Thanksgiving may be five days away, but the season for sentimental movies has begun in deadly earnest. Just how do you approach a film with a title like "Love's Enduring Promise" (8 p.m. today, Hallmark)? It sounds like a cheap perfume sold only during the holidays. And in some ways, that's just what it is.
Now, I realize that some viewers fervently wish that television would return to the days when "Little House on the Prairie" was the focus of conversation and not "The Sopranos" or "The Simple Life." But be careful what you wish for -- you may just receive a stinky bottle of "Love's Enduring Promise."
"Love" is not a bad movie, just predictable from the first frame to the last. You can tell by the swirling, stirring soundtrack and the scenes of farm country bathed in golden light that you're in for a corny yarn in which hard-working, God-fearing 19th-century farmers never get dirty.
- Disaster strikes as two men attempt to climb a 21,000-foot peak in the Peruvian Andes in the riveting 2003 documentary "Touching the Void" (8 p.m. Sunday, PBS). A remarkable true-life story of perseverance and survival accompanied by stunning cinematography, this is the best movie on television this weekend.
Today's highlights
- Eleven teams scramble to Iceland on "Amazing Race 6" (7 p.m., CBS).
- Julia Roberts stars in the 2000 legal drama "Erin Brockovich" (7 p.m., NBC).
- Dennis Quaid and Rachel Griffiths star in the 2002 baseball drama "The Rookie" (7 p.m., ABC).
Sunday's highlights
- Scheduled on "60 Minutes" (6 p.m., CBS): Soldiers injured in Iraq are not counted among the combat casualties; a natural appetite suppressant popular among South Africa's Bushmen; Jim Carrey.
- Scheduled on "Dateline" (6 p.m., NBC): interviews with Sen. John Edwards and Elizabeth Edwards; the McCaughey septuplets turn 7.
- Marge nurtures Nelson on "The Simpsons" (7 p.m., Fox).
- Mike's guest stifles the mood on "Desperate Housewives" (8 p.m., ABC).
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