‘Country Boys’ offers dose of reality
“Frontline” and filmmaker David Sutherland offer “Country Boys” (9 p.m., KSPS), a six-hour, three-night story of two teenagers growing up in a forgotten town in rural Kentucky.
With his long black coat, tinted hair and painted nails, Cody Perkins may seem like just another high school “freak,” but his story has a dark prologue. His mother killed herself while consumed with post-partum depression.
A dozen years later, Cody’s father also took his own life. But not before killing his new wife (his seventh).
Now raised by his former stepgrandmother, Cody sings about his father and his sadness in the Christian-rock-goth-metal songs he composes on a steady basis.
Chris Johnson has both parents, but his father is slowly drinking himself to death. His beleaguered mother spends most of her day cleaning local motels and trying to keep their ramshackle compound of trailers clean and tidy.
Chris has been put down and condescended to throughout his entire education but appears to be blossoming along with Cody at the town’s new alternative school.
At first glance “Country Boys” may seem to be about the particular problems of regional poverty and low expectations. But by spending so much time with Chris and Cody, Sutherland uses them to explore eternal truths about adolescence, fear, maturity and conformity.
In one scene Chris volunteers to found and run the school’s newspaper. But in the next he behaves with maddening inconsistency, vacillating between adult responsibilities and teen flakiness.
Cody and his girlfriend, Liz, behave similarly, alternating between moments of public piety and frequent and furtive sexual escapades.
As “reality” TV goes, this blows all of the other contrived nonsense out of the water.
Heather Graham stars in “Emily’s Reasons Why Not” (9 p.m., ABC) as a publisher of self-help books seriously in need of her own product. She spends time with a peanut gallery of gay and straight friends who are full of advice and wisecracks.
Graham is simply too mature and too beautiful for this role. Add this miscasting to “Emily’s” generic take on the “Sex and the City” formula, and you have sufficient reasons why not to watch “Emily.” Ever.
Ashley Parker, a former O-Town boy-band heartthrob, scrambles to make sense of his life in the new documentary series “There & Back” (10:30 p.m., MTV). But in this “reality” show, he’s jobless and living with his future mother-in-law and pregnant girlfriend.
Other highlights
On back-to-back episodes of “House” (Fox), homeless and incurable (8 p.m.), and one enemy too many (9 p.m.).
Dennis Miller hosts “The 11th Annual Critics Choice Awards” (8 p.m., WB).
A brand-name restaurant attracts the quick and the dead on “Las Vegas” (9 p.m., NBC).
Exotic domiciles on display on “World’s Most Extreme Homes” (9 p.m., HGTV).
Peri Gilpin and Teri Polo star in the 2006 drama “For the Love of A Child” (9 p.m., Lifetime). Based on a true story.
A brash publicist (John Stamos) tries to erase memories of an old flame in the second-season opener of “Jake in Progress” (9:30 p.m., ABC).
A harmful spirit targets Allison’s daughter on “Medium” (10 p.m., NBC).
Bold bikes and bickering on a new season of “American Chopper” (10 p.m., Discovery).
The well-worn formula moves to France on “The Bachelor: Paris” (10 p.m., ABC).
Cult choice
Norma Shearer stars in the 1930 drama “The Divorcee” (8:30 p.m., TCM). Very shocking in its time.
Series notes
Doug wants to be a father in the worst way on “The King of Queens” (8 p.m., CBS) … Laura and Rich flee on “Surface” (8 p.m., NBC) … Lives changed and exchanged on “Wife Swap” (8 p.m., ABC) … A wedding derails on “How I Met Your Mother” (8:30 p.m., CBS) … On the couch on “Two and a Half Men” (9 p.m., CBS) … Dysfunctional dynamics on “Out of Practice” (9:30 p.m., CBS) … The death of a pickup artist on “CSI: Miami” (10 p.m., CBS).