Robert Lloyd Review-O-Rama: “Under the Influence,” “Scare Tactics,” “Bikini or Bust”

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Short reviews of coming distractions.

“Elvis Mitchell: Under the Influence” (TCM, Mondays, 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.). It’s always a pleasure to hear people talk intelligently about what they do –- something that happens too rarely in the product-pushing, gossip-addressing world of celebrity television. This new series -- hosted by Mitchell (of public radio’s “The Treatment” and, I should tell you, my former colleague at the also-former Los Angeles Herald-Examiner) -- is ostensibly about what goes into forming an individual creative intelligence, but it doesn’t much stick to its theme. (The better to converse.) Late director-actor Sydney Pollack opens the series tonight, name-checking Fellini, Antonioni, Kurosawa, Godard and Truffaut -- directors you might not immediately associate with the man who made “The Way We Were” and “Tootsie.” Next week brings an unusually thoughtful Bill Murray, who takes a sort of analytical taste test of golden-age movie stars, muses upon the actor’s “physical intelligence” and remembers getting an education in American silent film while living in Paris. It becomes clear here in a way that shouldn’t be surprising, but still sort of is, that Murray is not a comedian who became an actor but has been an actor all along, and has thought long on his craft and the medium that contains it. Turner owns every movie in the world, so illustrative clips are not a problem.

“Scare Tactics” (Sci Fi, premieres Wednesday, July 9, 10 p.m.). Revival of a fitfully interesting hidden-camera prank show, in which unsuspecting marks find themselves thrust into scenarios out of horror and sci-fi films. The lesson of the show, not that it is necessarily intended as such, is how easily human beings can mistake B-movie hokum for reality, although you only have to look at how people behave in the actual world to come to the same conclusion: that our minds have been institutionally primed for nonsense is what makes this show possible. Working at this or that temp job, the victims are suddenly faced with bizarre (yet somehow familiar) events: A woman gives birth to the spawn of Satan, a bad boss throws workers in the wood chipper, a hot-line operator faces a nut with a knife. The stunt goes on until the victim is made to say, “Yes, I’m scared,” at which point the lights come up and everyone has a good laugh. More funny strange than funny ha-ha, and the gag gets old but is still worth a look. New host Tracy Morgan on “30 Rock” is one of the funniest men alive, but here he is not.

‘Bikini or Bust’ after the jump.

“Bikini or Bust” (TLC, premieres Friday, July 11, 10 p.m.). A Bravo-style entrepreneurial reality series centered on Hollywood bikini designer Ashley Paige, who, despite her big-name clientele, lives on the edge of penury, scrambling to pay bills or avoid paying them. “I’m an artist,” she says. “I’m obviously not a businessman.”The series is amiable and low-wattage, happily short on the screaming and sulking common to the genre, and while it’s not terrifically compelling, neither is it annoying. Everyone here seems fundamentally nice, including the star’s small band of affectionately long-suffering employees, the fashion pros who give her business advice and her Southern mother (also her roommate), who drives Paige crazy in her attempts to bring a little stability into their lives. (“I’m supposed to be retired,” says Mom, whose appearances typically are accompanied by “comedy music.”) Some of it is forced, as these things always are, and Paige’s haplessness can be trying, but at least she isn’t, on this evidence, a prima donna. It’s best when you’re allowed to see her really work, as when she mounts a runway show of her knit and crocheted swimwear –- when reality breaks through the “reality,” letting the air in.

-- Robert Lloyd

(Photo courtesy Sci Fi)