Trouble on TV

Today's theme is trouble. People in it. People trying to get out of it. Some of it's real, some of it emerged from a screenwriter's sick mind. Shows reviewed here include "Celebrity Rehab," "New Orleans High," "American Gangster" and a second look at "Sons of Anarchy."

We start with "Celebrity Rehab," which returns for a second season last night (8 p.m. CT Thursdays, VH1). I guess you could say this was one of my "guilty pleasures" of last season. Certainly there are worse things to be convicted of than liking a show in which a TV doctor who's not full of himself presents cautionary tales of substance abuse.

For season two, the producers invited actor Gary Busey along to the Pasadena rehab clinic with active abusers like Tawny Kitaen, Rodney King, model Amber Smith and season-one alumnus Jeff Conaway. If you've seen Busey lately, you may have just assumed he was high, but in fact he's been off coke for 13 years. So why's he here? Dr. Drew Pinsky has his reasons. This is a smart show with a lot of heart, which is why it can walk through the heart of "TMZ" country and come away unslimed.

"New Orleans High" (9 p.m. CT Sunday, National Geographic). Inner-city schools: You could probably make a hard-hitting documentary at any one of them across the country, including here. Not long ago I recommended an HBO film, "Hard Times at Douglass High," filmed at a Baltimore school that was even more troubling than the fictional one on "The Wire."

And now we have "New Orleans High," an unsettling series filmed at a post-Katrina secondary school where the area's problem kids all seem to have been deposited. The danger level on this show seems extraordinarily high -- in the opening minutes a teacher tells of receiving daily death threats -- and my immediate instinct was to suspect the National Geographic Channel, which could turn a bake sale into a high-stakes, life-or-death competition, with artificially exaggerating how bad things were at Cohen.

But no. A year ago NPR had filed an almost as grim report about another Cohen teacher who said that "nothing prepared him for threats and other problems he now faces at school."

"New Orleans High" is notable for identifying some remarkable Cohen students and letting them tell part of their story using handheld camcorders.

"American Gangster" returned for another season this week (9 p.m. Thursdays CT on BET). These profiles of notorious black criminals was so incendiary when it debuted last year that some African-American activists called for a sponsor boycott. My guess is that if it had aired on A&E with a racial mix of bad guys, it would've been just another show, because that's pretty much what it is: one more crime show on cable TV.

The new season begins with the story of Larry Davis, who inspired strong feelings pro and con after he was arrested in 1986 in the killing of six Bronx police officers -- and became an outlaw legend on the streets of New York. Ving Rhames narrates.

"The Starter Wife" (9 p.m. CT Fridays, USA). On a lighter note, Debra Messing is back as Molly, a woman in trouble ever since her Hollywood hotshot hubby dumped her, in this series that debuted earlier this month, based on the movie made from the Gigi Levangie Grazer novel.

It's not the most brilliant show ever made, and I wish it would cut out the tinkly soundtrack that is meant to draw comparisons to "Desperate Housewives." But I like Messing, who reprises her role as Molly, a woman who finds herself divorced not only from a top movie producer but the upscale community that all but revoked her citizenship when she was no longer married to him.

For someone who spent most of a decade bugging out her eyes and doing slapstick on "Will & Grace," Messing is surprisingly three-dimensional in "The Starter Wife." It is amazing how actresses over the age of 40 continue to find gainful employment on cable.

I decided to take a second look at "Sons of Anarchy" (9 p.m. CT Wednesday, FX), the latest drama from FX, after hearing that it had been renewed for a second season. When I reviewed the first two episodes earlier this fall, I admitted to enjoying this "Sopranos"-inspired tale of outlaw bikers who run guns while trying to raise families and finding that the two don't always mix. But I wasn't sure all of the things the writers were throwing against the wall would stick. Well, most did.

"Sons" has been flirting with danger from the minute it signed on. A rival group of skinheads (led by Mitch Pileggi) has been plotting the bikers' downfall since day one, their truce with Mexican gangsters is unraveling and new challenges in the armaments trade have made it harder for the Sons of Anarchy to make ends meet.

If you liked "The Sopranos" and have taken a pass on this show until now, check it out. Last week's developments (the episode repeats 10 p.m. CT Sunday) appear to have brought matters to an impasse. What one biker referred to charmingly as the "cracker-wetback alliance" broke down in a hail of gunfire. Caught in the middle is the show's lead, Jax (Charlie Hunnam), who must convince the old guard he's as bent on revenge as they are (that includes his tough-as-bullets mom, played by Katey Sagal).

As we watched Jax enjoy tender-hearted moments with his newborn son, it was easy to question whether his heart was really into spending the rest of his life committing mayhem. But that was before he dispatched his ex-girlfriend's ex-boyfriend (played to a creepy T by "Shield" star Jay Karnes) with a bullet to the brain.