Tube Notes
By Mike Hughes
Gannett News Service.
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TONIGHT'S MUST-SEE
"Saturday Night Live," 10:29 p.m., NBC. After a long layoff, "SNL" returned last week to its usual mode. That's wildly inconsistent with just enough good moments to keep us watching. Here's its second post-strike episode with an appropriately young, hip host. That's Ellen Page, fresh from her 21st birthday and from the Oscar ceremony where she was nominated for best actress for "Juno." Wilco is the music guest.
OF NOTE
"Torchwood," 4 p.m., BBC America/KHON, digital 341. In the 45-year history of "Doctor Who," the Martha Jones character is one of the smartest colleagues. She's a real doctor (played by Freema Agyeman), working with The Doctor; now she crosses into this companion series. There's a sinister medical-testing center with Alan Dale ("Ugly Betty," "24") in charge; Martha goes undercover, in the first of her three "Torchwood" episodes.
"Alan Jackson: Invitation Only," 7 p.m., CMT/KHON, digital 587. Here's a concert by a country star who keeps rolling out hits. He can be light ("Chattahoochee"), but his current "Small Town Southern Man" is a classic of intimate, personal songwriting.
"Secondhand Lions" (2003), 7-9 p.m., CBS. A boy (Haley Joel Osment) is dumped off at the dusty ranch of his great-uncles. Gradually, they describe an adventurous past. The story starts sleepily, but it is salvaged by Robert Duvall and Michael Caine as the uncles.
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," 8 p.m., NBC. In a rerun, fertilized embryos have been stolen.
"Law & Order," 9 p.m., NBC. Police assume a romantic triangle has gone bad when three roommates are found dead. However, that's not the case in this repeat.