Family Drama

More and more these days, it seems as if the most interesting TV projects are coming from new and different places. "House of Cards,"  which Netflix is making in Baltimore, leads the parade. But DirecTV is getting in the game, too, and this week debuts a six-part mini-series about a transgendered contract killer played by Chloe Sevigny ("Big Love," "Boys Don't Cry"). "Hit & Miss," which premieres at 10 p.m. Wednesday on DirecTV's Audience Channel is a British import created by Paul Abbott, who is usually praised for "Shameless"and "State of Play.

More and more these days, it seems as if the most interesting TV projects are coming from new and different places. "House of Cards,"  which Netflix is making in Baltimore, leads the parade. But DirecTV is getting in the game, too, and this week debuts a six-part mini-series about a transgendered contract killer played by Chloe Sevigny ("Big Love," "Boys Don't Cry"). "Hit & Miss," which premieres at 10 p.m. Wednesday on DirecTV's Audience Channel is a British import created by Paul Abbott, who is usually praised for "Shameless"and "State of Play.

American Family is being touted by PBS as the first weekly drama on American broadcast television about a Latino family. That's a historic claim, and the series deserves to be celebrated for its commitment to diversity and ethnic understanding. But creator Gregory Nava (El Norte and Selena) doesn't want viewers to think the 13-week series that begins Wednesday night on public television is only by, for and about the Latino experience. "American Family is about everybody's family," Nava said at a PBS press conference in Los Angeles.

Actor Gavin Lee might be the first actor ever to tap-dance upside-down across the ceiling in real time. Lee is the likable, gravity-defying performer who for the past six years has performed as Bert the chimney sweep in Cameron Mackintosh's blockbuster stage version of " Mary Poppins." The national touring production of "Poppins" has just blown into the Kennedy Center (presumably on the east wind), where it will remain through Aug. 22. Lee originated the role in London in 2004, stayed with the character when the show transferred to Broadway, and now is portraying the Cockney charmer during the tour.

Dr. Sydney Hansen has it all at age 30: a successful Beverly Hills practice in plastic surgery, a breathtaking Malibu beach house and a great-looking guy with whom to share it.And then one day, she realizes how much she absolutely hates her life.Welcome to "Providence," as in Rhode Island, the hometown to which Sydney returns on the day when her life in L.A. suddenly feels like it's turning to dust.Welcome, indeed. This new family drama from NBC is one of the most pleasant surprises of television's midseason.

Biting comedy, award-winning reality TV and the start of a new season for a great family drama are available this weekend. CHRIS ROCK IS BACK TV comedy does not get much better than Chris Rock's HBO shows. Premium cable has the freedom not to bleep Rock, and that makes a difference. The language that some consider harsh is crucial to the biting edge that Rock brings to his keen social insights. (9 p.m. tomorrow, HBO) *** "THE AMAZING RACE" BEGINS AGAIN The reality show that keeps winning Emmys returns for a new season on CBS. (8 p.m. Sunday, CBS)

The drama Beautiful People certainly delivers on its title. It presents marvelous moms, drop-dead daughters, stellar students and comely cads. Most of the beautiful people - or "BPs" - attend a prestigious New York high school. Gideon, an endearing geek, explains the importance of the "BP" title. "It's just much easier to loathe something when it has a name," he says. It would be easy to loathe Beautiful People, a family drama that debuts at 9 p.m. tomorrow on the ABC Family cable channel.

Sitting down? Better be, because here it comes: The best new offering on TV tonight is a made-for-television movie on the USA Network. There. I said it, and I meant it.* "Byrds of Paradise" (8 p.m.-9 p.m., WJZ, Channel 13) -- Timothy Busfield of "thirtysomething" stars as a recent widower who packs off his kids and dog and moves to Hawaii, to take a job as a headmaster of a small prep school. There are enough quirky characters to make this tropical series a sort of "Southern Exposure," but the real focus is the family drama itself.

FRIDAY 'Hamlet': Talk about family drama - with Hamlet, Shakespeare spun a classic tale of murder and revenge. Starting this weekend, the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival tackles the theatrical masterpiece, adapted and directed by Michael Carleton. Hamlet runs through July 26 at the Meadow at Evergreen Museum and Library, 4545 N. Charles St. Tickets are $10-$25. Call 410-366-8596 or go to baltimoreshakespeare.org. 'Bloodlines': Dan Baum's Bloodlines follows Sarah Friedman, a college student who begins to second-guess her identity when she heads home for Passover and finds ... family drama.

Flute and guitar make the music at Walters Art GalleryThe timbres of the flute and guitar combine beautifully. They can be heard together this afternoon at 2 when the fine guitar-flute duo of Benjamin Verdery and flutist Rie Schmidt performs at the Walters Art Gallery. Their program, which features some of Verdery's own compositions, includes music by the wonderful Brazilian composer of tangos, Astor Piazzola, and Toru Takemitsu's atmospheric "Toward the Sea." Tickets for the concert are $15; $12 for museum members and seniors.

