While the broadcast networks race toward song and dance contest climaxes, cable delivers an array of superior scripted dramas at midseason. The choices range from mob boss to king, from cops to con artists, plus, a magisterial view of the islands Charles Darwin made famous.
Here are five fabulous signs of spring:
“The Sopranos”: The second part of the final season of television’s brilliant modern mob story launches with nine episodes on consecutive Sundays. The betting is on: Will James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano ultimately live to stare at the ducks in his swimming pool or die a violent death? Will Michael Imperioli’s Christopher be granted the meltdown scene he deserves? Does Edie Falco as Carmela get to display another round of Emmy-worthy chops? And what about the kids, the sins of the father and all that stuff?
Series creator David Chase wrote and directed the finale. Some say it’s all leading back to the Nathaniel Hawthorne quote spied during Meadow’s college visit: “No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” By now, Tony is one bewildered family man – and therapy has only made the lie tougher.
Returns April 8 on HBO.
“The Riches”: This drama showcases Minnie Driver and Eddie Izzard as heads of a family of itinerant con artists determined to steal the American dream. Once they assume the identities of a deceased couple who themselves were on the verge of making a fresh start in a new McMansion, they’re off chasing phony lives of affluence.
The three kids are remarkably good actors too, with the youngest innocently cross-dressing (like the real-life Izzard). The pretenses and posturings of upwardly mobile, gated-community American life are the true subjects of this superb comedy-rich drama, the best offering from FX in years and the best new drama of the season.
11 p.m. Mondays on FX.
“The Tudors”: This 10-episode series stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the young Henry VIII in a sexy soap in period clothing. Sam Neill lends weight to the proceedings as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, and Jeremy Northam is somber as Sir Thomas More, explaining his idea of “utopia.” But really it’s about the king’s bedmates, rebel spirit and athletic prowess.
Does the world need another 16th-century English history costume drama featuring Anne Boleyn and company? Armor and jousting may have lost their appeal, and we’ve seen more than enough about the later years of this particular monarch, but soap opera never goes out of style.
Off with their shirts! – and later, their heads. Rhys Meyers was admirable in the title role of the TV miniseries “Elvis” (rerunning on Showtime March 31), and in “Bend it Like Beckham.” But here he’s hot in kingly jewelry and Tudor undies.
Premieres April 1 on Showtime.
“Galapagos”: These three gorgeous hours on National Geographic Channel (Comcast digital channel 273) were three years in the making. The high-def camera comes nose-to-nose with the boobies (three distinct kinds!), giant tortoises, iguanas and other denizens of the islands just as Darwin found them. Experts say 95 percent of the biological diversity is still intact. The third hour considers the wave of modern tourism and asks how long the islands can stay unspoiled.
From soaring aerial shots to extreme closeups of feathers, scales and irises, it’s a masterwork. If only they’d skipped the re-enactments with an actor playing Darwin.
Premieres at 6 p.m. Thursday and runs through the month.
“The Shield”: The gritty cop drama returns to FX, quickly recapping last season’s hideous murder by hand grenade of Detective “Lemonhead” Lemansky. Back at “the barn,” the taut Los Angeles-set show is heading for a showdown between Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) and Detective Jon Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker), both of whom are driven to extreme methods to prove themselves.
“Conscience is a killer,” the series’ tagline notes, and that applies equally to these two, plus Detective Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins), who is now back on the Strike Team and plagued by his dirty past. As violent as ever, this series artfully mines the dark side of law enforcement and the gray areas in the human soul.
Returns April 3 on FX.
TV critic Joanne Ostrow can be reached at 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com.
