A guide to notable programs by BRUCE FRETTS. (Times are Eastern standard and are subject to change.)
SERIES
The recent hostage-situation episode of CHICAGO HOPE (CBS, Mondays, 10-11 p.m.) must not have made the folks over at er (NBC, Thursdays, 10-11 p.m.) very happy. ER has its own hostage episode planned for February sweeps (Trainspotting's Ewan McGregor guest-stars as a robber who holes up in a convenience store with a group of captives, including Julianna Margulies' Nurse Hathaway). Hope's hostage opus sent docs Kronk (Peter Berg, who cowrote the episode) and Austin (Christine Lahti) into a mini-mart to operate on the wounded son of a white supremacist (Homicide's Zeljko Ivanek), while Kronk's girlfriend, Dr. Grad (Jayne Brook), waited with negotiators in a nearby video store. Subliminal-plug alert: The store's walls were covered with posters of movies made by Fox (Hope's studio), including The Great White Hype, costarring...Peter Berg.
The Batemans are back, and NBC's got 'em! But when did Jason become the more interesting sibling? As the middle brother on CHICAGO SONS (NBC, Wednesdays, 8:30-9 p.m.), the former Hogan Family stud-puppy displays an engaging comic presence. In earlier incarnations, Jason always seemed like a Michael J. Fox lite (not for nothing did he replace Fox in Teen Wolf Too). Now his pinpoint timing rivals Fox's; he's able to wring laughs out of even the most generic material (and Chicago Sons is about as generic as you can get). But as Ron Eldard's nurse girlfriend on MEN BEHAVING BADLY (NBC, Wednesdays, 9:30-10 p.m.), sister Justine seems to have lost the spirit that made her such an endearing foil for Fox on Family Ties. She saps the life out of every scene she's in. Maybe Jason can give his sis some tips in a Chicago Sons/Men Behaving Badly crossover -- it'd be Must See Bateman TV!
The sets are a little darker and Crow's voice is a bit more adenoidal, but thankfully MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 (Sci-Fi Channel, Saturdays starting Feb. 1, 4-6 p.m. and 11 p.m.-1 a.m.) has been saved from its Comedy Central cancellation. Although Mike Nelson and his robot pals are now forced to watch only bad science-fiction movies, the most significant change is the loss of the versatile and acerbic Trace Beaulieu as both mad scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester and Crow T. Robot. (It's too early to judge the performance of Bill Corbett, who now voices the 'bot.) MST3K's consistently uproarious movie chatter has made the transition unscathed (of the gill-man aquatic monster in Revenge of the Creature, Servo quips, ''He's the only fish with a butt''), but the interstitial sketches are fast becoming the show's weak point. In order to keep this eight-season-old product fresh, the MSTie crew needs to stretch its vibrant imaginations further. It's no Manos: The Hands of Fate, but it sure is better than nothing. -- Kristen Baldwin
Detective Superintendent Jane Tennison (Helen Mirren) makes a few highly atypical, boneheaded errors in Masterpiece Theatre's PRIME SUSPECT 5 -- ERRORS OF JUDGEMENT (PBS, check local listings), not the least of which is sleeping with her new boss (John McArdle). Tennison is intent on getting the goods on a sadistic little thug who calls himself the Street (Steven Mackintosh), but the case is complicated by what amounts to Tennison's midlife crisis. This is a different sort of Prime Suspect; the boss may tell her, ''You're a role model, Jane -- an icon on the force,'' but Errors of Judgement gives us a very un-iconic, fallible Tennison, which helps breathe fresh life into this first-rate series. Mirren is briskly brilliant once again, but her new cop partners, played by Julia Lane and David O'Hara, add a lot too.
