Weekend TV: 'Touch,' 'Grammys,' 'Dead'

by Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Posted February 7, 2013

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If you were hoping that the 'Touch' producers would use the off-season to shore up the show's weaknesses, you'll be disappointed in Friday's Season 2 premiere starring Kiefer Sutherland, left and David Mazouz. (Credit: Isabella Vosmikova, Fox)

Touch| Fox, Friday, 8 ET/PT

You can't fix a mess by piling another mess on top of it. Yet that's what Touch tries to do in Friday's two-hour season premiere, retaining its daft and increasingly dimwitted story of a boy who sees connections everywhere, while layering on a standard-issue corporate conspiracy. As a result, a show that already boasted some of the laziest storytelling on TV is now lazy on two fronts, using the fantasy's coincidental "connections" to plug plot holes while adding one of those omnipresent hackers to move the conspiracy plot along. And to think Fox is wasting an actor and star of the caliber of Kiefer Sutherland on a show like this. Criminal.

Grammy Awards | CBS, Sunday, 8 ET/PT

Remember when the Grammys were considered stodgy and out-of-touch? Not being a music critic, I can't say whether that's still true of the awards themselves - but it certainly doesn't apply to the broadcast, which has become one of the most entertaining and buzzed-over of all the awards shows, to the point where last year, it even topped the Oscars in viewership. It's built that popularity by making the awards secondary to the performances, and by allowing or even encouraging the performers to be outrageous. So who will attract the most chatter come Monday? Among those in the running: The Black Keys, fun., Frank Ocean, Taylor Swift, Elton John, Maroon 5, Justin Timberlake, Kelly Clarkson and Bruno Mars. Nothing much stodgy about that lineup.

The Walking Dead | AMC, Sunday, 9 ET/PT

One of cable's best and most popular series returns from its two-month layoff with Rick and the governor poised, it seems, for war. As if the living weren't under enough of a threat from the dead. Fans of this extremely scary series are under a threat of their own: the departure, after this season's remaining eight episodes, of show-runner Glen Mazzara, who guided Dead to its current ratings heights. Still, for the next two months, enjoy the present. The future will, or won't, take care of itself.