Lifetime offers “Living Proof” (8 p.m., today, Lifetime) that not even an admirable cause and a stellar cast can redeem a message-laden movie with a leaden script.

As actors go, Harry Connick Jr. tends to be a darn good singer, so consider him perfectly cast to play the real-life doctor Dennis Slamon, a UCLA physician researcher who developed Herceptin, a breast cancer drug. As Slamon, Connick spends a great deal of time in a white lab coat delivering speeches about the necessity of his work. His idea of small talk is to offer lectures filled with grim statistics. When not working, he’s running long distance and/or mowing his grass with a push mower while brooding about his research.

An impressive cast including Swoosie Kurtz, Amanda Bynes, Jennifer Coolidge, Tammy Blanchard, Regina King, Angie Harmon, Amy Madigan and Bernadette Peters appear as women fighting cancer or supportive friends and kin.

¢ Sometimes the best dramas reflect their times even when they are not trying. For a while I’ve been struck by the fact that Barack Obama’s wardrobe seems straight out of Don Draper’s closet on “Mad Men” (9 p.m., Sunday, AMC). In his ever-present suit, white shirt and thin tie, the lean Illinois Senator projects a confident if mysterious cool not unlike the ad executive. Both candidate and character have done an interesting job of transcending their past and defining their present. Obama has even been known to smoke cigarettes, the ever-present vice on “Mad Men.”

In contrast, Sen. John McCain often resembles Don’s boss Roger Sterling, a man who frequently defines himself and his colleagues by their war experiences. He’s a feisty player who betrays an undercurrent of irascible impatience with the young and an eagerness to prove that his best years are not behind him.

“Mad Men” may be set in 1962, but it offers a complex character study and a contrast between cool and hot that speaks to our own time.

¢ Twenty-somethings remain the holy grail for broadcasters and advertisers. That’s why so many series and movies still obsess about the frisky antics of the young and unmarried. “Pulling” (8 p.m., Sunday, Sundance) is a new British comedy import that takes a brutally honest look at the lifestyles of the decidedly un-rich and socially floundering.

Sharon Horgan plays Donna, a reasonably attractive 29-year-old woman who decides to call off her engagement to her dull but dependable boyfriend Carl (Cavan Clerkin) after an uninspired and deeply pathetic hen party (British slang for bachelorette party) that takes place in a bingo hall.

Over the course of the six-part series, Donna moves in with her single girlfriends, Karen (Tanya Franks), an alcoholic kindergarten teacher and Louise (Rebekah Stanton), a sad, man-hungry woman eager to settle for Karen’s cast-offs.

“Pulling” mines real if painful laughs from its delusional characters and downbeat situations. This is the sitcom for people who hated “Friends” and everything it represented. Given its tone, I don’t think an American network will be remaking “Pulling” anytime too soon.

Today’s highlights

¢ A world of scorpions is discovered on “Primeval” (8 p.m., BBC America).

Sunday’s highlights

¢ Ramon’s obsession threatens his career on “Dexter” (8 p.m., Showtime).