Style gets serious; the social life of dinosaurs

From SouthCoastToday: Style gets serious; the social life of dinosaurs
By Kevin McDonough

A challenging combination of high fashion and personal tragedy, “Baring it All” (9 p.m., Saturday, Style) is the first of several thought-provoking documentaries from the network best known for “Clean House.”

“Baring it All” follows fashion photographer David Jay, who began a photographic series, “The Scar Project,” to draw attention to breast cancer survivors in their 20s and 30s. At a time when most of their contemporaries were still carefree, these women received a life-altering diagnosis, followed by treatments that robbed them of their hair, their breasts and much of their sense of vitality and femininity.

Jay has gone on to photograph women in various states of their treatment and recovery, offering stark, unforgettable images of powerful, resilient women who refuse to become invisible victims.

– What's scarier than a dinosaur? Dinosaurs! Lots of them. The special “Dino Gangs” (8 p.m., Saturday, Discovery) blends expert paleontology and computer animation to speculate on the social lives of giant reptiles and the dire implication of cold-blooded monsters joining forces for the kill.

We tend to think of dinosaurs as solitary creatures because so many of their skeletons have been found alone. Paleontologist Phil Currie combed the dinosaur boneyards of the Gobi Desert to discover the mingled remains of 90 Tarbosaurus. Using computer graphics and 3-D modeling, he shares his theories on how they might have lived, roamed and killed as a social organization.

– Combining computer graphics and live-action performances, “A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!” (8 p.m., Saturday, Nickelodeon) celebrates the series' 10th anniversary. It features network regulars Drake Bell (“Drake & Josh”) and Daniella Monet (“Victorious”) as it explores the not-so grown-up life of 23-year-old Timmy Turner (Bell), who just can't let the fairy godparents go. Perhaps he should just watch “Toy Story 3” for some pointers.

– A cause for celebration for many, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (10 p.m., Sunday, HBO, TV-MA) returns for its eighth season. As we've come to expect from this series and the “Seinfeld” series that “Curb” star Larry David co-created, the comedy here is all about radical selfishness taken to absurd extremes. And if a theme emerges from these brilliantly small, tightly written minuets of pure silliness, it's that selfish pursuits can sometimes result in moments of nobility -- no matter how unintended.

In an upcoming episode, Larry and his sidekick manager Jeff Garlin develop a taste for Palestinian chicken sold at a restaurant festooned with posters condemning Israel. Torn between his appetites and his ethnic loyalties, Larry ups the ante and embarks on a wild affair with an anti-Semitic Palestinian waitress.

Not to give too much away, but he ends up torn between his new lover and his gang of friends, who join a noisy mob protesting the right of a Palestinian chicken joint to open up next to the “sacred ground” of a Jewish deli. However slight the story, this clearly echoes recent efforts in New York to keep a mosque from opening near the site of the old World Trade Center. Just as “Seinfeld” could turn issues as thorny as abortion into pure comedy, “Curb” manages to blend the ridiculous and profound in ways that will leave you breathless from laughing and amazed that comedy so petty could also be so audacious. And we expect no less from the mind of Larry David.

– The new series “The Indestructibles” (10 p.m., Sunday, National Geographic) revisits news footage of horrific accidents and offers theories about how some victims survived. First up: the crash of a local news helicopter on a Brooklyn roof.