Lifetime presents the shotgun marriage of the Christmas movie with the formulaic romance novel in “Flirting with Forty” (8 p.m., today, Lifetime). A single mother of two, Jackie (Heather Locklear) faces an emotional triple whammy: getting through the holidays on the first anniversary of her divorce and turning the big 4-0.

Early on, she’s a bit of a sad sack, appearing everywhere, even at her own Christmas party, in an old sweatshirt. The film shifts gears and wades into familiar territory when a gal pal hoodwinks Jackie into going on an island vacation all by her lonesome. As soon as you can say “Waiting to Exhale,” she’s down in the sun and sand where shirtless men fight for her attention. Soon, Jackie’s biggest worries revolve around the fact that her lover is just too young and too handsome. Merry chick-lit Christmas, everyone! And to all a good night!

• Timothy Hutton (“Ordinary People,” “Nero Wolfe”) returns to episodic television in “Leverage” (9 p.m., Sunday, TNT). Nate Ford (Hutton) is first seen in a bar drinking, moping and suffering. We quickly learn that he was a capable insurance investigator and responsible for foiling the most complex heists and saving his employers hundreds of millions of dollars. But all of his derring-do meant nothing to the big shots when they denied his son insurance for life-saving treatment.

Well aware of his emotional state, not to mention his unemployed status, an airline executive (Saul Rubinek) asks Nate to help him retrieve blueprints for a new jet design recently stolen by a business rival. Intrigued by a chance to avenge a wrong and stick it to the same insurance company that wronged him and his son, Nate agrees to take a walk on the dark side of the law. Just this once.

The heist puts him in charge of a team of superspecialized crooks right out of a cartoon and straight out of central casting. Eliot (Christian Kane) can take out a gang of thugs without firing a shot. He also packs a Brad Pitt/Bruce Willis attitude. Parker (Beth Riesgraf) comes on like Uma Thurman’s goofy little sister. She can hang from a wire to slip in and out of any situation. Alec (Aldis Hodge) claims to be a computer geek, but he also sports the manic energy of Chris Tucker. Sophie (Gina Bellman), the grifter, rounds out the team, a vaguely Eurasian mimic in a miniskirt who can lie, cheat and steal in six languages.

As heist dramas go, “Leverage” is a tidy package of sleek fun and slick entertainment. The drama’s double and triple crosses will keep you guessing, but the emotional content rarely rises above the level of a comic book. Or, for that matter, any of those “Ocean’s Eleven” knock-offs.

Today’s highlights

• “True Life” (5 p.m., MTV) profiles three young veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

• Country artists honor one of their own on “Giants: Alan Jackson” (8 p.m., CMT).

• Eric Roberts stars as the decadent Roman Emperor Tiberius in the 2008 shocker “Cyclops” (8 p.m., Sci Fi).

Sunday’s highlights

• Three teams tangle for the big prize on the season finale of “Amazing Race” (7 p.m., CBS).

• Noah Wyle returns to the adventure-fantasy franchise “The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice” (7 p.m., TNT).