Sex and the City's Nixon is in the House

Photo: Cynthia Nixon.

NEW YORK- Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon will make a guest appearance on an upcoming episode of the Fox medical drama House. The episode is slated to air in December, the network said Friday. Nixon will play a "sharp-witted patient who suffers from a mysterious seizure and goes toe-to-toe" with Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), while he and his team try to discover the source of her ailment. Last season, the 39-year-old actress played a soccer mom who suffers a stroke and is rushed to the emergency room in an episode on NBC's ER. Nixon played Miranda Hobbes on Sex and the City. She won an Emmy for her role on the HBO show. House is on a break as Fox covers the Major League Baseball playoffs, but will return in early November.
 

Fine tuning: Naked Archeologist, Vegas

The Naked Archeologist. VisionTV

Photo: Lara Flynn Boyle joins the cast of Las Vegas in a show that also features a performance by the Pussycat Dolls on Monday night. (NBC.com)

On a Thanksgiving night when Major League Baseball playoffs continue to throw a curveball into regularly scheduled programs and the pagan U.S. networks are trotting out the usual murder and mayhem -- tonight, on CSI Miami, Horatio solves a prison murder! -- now might be a good time to belly up to The Naked Archeologist, if you haven't done so already. The Naked Archeologist is a Discovery-style weekly program that follows irrepressible Toronto filmmaker and amateur archeologist Simcha Jacobovici on a pilgrimage to the Middle East to expose Biblical history. More Jamie Oliver than Indiana Jones -- hence the "Naked" part -- Jacobovici is larger-than-life, figuratively and literally. He sticks his shaggy head into caves, kicks up dust at archeological digs and gets in the face of innumerable on-site experts in his quest to uncover the truth behind historical myths and legends. He's loud. He's aggressive. He laughs constantly. He's unafraid to ask pointed questions of learned professors, academics and other assorted pointy heads with letters after their names. Some of them appear to be pained by the intrusion, but that doesn't dissuade him: He barrels on, determined to get to the truth. He pretends to be dumb but in truth he's anything but. He says he's an amateur but it's obvious from a single viewing that he could teach the pros a thing or two. His zeal is contagious. A colleague finds him irritating, but I don't agree. The I Am Canadian guy is irritating. Ben Mulroney is irritating. Andrew Younghusband is irritating. The Naked Archeologist is more endearing -- though, personally, I'd prefer it if he kept his clothes on. Which, thankfully, he does, most of the time. In tonight's outing, Fame & Forgery, Jacobovici finds out why the Israel Antiquities Authority limits access to certain artifacts, and uncovers the truth behind one of archeology's most infamous scams: the fabrication of an entire culture, complete with artifacts that made their way into some of the world's most prestigious museums. He's a mythmaker and myth buster all in one, and he's a blast to watch. 

Prison Break (repeat; check listings in your area). Global and/or Fox

Prison Break has defied expectations since its debut little more than a month ago. Most new series that start with a bang, fizzle by the second or third episode, but Prison Break, if anything, has ratcheted up the tension even more with each succeeding week. Tonight, in back-to-back repeats from last month -- thanks to baseball playoffs, new episodes won't return until Oct. 24 -- Stacy Keach's prison warden finds himself at the centre of a blackmail scheme and an unanticipated prison riot threatens to derail Michael Scofield's (Wentworth Miller) carefully laid escape plans. The first episode is slowly paced, by Prison Break's standards -- Prison Break has to be the most urgent, cliffhanger-driven rollercoaster ride this side of 24 -- but features much of the irony-laden dialogue the series has become known for, including a scene in which Sarah Wayne Callies's prison doctor tells a death-row inmate (Dominic Purcell), "letting the state know that you're healthy enough to execute is not why I went to medical school." The second episode, directed with pressure-cooker precision by Australian feature-film director Robert Mandel -- he also directed the pilot episode of The X-Files and has several episodes of Lost on his resume -- devolves into a full-blown prison riot, and features much of the same wry humour. In one disarming moment, for example, Michael Scofield's cellmate, "T-Bag," tells him, "Either I'm through that hole with you, or I'm gonna sing like Johnny Cash." Like 24 before it, Prison Break doesn't quite hold up on second viewing. Even a Prison Break repeat is preferable to some of the night's first-run options, though. 

Into the West. CBC, 8 p.m.

This lumbering, Old West-themed, filmed-in-Alberta miniseries, which re-imagines Wagon Train through the prism of Dances with Wolves, reaches the end of the trail in tonight's two-hour conclusion. The finale culminates in the massacre of Plains Indians at Wounded Knee on New Year's Day, 1891, and the carnage is not easy to watch. The saga ends with the prophet Loved by the Buffalo (Joseph M. Marshall III) returning to the Wheeler homestead, his prophetic vision now complete, where he links arms with Margaret Light Shines (Irene Bedard) and their adoptive family, before riding off into the proverbial sunset. I found Into the West to be obvious and leaden-handed, but there are those who disagree: The average customer review on Amazon.com's DVD site is four of a five possible stars, and the postings feature such positive remarks as, "finally, history as it really happened!" and, "moved me to tears." Myself, I'm more with the reviewer who wrote, "an OK epic," but that's just me. Whether you decide to watch is entirely up to you. 

Las Vegas. CH and NBC, 9 p.m. 

Watching Las Vegas isn't a gamble, really. Unlike the real thing, what you see is what you get. The Pussycat Dolls and professional poker player Annie Duke appear as themselves in tonight's episode, as regulars Danny (Josh Duhamel) and Penny (Rachel Leigh Cook) heat up their romance. Jillian (Cheryl Ladd) sprains her ankle and talks Ed (James Caan) into walking the family dog at a local dog show. Meanwhile, back at the casino, Monica (Lara Flynn Boyle) is trapped in the shower and calls on Mike (James Lesure) to rescue her. No, it's not a comedy. You may laugh, though. Go ahead -- feel free. It's Las Vegas. It's not meant to be taken seriously.