TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: Sept. 21
A select viewing guide for Friday, Sept. 21
REALITY: Highway Thru Hell (Discovery, 8 p.m.) Launched a few weeks back, this new unscripted series follows the daily work routine of tow-truck drivers hauling loads through the Coquihalla Highway, a 100-kilometer-long stretch winding through B.C.’s treacherous Cascade Mountains. Running the business is one headache after another for Jamie Davis, the man who owns and operates the big rigs. In tonight’s show, he has second thoughts about hiring his own son Brandon on the team when the teen spends his entire paycheque on ear piercings. Then his right-hand man Kevin shows up at a wreck scene without the proper traffic-control gear. Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be truckers.Ed Araquel
DOCUMENTARY: the fifth estate (CBC, 9 p.m.) Recently returned for its 38th season, CBC’s sturdy newsmagazine airs a new episode focusing on the infamous Kingston Penitentiary, which is scheduled to close in two years. Tonight’s new episode profiles three of the correctional institution’s most famous inmates: Edwin Alonzo Boyd, who once ran one of Canada’s most notorious bank-robber gangs and lead a secret life after being released from prison; Ty Conn, the only inmate to escape from Kingston in the last half-century, only to meet with a tragic end; and Guy Paul Morin, who was wrongly convicted of raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl and later exonerated by DNA testing. Linden MacIntyre helms the report.
REALITY: Secret Princes (TLC, 10 p.m.) What happens when four members of international royal families relocate to America to live and work while searching for true love? So goes the premise of this bizarre new series documenting the efforts of “four bachelor royals” to dwell among the common rabble in Atlanta. The four men: Prince Francisco of Spain, 33, who grew up surrounded by servants and was friends with the late Michael Jackson; Prince Salauddin of India, 32, whose parents have already begun arranged-marriage proceedings; Lord Robert Walters, 29, whose British bloodline traces back to Henry VIII; and the Honourable Ludovic Watson of Houghton Hall, 23, who apparently enjoys hunting and fishing in his spare time. Tonight’s opener shows the group of four saying farewell to their families and plush lifestyles and moving to downtown Atlanta where they immediately take on minimum-wage jobs and try to comport themselves as average guys. Good luck, your highnesses.
MUSIC: The Next Star (YTV, 11 p.m.) Get ready for the next Justin Bieber or Carly Rae Jepsen. The fifth season of The Next Star has been the best in the series, in large part due to the new judging panel comprised of Juno-winning pop singer Keshia Chanté, country singer Tara Oram and music-industry executive Mark Spicoluk. The group of young contestants has now been whittled down to the final six: Brooklyn Roebuck (Chatham, Ontario), Darren Espanto (Calgary), Amer Dhaliwal (Brampton), Ryan Hawken (Toronto), Grace Johnston (Winnipeg) and Issy Dahl (Winnipeg). In tonight’s show, the six learn to work together to produce a group song and music video. And take note: The Next Star finale airs live from Canada’s Wonderland this Sunday night at 7 p.m. ET.
MOVIE: Paths of Glory (TCM, 9:15 p.m. ET; 6:15 p.m. PT) Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this 1957 film remains one of the most powerful anti-war statements in Hollywood history. Adapted from the novel by Humphrey Cobb, the story takes place during the First World War and casts Kirk Douglas as the imperious Colonel Dax, a French army officer who refuses to send his soldiers into a battle that means certain death. When the soldiers are brought up on charges of cowardice in a military tribunal, Dax also takes on the huge responsibility of defending his own men. Watch it yourself and discover why the film was banned in France for more than a decade.