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For your TiVo

I’m way late on this TiVo post—but, for what it’s worth, here’s what’s coming up in the next week and a half (I missed the first half of this week, sorry). Most series have wound down, so the pickings are beginning to thin, but there’s still some good stuff out there:

Frontline: The Age of AIDS (PBS May 30 & 31). TV Guide calls the “far-reaching two-night report . . . . an epic account of social upheaval, politics and prejudice in the wake of a killer virus that mystified scientists and continues to resist a cure . . . . Frontline lays out the sobering history in lucid, absorbing detail . . . .” Why is this of interest to a God-talk blog? How can it not be? Millions are suffering, both here and abroad. Suffering—and how we respond to it—is God-talk. It must be.

Happy Days (6am May 31 WGN). This has absolutely nothing to do with God-talk, but if you ever wanted to know where the term “jump the shark” came from, watch this episode. If you’d prefer to skip it, read here how TV Guide says the phenomenon came about: “'Jumping the Shark' is a term that was coined when college student Sean J. Connolly saw this 1977 Happy Days episode in 1985. Connolly felt the series sustained irreparable damage when the Fonz literally jumped over a man-eating shark while on water skis. Twelve years later, Connolly’s college roommate, Jon Hein, created a cottage industry of Web sites and books that identified when other series ‘jumped the shark.’” Still want to know more? Read more on Wikipedia (have I said how Wikipedia is a researcher’s dream come true?!) or check out Jump the Shark.

Stargate SG1 (9c Fridays Sci-Fi). If you haven’t been watching the series and you like Sci-Fi that plays with faith issues, now’s the time to start watching this one. It’s re-running last season’s episodes, which center around the appearance of the Ori, a new foe that the writer’s have heavy-handedly laced with religious language and themes. It’s admittedly somewhat campy, but I like campy!

Space Race: The Untold Story (8c June 4 National Geographic). This blog loves space exploration. According to TV Guide, at a time when the American public has become unimpressed by space flight, “This two-night documentary looks back to a time when the country was still filled with hope and awe by U.S. efforts to explore the stars—and get there before the Soviets. Part 2 concludes Monday 9/8c with a look at the moon landing.”

For films, checkout: the mythic and haunting Legends of the Fall (various times May 27 TNT), in-habit-ed Sister Act (9:30c May 27 TBS), Clint’s A Few Dollars More (7c May 26 AMC) or A Fistful of Dollars (12c May 29, Hallmark) or High Plains Drifter (11:30c May 29 Encore—Note: while all three films are admittedly violent and adult-themed, they carry good stories and noteworthy themes), Shakespeare’s-Taming-of-the-Shrew-goes-to-high-school 10 Things I Hate About You (6c May 27 Comedy Central), on-my-Netflix-queue The Great Raid (8c May 27 STARZ), also-on-my-queue Hotel Rwanda (8c May 30 Showtime Too), the “who’s-your-daisy” and I-love-westerns Tombstone (8:15c May 30 TMC), teen-classic The Breakfast Club (7c May 31 ABC Family), one-of-my-favs The Princess Bride (7c June 1 AMC), another-on-my-queue Woman Thou Art Loosed (7c June 1 TMC), one-of-the-best-lines-about-faith (“Some things are true whether you believe in them or not”) City of Angels (7:30c June 3 Cinemax), the-best-of-the-three-prequels Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (7c June 3 HBO), this-blog-loves-disaster-flicks The Day After Tomorrow (6:40c June 4 Cinemax), this-blog-loves-comic-book-flicks Batman Begins (7c June 4 HBO2), and The Shawshank Redemption (8c June 4 Showtime Too).

(Image: Patrick Q at flikr.com)