Never has a colonoscopy been so artfully employed in the service of television dramedy.
The amount of pathos wrung out of pondering the mere prospect of the procedure is remarkable when “Men of a Certain Age” tackles it, along with other indelicate hurdles of midlife manhood, this season on TNT.
The show is surprisingly popular. And it seems to be getting better with age.
That particular midlife checkup mentioned above doesn’t come until later in the season. But there are plenty of indignities to suffer before that, as men hitting the half- century mark examine their lives and long-standing friendships.
Launching its second season this week, the series starring Ray Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula has already run through and successfully mined such hurdles as career burnout, gambling addiction, heart attack, male bonding and assorted girlfriend problems. This season will encompass volatile character arcs in which the last become first, the relatively secure lose their bearings, and so on.
Terry (Bakula), the womanizing Peter Pan and sometime actor, will begin to focus. Joe (Romano), the divorced dad and rehabilitated former gambler, will get serious about his golf game again, aiming for the Senior Tour. Owen (Braugher), the salesman hired into his father’s car company, will have a wildly uneven ride in the business. And the show continues to be a Chevy commercial in disguise (Braugher’s character works at a Chevrolet dealership).
“Men of a Certain Age,” at 8 p.m. Mondays on TNT (replaying Tuesdays and Wednesdays), paints a sympathetic portrait of friends aging not so gracefully, and still learning to “grow up to be a man,” as the Beach Boys’ theme song says.
If at first they seem annoyingly immature and emotionally stunted, give them a chance. They are all that, but they are products of their time — and there is painful growth in evidence.
Two Afghanistan docs. Anderson Cooper sits down with Norweigan journalist Paul Refsdal, who obtained unprecedented access to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, in an unusual and disconcerting documentary on CNN next weekend.
“Taliban,” debuting Saturday at 6 p.m. on CNN, raises more questions than it answers. Refsdal, who has been covering wars for decades, knew in advance he could be taken hostage (and eventually he was, briefly), yet he was willing to try almost anything to get the footage. The tension is high, the action is real. “God give victory to the holy warriors!” a Taliban fighter prays.
The footage is unlike anything broadcast in the U.S. before — Refsdal had unrestricted access over a long period and hangs around the caves and hillsides with Taliban members during relaxing times as well as during strategy sessions. For all those reasons, it is a troubling documentary, likely to raise objections in some quarters for the way it humanizes the enemy. The sight of a young boy carrying a rifle as big as he is, the indelible images of a Taliban leader planning an attack via temperamental cellphone, the pep talk to the men using religious rhetoric — it’s all both eye-opening and strange.
Tonight, HDNet’s “World Report” focuses on military efforts in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province. Correspondent Maura Axelrod and cameraman Lucian Read traveled with the 101st Airborne Division in September as they tried to drive insurgents out of the villages. With the war now in its 10th year, the journalists were embedded with 1st Squadron 75th Cavalry Regiment, nicknamed the “Widowmakers.” The hour is slated for 7 p.m. on HDNet.
“Terriers” dumped, “Dexter” renewed.FX on Monday canceled “Terriers,” sending along comparative ratings for “Damages,” “The Riches,” even “Over There” to explain why. Averaging 1.6 million viewers age 18-49 wasn’t good enough.
Also on Monday, Showtime renewed “Dexter” for a sixth season, as expected. The current-season finale will air Sunday, locally at 7 p.m. Ratings this season have been strong, reaching an inmpressive 2.54 million viewers in November.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
