FX, 8:00 p.m. ET
With Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty movie, her account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden, about to hit theaters nationwide, this is the perfect time to revisit her 2008 war movie about a bomb-defusing military team in Baghdad, for which she won the Oscar for Outstanding Director. Written by Mark Boal, who reteamed with Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty. Jeremy Renner stars.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Billy Wilder is remembered more for directing lighter fare, but this 1944 classic is about as dark as film noir gets. Fred MacMurray stars as an insurance agent who gets intrigued, and played, by a femme fatale, portrayed by a tougher-than-nails Barbra Stanwyck.
BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET
Bel and Freddie (Romola Garai, Ben Whishaw) pitch another journalistic expose – and this time, quite intentionally, the target hits close to home.
E!, 10:00 p.m. ET
It would take a lot to get me to recommend this daily summary of pop culture bottom-feeding – but tonight’s edition isn’t a daily wrap-up. It condenses the whole eight-year run of Joel McHale’s The Soup, presenting the worst of the worst, so to speak, in an eye-opening special that, no kidding, is tied to the impending Mayan Apocalypse. Tonight’s installment even has a title: End of the World – We Told You So. Promised to make the cut: Spaghetti Cat.
The Movie Channel, 10:00 p.m. ET
Sofia Coppola wrote and directed this 2003 character study, which gave plum roles to two actors who benefited from the exposure: veteran comic actor Bill Murray, who shines in a very serious role of an American celebrity enduring a work trip to Tokyo, and young actress Scarlett Johansson, who shines just as much in one of several roles that quickly enhanced her reputation as a serious actress.