Prime choice

Californication

• 10:30 p.m. Mondays, Showtime

The show: A new comedy starring David Duchovny

When: 10:30 p.m. Mondays

Where: Showtime

It is a question worthy of The X-Files: Whatever happened to David Duchovny?

The actor who achieved fame as FBI agent Fox Mulder returns to series TV tonight with Californication, a 30-minute comedy on Showtime that satirizes life as a writer in Los Angeles.

It's a comedy with an edge: dark, satiric and mildly profane.

Duchovny's Hank Moody was a successful New York novelist whose first book, God Hates Us All, has been turned into a cheesy romantic comedy starring Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. He hates it.

He also hates that he has writer's block, which is his major dilemma in the first episode. To combat it, he tools around L.A. trying to bed forbidden women (other people's wives, girlfriends, even his ex-girlfriend).

Speaking of his ex (Natascha McElhone), she's left Hank for a rich guy, yet they remain in touch thanks to their 12-year- old daughter, Becca (Madeleine Martin), a precocious lass who finds a naked woman in her father's bed and doesn't bat an eye.

This is family dysfunction L.A. style.

It's hard to know where Californication is heading, but it's clear there will be lots of sex (sometimes amusing, as in the woman who likes to slug Hank during coitus), and lots of self-hating dialogue. Hank is mad at the world. He also has a penchant for speaking his mind rather than filtering his thought through good manners. If you ask him a question, be prepared for a surly answer.

If you like Duchovny, this show should appeal to you. There's still the wry humor he brought to Mulder, but a newfound freedom on cable. The first episode is far from great, but it's promising. On television, that's as good as gold.

Tuesday

Dirty Jobs

• 7 p.m., Discovery

The show: Think your job stinks? Host Mike Rowe takes on unusual and occasionally unsavory occupations, bringing humor to the down-and-dirty proceedings that find him in tight spots, smelly conditions and unsanitary circumstances. Rowe keeps his chin up while performing the sometimes unpleasant tasks, whether knee-deep in bat guano or molding garden pots out of cow manure. In a new episode, Rowe helps a team of workers banding and counting newly hatched herons on a guano-covered island. Then at 10 p.m., he tries to revive fainting goats, helps breed exotic insects and removes tree stumps.

Wednesday

Last Comic Standing

• 8 p.m., 9News

The show: Which would you rather watch: a bunch of guys driving around in circles, turning left, then left, then left . . .? Or six comics who are assigned to induce quick guffaws from disparate people - including models from Deal or No Deal (break out the metal briefcase gag) - in a challenge titled "Speed Laughing"? Then, the contestants square off in the last head-to-head showdown.

Thursday

So You Think You Can Dance

• 7 p.m., Fox 31

The show: Fort Collins' Sara Von Gillern added local interest to this show until her elimination Aug. 3. Tune in to see who could have topped the former Nuggets hip-hopper as America's favorite dancer. We're biased, but we also know the best singer doesn't always win American Idol.

Friday

Psych

• 8 p.m., USA

The show: On an episode titled Meat Is Murder, But Murder Is Also Murder, Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dulé Hill) take on the case of a chef accused of murdering a food critic with poisonous mushrooms.

Saturday

Broncos at Cowboys

• 6 p.m., CBS 4

The game: To most of Denver, it really doesn't matter what else is happening in the world, let alone on television, when the home team takes the field. This week, it'll be one of the last looks Denverites will get at the Cowboys' longtime home stadium in Irving, Texas. In '09, they move to Arlington, site of the 2011 Super Bowl. Oh yeah, and there's a football game - it's like soccer except players wear helmets, can use their hands and whack each other really hard.

Sunday

High School Musical 2

• 9 p.m., Disney

The show: Superb sequel focuses on the efforts of Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) to lure Troy (Zac Efron) away from his girlfriend Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) by getting him hired for the summer at a posh country club where she can keep an eye on him. Unfortunately for Sharpay, Troy gets his Wildcat buddies hired at the club as well.

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