Up & Coming Weekly

26 UCW NOVEMBER 18-24, 2009 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Nova's What Are Dreams? (Tuesday, 8 p.m., PBS) wafts into a shadowy, mysterious realm and comes back with solid answers. The episode explores re- cent advances in brain science that have shed light on the purpose of dreams. Researchers hook subjects up with electrodes to monitor their brain waves as they sleep. Then they wake up the subjects at various stages to ask them what they were dreaming about. The experiments have shown that dreaming exists to help improve our memory, our creativity and our ability to deal with waking life. I'm particularly curious about what it means to have recurrent dreams about Hollywood beauty Amy Adams. If scientists are interested, I happen to have reams of data. Terror in Mumbai Thursday, 8 pm (HBO) This horrifying documentary puts us right inside the 2008 Mumbai ter- rorist attack, in which 10 extremists wreaked havoc with bombs and assault rifles. Security cameras and intercepted cell phone calls allow us to experience the terrorists' point of view as they took orders from their Pakistani conrollers, who instructed them to kill in God's name. "You are close to heaven," says a controller as the men aim for women holding their babies. Somewhere, God is weeping (I hope). Fanboy and Chum Chum Saturday, 10:30 am (Nickelodeon) This new cartoon series is not exactly likable — in fact, it mostly tries to be annoying. But it is undeniably awesome. Fanboy and Chum Chum are squeaky-voiced 11-year-olds who live in a drearily ordinary world. But through their bulging white eyes, everything looks extraordinary. They wear superhero cowls and capes and bounce from one ab- surd adventure to another. Everything is extreme in this cartoon universe, from the sound effects to the score to the movements. The characters' huge teeth barely fit into their glistening CGI heads. The writing drips with adult irony, as when Fanboy meets a wizard: "Are you classically trained or self-taught?" Fanboy and Chum Chum is a direct descendant of the Surrealist film masterpieces of the 1920s. Back then, the avant-gardists aimed to "smash the bourgeoisie." If they were working today, though, they'd obviously be making Saturday morning cartoons for the bourgeoisie's children. American Music Awards Sunday, 8 pm (ABC) At September's MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West stormed onto the stage to voice his objection when Taylor Swift beat Beyonce in the Best Female Video category. Beyonce and Swift are again nominees at the American Music Awards; one hopes the producers have thought to install a trap door near the podium. Bill Engvall: Aged and Confused Sunday, 9 pm (Comedy Central) I like The Bill Engvall Show, the TBS sitcom in which Engvall plays an amiably put-upon dad. But the sitcom has several advantages over Engvall's new standup special on Comedy Central, including the fact that it's only a half-hour. Spending 60 minutes with Engvall's amiably put-upon act feels like way too much. He riffs on the idea that he's past his prime: no longer sexy to women, no longer able to understand the younger generation, etc. Things aren't what they used to be, he suggests; then again, neither are Engvall's punchlines. Note to Comedy Central: When you book a comedian who is in his prime, let us know. Follow That Dream Nova Brings Science Into Our Sleep TV by DEAN ROBBINS

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