What's working for me this week....
1. "Spectacle with Elvis Costello" on Sundance Channel. As sublime and surprising as my interview this summer with the King was wretched. Watch it at 8 p.m. CT Wednesday.
2. "Life on Mars." The American version of the cult-favorite British thriller about a man knocked back 35 years in time had a shaky pre-production start, but it's going great guns now. ABC picked it up for more episodes and the creators of the original series gave the adaptation a big thumbs-up.
3. Christiane Amanpour. The world's most famous foreign correspondent marked 25 years at CNN with a trio of documentaries this year; the latest, "Scream Bloody Murder," at 8 p.m. CT Thursday, reminds us that genocide remains a scourge on the world map and a challenge for the next president (and not just the one on "24").
... AND WHAT'S NOT
1. SAG strike. What is the actors' union thinking? They're thinking they can exploit the networks' vulnerability to demand a bigger share of studio profits. Trouble is, if they really follow through on their threat to walk out, there may not be any profits to share.
2. Discovery. They own a zillion cable channels -- but not one that offers breaking news and information. The channel announced it's parting ways with Ted Koppel because it can't take his timely, topical specials and rerun them into the dirt like they do everything else.
3. Fox in the "Dollhouse." Joss Whedon has an intriguing idea for his latest Eliza Dushku TV series. But apparently Fox wants nothing to do with it; the network announced "Dollhouse" will debut in 2009 on Friday, the night where all Fox shows go to die.
