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A guide to notable programs by BRUCE FRETTS. (Times are Eastern standard and are subject to change.)
SERIES
Bad signs on SEINFELD (NBC, Thursdays, 9-9:30 p.m.): Scripts have been maddeningly uneven this season, perhaps due to the exit of ace writers Carol Leifer (who left to work on CBS' just-shelved Almost Perfect -- oops!) and Larry David (who left to do God knows what). Two recent episodes featured prolonged unfunny parodies of the Vietnam War movies Apocalypse Now and Platoon -- not exactly the freshest pop-culture references. Another dispiriting story hinged on the hard-to-believe, borderline offensive premise that Kramer (Michael Richards) could persuade a trio of yammering Japanese tourists to sleep in a chest of drawers. The only surefire cure to Seinfeld's ills: Bring back the Soup Nazi!
While America watches Seinfeld and Suddenly Susan, MURDER ONE (ABC, Thursdays, 9-10 p.m.) is turning into one of this season's truly buried treasures. Anthony LaPaglia has settled into the role of attorney James Wyler nicely. And in addition to defending the alleged assassin of California's governor, Wyler has taken another juicy case: a hotshot basketball player (Rick Worthy) who's a suspect in the slaying of his team's owner. With its obvious echoes of the O.J. trial, this plot has allowed Murder to play its own race card. In choosing a second chair, Wyler's associate Chris (Michael Hayden) was forced to decide between African-American Aaron (DB Woodside) and Caucasian Arnold (J.C. MacKenzie). ''A black defendant, in all likelihood a mostly black jury, and you're going to go with Arnold, the whitest human being since Kathie Lee Gifford?'' Aaron asked Chris. Aaron got the nod, and Wyler counseled Chris, ''Just because you're a realist doesn't make you a racist.'' Such ethical gray areas and such superb writing make missing Murder a crime.
From its pretentious opening quotes onward, Chris Carter's initially intriguing MILLENNIUM (Fox, Fridays, 9-10 p.m.) has quickly grown tiresome. Dour ex-FBI agent Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) has spent every week getting inside the minds of serial killers. That premise worked in movies like Manhunter and Seven, but it's not the kind of thing you want to watch over and over. Millennium needs to expand its scope, just as Carter's X-Files did. It also desperately needs a sense of humor. X-Files would be deadly without David Duchovny's witty asides, but so far, Henriksen has maintained a stony countenance, even when he's home with his wife (Megan Gallagher) and daughter (Brittany Tiplady). Millennium had better improve soon, or its epigraph, ''Who cares?,'' may prove to be its epitaph.
MOVIES
If there's such a thing as a cable-movie star, Beau Bridges is one. He's done his best work in docudramas like TNT's Kissinger and Nixon (he made a much Trickier Dick than Anthony Hopkins did) and HBO's The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom. Bridges' winning streak continues with his quietly dignified performance as a factory worker who gets downsized and struggles to support his family in HIDDEN IN AMERICA (Showtime, Dec. 1, 8-10 p.m.). Bridges has been doing some downsizing of his own -- he's now nearly as svelte as his brother Jeff, who executive-produced Hidden and has a minor role as a doctor. The fabulous Bridges boys are matched by an outstanding supporting cast, including Fargo's Frances McDormand as a mechanic and 12-year-old Jena Malone (soon to be seen on Showtime in Anjelica Huston's Bastard Out of Carolina) as Beau's ailing daughter. Hidden nails the details of underclass life; in one typically heartbreaking scene, Bridges wakes his kids to feed them burgers he's smuggled home from his minimum-wage job. Well directed by Martin Bell (American Heart), Hidden provides no easy answers -- but plenty of Thanksgiving-weekend food for thought.
