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Adrenaline Junkies Pining For '24' Tonight Can Settle For 'Sarah Connor,' 'Gladiators'

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By WALT BELCHER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 14, 2008

Updated: 01/12/2008 12:55 pm

This is the night that "24" would have returned to Fox if there had not been a writers strike.

We wonder what Jack Bauer is doing on his extended hiatus. We hope the world will not fall apart without him. And we wonder if we will see him before 2009.

Fans of "24" will have to settle for the midseason thriller "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles," which debuted Sunday and settles in at 9 tonight.

Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) and her 15-year-old son, John (Thomas Dekker), are on the run from time-traveling killer robots.

The story begins in 1999 (after "Terminator 2") and quickly jumps to 2007, but you have to pretend that the events in "Terminator 3" never happened.

Helping Sarah and John battle the bad bots is a cyborg from the future (Summer Glau), who is built like a teenage girl. Right. But wouldn't they feel safer if it was built like Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was in his prime?

Fox's Monday nights have long been a testosterone-driven adrenaline rush. "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" will be preceded at 8 by a new episode of "Prison Break," which has managed to stretch its one-theme concept into a second season.

NBC is out of fresh episodes of "Heroes" and is filling the 9 p.m. Monday slot with "Deal or No Deal," preceded by "American Gladiators."

"Gladiators" debuted to solid ratings, but that can't last because it's just not as entertaining as the original. It would be much better if it moved faster; it really should be a half-hour show. And if there was more of the gladiators and less of hosts Hulk Hogan and Laila Ali.

SHOWGIRL: There is a new episode of "Medium" at 10 tonight because NBC held it back for midseason.

Over on CBS, a new episode of "CSI: Miami" at 10 tonight features former "Saved by the Bell" star Elizabeth Berkley. She begins a six-episode stint as the ex-wife of CSI honcho Horatio Cane (David Caruso). Already, she has my sympathy.

Berkley, also remembered for the unintentionally campy bad guilty pleasure "Showgirls," will host a reality competition, "Step Up and Dance," coming to Bravo later this year.

VAL LEWTON: At 8 tonight, Turner Classic Movies salutes Val Lewton, a Russian-born American filmmaker who managed to turn a string of low-budget horror films such as "I Walked With a Zombie" into works of art.

Narrated by Martin Scorsese, "Val Lewton: Man in the Shadows" sheds light on a talented storyteller who got stuck making films that were only intended to be quick-profit thrillers for the studio.

As head of RKO's horror film unit in the 1940s, he was paid $250 a week to crank out 75-minute black-and-white flicks with budgets less than $150,000.

Lewton brought style and suspense to the genre. The documentary on his life and career will be followed at 9:30 tonight by his most famous film, "Cat People," which stars Simone Simon as a woman haunted by a strange curse.

More of Lewton's films follow into the night and past dawn. Included are "I Walked With a Zombie," "The Leopard Man," "The Seventh Victim," "The Curse of the Cat People," "The Body Snatcher," "Isle of the Dead" and "Bedlam."

A DVD box set, "The Val Lewton Collection," has been released. It contains the documentary and nine of his films.

IN "JEOPARDY": The Jeopardy! Brain Bus is coming to Tampa on Tuesday and will be at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino from 5 to 7 p.m.

The first 1,000 contestants in line will get to take a test to qualify to be on "Jeopardy!"

Also, there will be "just for fun" rounds of "Jeopardy!" being held in Floyd's restaurant at the casino with the show's Clue Crew roving correspondents Jon Cannon and Kelly Miyahara.

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