FRIDAY 'Hamlet': Talk about family drama - with Hamlet, Shakespeare spun a classic tale of murder and revenge. Starting this weekend, the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival tackles the theatrical masterpiece, adapted and directed by Michael Carleton. Hamlet runs through July 26 at the Meadow at Evergreen Museum and Library, 4545 N. Charles St. Tickets are $10-$25. Call 410-366-8596 or go to baltimoreshakespeare.org. 'Bloodlines': Dan Baum's Bloodlines follows Sarah Friedman, a college student who begins to second-guess her identity when she heads home for Passover and finds ... family drama.

As the third and final production of its opening season, Standing O is introducing its Chesapeake Academy black box theater audience to British playwright William Nicholson's The Retreat from Moscow. With this play, Standing O founder and artistic director Ron Giddings continues the mission of Anne Arundel County's newest theater company to offer little-known recent theater gems to local audiences. Nominated for three Tony Awards in 2004, The Retreat from Moscow tells the story of an English couple, Edward and Alice, who are dealing with a dying marriage of three decades.

Biting comedy, award-winning reality TV and the start of a new season for a great family drama are available this weekend. CHRIS ROCK IS BACK TV comedy does not get much better than Chris Rock's HBO shows. Premium cable has the freedom not to bleep Rock, and that makes a difference. The language that some consider harsh is crucial to the biting edge that Rock brings to his keen social insights. (9 p.m. tomorrow, HBO) *** "THE AMAZING RACE" BEGINS AGAIN The reality show that keeps winning Emmys returns for a new season on CBS. (8 p.m. Sunday, CBS)

Letter from Point Clear By Dennis McFarland Henry Holt and Company / 320 pages / $25 Bonnie Owen has been saved. At least, Pastor Vandorpe, her blue-eyed, charismatic, 25-year-old husband, thinks she's been saved. Teetering on the edge between belief and unbelief, 30-year-old Bonnie isn't sure. "How do you know you're not just doing whatever you damn well please and because you prayed for guidance you just imagine you're being guided?" she asks. That's the question behind Dennis McFarland's sixth novel, Letter from Point Clear.

Brotherhood is not The Sopranos. Nothing is. Nevertheless, comparisons between the new Showtime series and the HBO classic are as inevitable as they are unfair. Brotherhood 10 p.m. Sundays on Showtime (encores include 9 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays).

The drama Beautiful People certainly delivers on its title. It presents marvelous moms, drop-dead daughters, stellar students and comely cads. Most of the beautiful people - or "BPs" - attend a prestigious New York high school. Gideon, an endearing geek, explains the importance of the "BP" title. "It's just much easier to loathe something when it has a name," he says. It would be easy to loathe Beautiful People, a family drama that debuts at 9 p.m. tomorrow on the ABC Family cable channel.

Many years have passed since I was a child, but I still remember the excitement as I counted down the days until it was finally Christmas.Probably my best and most vivid memories of Christmas center on the activities leading up to the holiday.Visits to see Santa Claus, community events, church plays, caroling and, of course, decorating, are among my most cherished memories. Now that I am a parent, I feel fortunate that I can share some of those same holiday traditions with my family.Take time this week to check out some of the Christmas events in central Carroll.

Three heavily armed men are faced off against each other in a bombed-out shell of a stone hut somewhere in Afghanistan. One is an American who is talking fast, trying to strike a deal with the others. It looks and sounds like a drug deal, when suddenly something goes wrong. Bullets fly, bodies fall. The sequence ends when an Afghani intentionally steps on a land mine rather than surrender. The American walks away covered in blood. This is the start of Traffic: The Miniseries, a six-hour film about international drug-trafficking, terrorism and America-as-world-policeman airing tonight through Wednesday on the USA cable channel.

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - The final 15 minutes of Terri Schiavo's life were filled with family warfare - her brother locked out of her room, her husband and his lawyers at her bedside, a police officer standing between the battling relatives. At the end, Schiavo was described as dying a peaceful death about 9 a.m. yesterday - white lilies and roses near her bed, a tabby cat stuffed animal by her side, the hum of protesters and news crews inaudible in her quiet hospice room. About an hour after her death, Brother Paul O'Donnell, the spiritual adviser to Schiavo's parents, delivered the news to the dozens of people assembled outside the hospice.

Less than two years after presenting its first production, Bay Theatre Company has solidified its reputation for producing thought-provoking plays interpreted by skilled professional actors. Bay Theatre's sixth play introduces the unforgettable trio of wonderfully dysfunctional siblings who inhabit Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning dark comedy Crimes of the Heart. Director Paula Gruskiewicz has assembled a stunning cast to tell the story of the Magrath sisters gathering at the family homestead in response to the terminal illness of the grandfather who raised them after their mother's suicide.