BY TOM GLIATTO
REALITY
Now launched on its 12th go-round, this time in Panama instead of Guatemala or Pulau Tiga, Survivor can't altogether avoid giving off a whiff of Groundhog Day inevitability. Immunity will be won or lost. Players will huddle in the rain or heat and whisper about alliances. It wouldn't be any great shock if Richard Hatch trudged into view with a speared fish, although his recent tax troubles may prevent that.
Yet the show still sucks you in. Format tweaks help—this season a player is temporarily exiled every week to a minuscule island, where a special immunity idol has been hidden—but the draw continues to be the players. They're expertly selected to keep generating fresh eddies of drama. A sinewy old astronaut forms a friendship pact with an ex-fighter pilot while a club promoter practically tears himself to pieces along the beach: He misses his three-pack-a-day habit. That's one tough immunity challenge, bucko.
SECOND LOOK
SCI FI
Invasion arrived last fall with a badly timed ungainliness, like a Martian emerging from a spaceship with Ugg boots on its tentacled feet. The show, about a vast alien conspiracy touching down in a small town in coastal Florida, began with a hurricane. Unfortunately, this was right after Katrina. But in the months since, Invasion has taken hold as one of prime time's best dramas, period: a mysterious, densely nuanced show that creeps through a swamp of big issues like community and identity. Ooooh! The alien force has somehow claimed victims of the storm and transformed them into—what are they? Hybrids? Replicants? A headache for Homeland Security? The most thoughtful of these mutants, a doctor named Dr. Mariel Underlay, has struggled to decipher the point at which her original self stops and a million little pieces of ET DNA begin. Episode after episode, Kari Matchett has handled this struggle with delicate coolness. It's my favorite performance on any show.
One hitch: Invasion will be retreating for a month or so in late March, giving way to the new series The Evidence.
Sci Fi Channel (Feb. 25, 9 p.m. ET)
SCI FI
Days after the President warned us to cut oil consumption, we have this TV movie that imagines a fresh fuel—volcanic heat, produced domestically. In Manhattan! Hired by a politician who wants this new energy source to launch his run for mayor, a scientist drills deep into the earth. And lo, the earth burps up fire. It's really dumb, but fun, with lava erupting in Queens.
Professional lumberjack and logroller Tina Scheer, 45, the first to be voted out of Panama, never shared her full story with the castaways. Originally picked for Survivor: Guatemala last year, she was preparing for her trip South when her 16-year-old son, Charlie, died in a car crash. Filming in Panama last fall, "the women were like, "Do you have children?' I said, "No.' I didn't want it to be a factor." Back home in Wisconsin, the divorcée will soon get back into her lumber sports. "Am I going to spend my life in despair? No. I will attack everything I can with great fervor in Charlie's honor."
General Hospital (ABC, Feb. 20, 3 p.m. ET) Rick Springfield already came back to Port Charles—and now here comes Emma Samms, gone since 1993.
SpongeBob SquarePants (Nickelodeon, Feb. 20, 8 p.m. ET) A time-travel episode puts Bob and Patrick back in medieval times.
DMC: My Adoption Journey (VH1, Feb. 25, 9 p.m. ET) Documentary about hip-hop star Darryl "DMC" McDaniels and his search for his biological parents.
Twins (WB, Feb. 24, 9:30 p.m. ET) Nick Lachey, a.k.a. Mr. Eligible, guest-stars as a former underwear model.
Lost (ABC, Feb. 22, 9 p.m. ET) For the baffled, a catch-up course: the first two episodes from last season.
The Real World: Key West (MTV, Feb. 28, 10 p.m. ET) Season 17 turns out to be hurricane season too.
GREY'S ANATOMY: SEASON ONE (2 discs, $29.99) Snappy writing, an appealing cast and a heap of soapsuds characterize this hit series on which surgical interns and supervising docs (love that Dr. McDreamy) bed each other between treating patients. Extras: Juicy commentary by Grey creator Shonda Rhimes. Series:
GROWING PAINS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (4 discs, $29.98) The sitcom that introduced us to the Seaver clan (psychiatrist dad, reporter wife, three kids) also launched cutie-pie Kirk Cameron to heartthrob status. Extras: Includes a cast reunion in which the TV family croons the theme song ("As Long as We Got Each Other") beside a campfire. It's hokey, but kinda sweet. Series:
SOUND OFF
What's the deal with celebrities and tattoos? Three of the tattoo artists from TLC's Miami Ink—Chris Garver, Chris Nuñez and Ami James—chat with PEOPLE about the increasingly popular trend.
IS MIMICKING CELEBRITY TATTOOS BIG THESE DAYS?
Garver: There are a lot of girls that want to copy Angelina Jolie's tattoos—she's got a dragon on her shoulder.
Nuñez: Nicole Richie has a rosary around her ankle now, and women pour in for the same tattoo.
WHICH STARS STARTED THE TATTOO TREND?
Garver: Janis Joplin was probably the first rocker woman to have a tattoo. She had little charm tattoos. Music is what drew me to tattoos.
James: Ozzy Osbourne is one of the kings. The reason I got my demon on my chest was because of him. When I saw Ozzy's, I wanted one.
WHAT ADVICE DO YOU GIVE PEOPLE BEFORE THEY GO UNDER THE NEEDLE?
James: Just think a lot about what you are going to get. It's very important to put a lot of thought and effort into it.
Garver: Don't get a girlfriend's name because that might not last forever. Even a wife's name could be dangerous. Marriages don't last forever these days. I've turned ex-wife portraits into zombies.
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!
