Showtime

Passengers on Southwest Airlines will soon get v ideos beamed straight to their smartphones or tablets via Wi-Fi. Offerings to include the Three Stooges. Now we're talking!

Sherlock 9 p.m., Channel 2 A second season? Elementary, my dear viewers. Pictured: Martin Freeman (left) and Benedict Cumberbatch. The Comedy Awards 9 p.m., Comedy Central Kudos for chortles. The Amazing Race 8 p.m., Channel 4 Crossing the finish line. Nurse Jackie 9 p.m., Showtime Becoming patient. GCB 10 p.m., Channel 5 CUL8R

With their profile on the rise, the Miami Marlins are getting a TV show. This season the Marlins will be the focus of Showtime's documentary series, "The Franchise. " That means unprecedented exposure for a team that has finished last in the NL in attendance each of the past seven seasons. Showtime and Major League Baseball Productions announced the decision Monday and said the Marlins were an appealing choice as a team in transition. They hired Ozzie Guillen as manager and spent $191 million to sign All-Stars Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell, and they anticipate sellout crowds...

With their profile on the rise, the Miami Marlins are getting a TV show. This season the Marlins will be the focus of Showtime's documentary series, "The Franchise. " That means unprecedented exposure for a team that has finished last in the NL in attendance each of the past seven seasons. Showtime and Major League Baseball Productions announced the decision Monday and said the Marlins were an appealing choice as a team in transition. They hired Ozzie Guillen as manager and spent $191 million to sign All-Stars Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell, and they anticipate sellout crowds...

QUANTUM OF SOLACE (Showtime on Comcast) Daniel Craig returns for another stint as James Bond. After the tragic dimensions of “Casino Royale,’’ round two is business as usual, with Bond swinging from one poorly orchestrated set piece to the next. (PG-13; runs through Aug. 24) WESLEY MORRIS 16 BLOCKS (Comcast Movies: All Movies) Hung over and limping, with a weaselly mustache, Bruce Willis is commanded to pick up a convict (Mos Def)

The Showtime television network says it is preparing a new documentary on former Vice President Dick Cheney. Showtime said Thursday that filmmaker R.J. Cutler, who made "The War Room" about Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992, will make the film. No date was set for airing. Cutler called Cheney, who was George W. Bush's vice president, "perhaps the single most influential non-president in the nation's political history. " He promised a balanced and multi-dimensional look at Cheney.

Sherlock 9 p.m., Channel 2 A second season? Elementary, my dear viewers. Pictured: Martin Freeman (left) and Benedict Cumberbatch. The Comedy Awards 9 p.m., Comedy Central Kudos for chortles. The Amazing Race 8 p.m., Channel 4 Crossing the finish line. Nurse Jackie 9 p.m., Showtime Becoming patient. GCB 10 p.m., Channel 5 CUL8R

MATTHEW GILBERT'S PICKS ■BREAKING BAD (AMC) ■HOMELAND (Showtime) ■GAME OF THRONES (HBO) ■SHAMELESS (Showtime) ■PARKS AND RECREATION, 30 ROCK, and COMMUNITY (NBC Thursdays) ■DOWNTON ABBEY (PBS) ■LOUIE (FX) ■JUSTIFIED (FX) ■BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO) ■ENLIGHTENMENT (HBO)

Love Takes Wing 9 p.m., Hallmark Channel I don't think you'll want to laugh at Cloris Leachman in this tearjerker. Sarah Jones stars as a doctor in the Wild West, Haylie Duff plays her best friend, and Leachman is in charge of an orphanage whose kids are dying from an unknown ailment. The Tudors Tomorrow at 9 p.m., Showtime Oh that Henry VIII. He's so bratty. Showtime's picturesque melodrama returns for its third season, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the petulant king.

CITY OF GHOSTS ** (Showtime on Comcast) Matt Dillon steps behind the camera to direct a moral thriller about American con men in over their heads in Southeast Asia. Graham Greene it's not. The performances are pungent, though, particularly James Caan as an old rascal with dreams of carpet-bagging glory. Cliches abound, but give Dillon credit for dragging a crew to Cambodia and bringing back an ambitious, intermittently moving film. (R; runs through Dec. 6) TY BURR HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS *** (Showtime on Comcast)

ST. LOUIS - Singer David Peaston, who had a string of R&B hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, has died, his family said Thursday. Mr. Peaston, 54, died Wednesday of complications of diabetes, said his niece, Neuka Mitchell. Mr. Peaston was born into a St. Louis family with deep musical roots. His mother, gospel singer Martha Bass, was one of the Clara Ward Singers. His older sister, Fontella Bass, is a noted singer whose single "Rescue Me" reached charted in 1965.

The Showtime television network says it is preparing a new documentary on former Vice President Dick Cheney. Showtime said Thursday that filmmaker R.J. Cutler, who made "The War Room" about Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992, will make the film. No date was set for airing. Cutler called Cheney, who was George W. Bush's vice president, "perhaps the single most influential non-president in the nation's political history. " He promised a balanced and multi-dimensional look at Cheney.

Shameless Sunday 9 p.m., Showtime The lying, boozing, thieving, and loving Gallagher clan returns for a second round in this pay cable exercise in schadenfreude, based on a British series. Wobbly patriach Frank (William H. Macy, pictured) is still stumbling around looking for ways to shirk work and guzzle booze while his kids struggle to make ends meet. This will lead to waitressing for daughter Fiona (Emmy Rossum), an ice cream/pot truck for brothers Lip (Jeremy Allen White) and Ian (Cameron Monaghan)

From Enron's collapse to the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, corporate greed has plunged the U.S. into recession, toppled overseas economies and inspired the worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement. But that doesn't mean we can't laugh at it. "House of Lies," a new dark comedy premiering Sunday on Showtime, takes direct aim at the one percent. Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell star as management consultants who visit struggling companies around the country to provide dubious but expensive advice, all while having a good time on the company dime.

MATTHEW GILBERT'S PICKS ■BREAKING BAD (AMC) ■HOMELAND (Showtime) ■GAME OF THRONES (HBO) ■SHAMELESS (Showtime) ■PARKS AND RECREATION, 30 ROCK, and COMMUNITY (NBC Thursdays) ■DOWNTON ABBEY (PBS) ■LOUIE (FX) ■JUSTIFIED (FX) ■BOARDWALK EMPIRE (HBO) ■ENLIGHTENMENT (HBO)

STAGE BEAUTY **½ (Showtime on Comcast) Richard Eyre's drama is about Restoration stage heroines and the men who play them, and comparisons to "Shakespeare in Love" are both inevitable and unfortunate. As Edward Kynaston, the leading lady of the 1660 London theatre world, Billy Crudup finds freedom and mischief in the artifices of femininity. He's also pretty cute playing Desdemona in a wig, and he knows it. Costarring Claire Danes and Rupert Everett as Charles II. (R; runs through Dec. 20)