TelePhillyist

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.

Simon Schama's Power of Art (Mon, 10PM-11PM, PBS [WHYY]) - This time good old Simon is taking a look at Mark Rothko's abstract murals "Four Seasons." We've come to rather love Rothko and his big blocks of solid color, so this sounds interesting to us - especially since Rothko did these particular works for the Four Seasons restaurant, but then had them removed after having a meal there.

Eureka (Tue, 9PM-10PM, Sci-Fi) - Oh, no! It's the "main character gets a bump on his head and wakes up in a weird new version of the place he knows" episode! Every show has this episode eventually, but it seems a little early for Eureka to be falling back on cliches as old as this one.

Murder (Tue, 10PM-11PM, Spike) - Yet another reality show probing the boundaries of what's acceptable. In this one, amateur sleuths try to solve real murder cases by visiting recreated crime scenes and reading autopsy reports. Well, at least they're not visiting real, actual crime scenes, which is what we thought was going on when we saw the commercial.

Shark Tribe (Thu, 9PM-10PM, Discovery Channel) & Sharkman (Sat, 9PM-11PM, Discovery Channel) - Looking over Discovery Channel's line-up for this week, it's easy to tell that it's Shark Week. These are two of the more interesting-sounding of their sharky programs. The first is about "shark whisperers" in New Guinea who can actually sit in their boats and call sharks to them, then catch them with their hands. The second follows South African shark researcher Michael Rutzen as he attempts to hypnotize a great white shark in open water. Crazy!

Feasting on Asphalt (Sat, 9PM-10PM, Food Network) - We really enjoyed the first season of this show, which follows one of our favorite Food Network personalities (Alton Brown) as he travels the country in search of authentic and tasty road food. So we're glad to see it back for a second season, starting with this episode, wherein Alton begins a northward journey up the Mississippi River at the Gulf of Mexico.

Masters of Science Fiction (Sat, 10PM-11PM, 6ABC) - This is a new anthology series that will feature adaptations of works by famous authors of the sci-fi genre, each one introduced by Stephen Hawking. The first episode is based on John Kessel's 1986 short story "A Clean Escape," about a psychiatrist (Judy Davis) examining a man (Sam Waterston) who believes it's still 2007, and not 2031.

Image Credit: Flickr user pianoforte