the guise of a British gentleman named the Seeker.
That's the opening narrative chunk of Odyssey 5, and it's a beaut. But then the Seeker sends the crew, headed by soft-spoken, sunken-eyed Peter Weller, back in time to detect and prevent the disaster. The team picks up the trail of a vast conspiracy, something to do with genetics, the Internet and a surly creature being nursed in blue amniotic goo in an old warehouse. Odyssey suddenly feels like a return trip to The X-Files.
Bottom Line: The truth is already out there
Sunday, June 30 WORLD CUP CHAMPIONSHIP ABC (6:30 a.m. ET) For soccer fans willing to rise and shine, the title match airs live from Yokohama, Japan.
Monday, July 1 SO GRAHAM NORTON BBC America (11 p.m. ET) Uninhibited British talk show hosted by Irishman Graham Norton. Guest: Dolly Parton.
Tuesday, July 2 THE THIRSTY TRAVELER Food Network (10:30 p.m. ET) Spirited new series tours the world's vineyards and breweries.
Wednesday, July 3 THE ULTIMATE GUIDE: FIREWORKS Discovery (9 p.m. ET) The history of an art that has enjoyed a boom for centuries.
Thursday, July 4 A CAPITOL FOURTH PBS (check local listings) Holiday concert from Washington, D.C. With Aretha Franklin and Chuck Berry.
Friday, July 5 MIRRORBALL Comedy Central (7 p.m. ET) Ab Fab's Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley team up in a special about a couple of down-on-their-luck actresses.
Saturday, July 6 DREAMCHASERS A&E (8 p.m. ET) A cargo pilot jumping off a waterfall and other folk pursuing outlandish goals. Series debut.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
