“HDNet World Report” correspondent Tamara Banks traveled to Iraq and was embedded with U.S. and Iraqi soldiers for a documentary on the country’s transition back to self-rule, airing at 7 p.m. tonight on Comcast digital channel 664.
Banks, a longtime Denver TV reporter, talks with U.S. military officials, transition team members, Iraqi officers at defense and justice training centers, and to Americans mentoring at an Iraqi hospital.
“We’re going at a breathtaking pace,” says an official at the Iraqi police college.
Banks appears in “full battle rattle,” with bullet-proof vest and helmet, talking to civilians on the street. She cites “tremendous humanitarian issues here” and “very little focus on anything that doesn’t have to do with security forces.”
In Iraq, Banks talked with Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of coalition forces in Iraq. After her trip, she interviewed CENTCOM commander, Gen. David Petraeus. All in all, this ambitious first-person account is a mostly upbeat look at U.S.-Iraqi progress.
Premiere week.
At last, it feels like fall, and a busy week of premieres demands attention.
“The Good Wife” debuts tonight, “Modern Family” premieres Wednesday. “FlashForward” launches Thursday. And the improved “Dollhouse” returns on Friday.
Julianna Marguiles represents every wronged political wife (Mrs. Spitzer and Mrs. Sanford are only the latest) who’s had to endure the mea culpa press conference after her husband’s scandalous behavior was exposed. The “ER” veteran delivers a taut, fraught performance. In “The Good Wife” on CBS, at 9 tonight on KCNC-Channel 4, Alicia Florrick (Marguiles) stands by her shamed man (Chris Noth), then reignites her stalled career as a tough-minded lawyer, older than the usual legal associates but wiser too.
The series could have contented itself with representing every woman’s revenge fantasy, but it has richer dramatic turf to cover. Ethics, aging, marriage, workplace competition and morality, even forgiveness figure in.
“Modern Family” on ABC, at 8 p.m. Wednesday on KMGH-Channel 7, is a smart half-hour take on alternative family structures, unconventional marriages and the ties that bind socially different relatives together, no matter what. Two gay dads are bringing home their adopted Asian baby to meet the family (one mistakenly responds to a comment about literal “creampuffs” as an insult); an older man (Ed O’Neill) is married to a much younger Latina (Sofia Vergara); a conventional couple includes a wannabe “cool” dad. The stories are cleverly interwoven, adding up to one of the best comedies of the season. (You might as well stick around for Courtney Cox’s debut in “Cougar Town” at 8:30 p.m., a half-hour that trades in cliches but with fun physical shtick from Cox.)
“FlashForward,” Thursday on ABC, delivers a terrifically suspenseful pilot, at 7 p.m. on KMGH-Channel 7. A sort of post-apocalyptic mystery, it’s based on the premise that everyone on Earth blacks out for 2 minutes, 17 seconds and sees flashes of the future. Joseph Fiennes leads an ensemble as an FBI agent trying to unravel the clues to what caused the blackouts. Great pilot, but can it be sustained? Will we get hooked only to be let down when the mythology is never explained (remember “The Nine”?). Time or blackout will tell.
Finally, “Dollhouse” on Fox has been retooled to make more sense when it returns at 8 p.m. Friday on KDVR-Channel 31. As promised, creator Joss Whedon has Echo (Eliza Dushku) regaining memories so that her true identity is becoming more apparent. More good news: Ray Wise (“The Reaper”) is joining the cast as a Dollhouse higher-up, and Summer Glau (“Firefly”) joins as a Dollhouse employee.
Now we’re talking fall.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
