Molly Shannon is beside herself. The “Saturday Night Live” comedienne stars in the 2007 cable comedy “More of Me” (8 p.m., today, Lifetime) as a harried mother, wife and career woman who turns to her inner voices and gets a little more than she bargained for.

“More” begins with Alice (Shannon) in crisis. She’s too busy to celebrate her 10th anniversary with her doting husband (Steven Weber); she wants to devote her full energies to her protest march to save a beloved tree from a bridge construction project, but her fussy daughter and not-quite-toilet-trained son keep her too busy.

Alice “cracks up” soon after her son vomits all over her work outfit, making her late for the tree protest. She finds herself divided into three separate versions of her personality (all played by Shannon) – a cutthroat professional, a craft-obsessed perfect mom and a sex-crazed housewife. The “real” Alice stands by nervously as these exaggerated versions set about compartmentalizing her life and ruining her reputation in the process.

“More” often seems more like an extended “SNL” skit than an actual movie, and it runs out of gas a little more than halfway through its extended farce. But even half-good movies are more than redeemed by a few belly laughs, and Shannon’s manic performance provides more than a few.

¢ Produced by Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney and Peter Berg and “PU-239” (7 p.m., today, HBO) takes place in Russia in the late 1990s, when the country seemed to be making a transition to a gangster-style capitalism that threatened to be as horrible as Soviet communism – and much less predictable.

A grim and simple tale, both relentless and compelling, “PU-239” follows a devoted husband (Paddy Considine) poisoned by a massive dose of radiation at a decrepit nuclear plant. Instead of caring for him, the authorities make him a scapegoat and fire him without pay. To provide for his wife and child, the ailing man steals a quantity of nuclear material (PU-239) and proceeds to Moscow to sell it on the black market. There he meets low-level gangster (Oscar Isaac) whose incompetence, desperation and two low-life stooges make for sporadic comic relief in this sobering film. Both men also have sons and in their own very different ways, they sacrifice everything for their families.

The movie’s evocation of Yeltsin-era Moscow as a gruesomely violent free-for-all is difficult to forget.

¢ An Iraqi cab driver and a network-news cameraman describe life in wartime in the documentary “Baghdad Diary” (9 p.m., today, History) narrated by ABC correspondent Bob Woodruff.

Tonight’s highlights

¢ A suspected kidnapper proves hard to control on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).

¢ Aliens go missing on “Torchwood” (8 p.m., BBC America).

Sunday’s highlights

¢ Contestants walk a mile for their camels on “Amazing Race” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ F. Murray Abraham narrates “The Beauty of Ugly,” a glance at some of the wild’s most unusual creatures on “Nature” (7 p.m., PBS, check local listings).

¢ Roz vacillates between protecting her family and clinging to power in the conclusion of “The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard” on “Masterpiece Theatre” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings).

Cult choice

An “Asteroid” (6 p.m., Sci Fi, today) threatens Earth (and a Kansas City dam) and it’s FEMA to the rescue! Michael Biehn and Annabella Sciorra star in this 1997 shocker.