Big screen

Opening Friday

Argo (R) Director Ben Affleck ( Gone Baby Gone, The Town) continues to stretch with this riveting, fact-based story about an attempt to rescue six Americans during the Iran hostage crisis in 1979.

Here Comes the Boom (PG-13) A biology teacher (Kevin James) becomes a mixed martial arts fighter to raise funds and save the school’s music program — and discovers he’s pretty good at beating other guys up.

Seven Psychopaths (R) Martin McDonagh, writer-director of In Bruges, returns with this violent comedy about a screenwriter (Colin Farrell) whose wacky friends (Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell) kidnap a gangster’s dog. There will be blood. Buckets, even.

The Paperboy (R) Director Lee Daniels ( Precious) adapts Pete Dexter’s novel about a journalist (Matthew McConaughey) who returns to his home turf of the South Florida swamplands to investigate a story. His younger brother (Zak Efron), disgraced after having been kicked out of college, has been reduced to delivering newspapers for a living. Nicole Kidman, John Cusack and Macy Gray play some of the other townsfolk.

Keep the Lights On (unrated) Director Ira Sachs’ acclaimed drama charts the ups and downs of a relationship between two men (Thure Lindhardt and Zachary Booth) in late 1990s Manhattan.

Rene Rodriguez

Small screen

Curiosity: Plane Crash (7 p.m. Sunday, Discovery) Idly wondering what happens in a plane crash, the guys at Discovery Channel filled a Boeing 727 full of half a million bucks worth of crash test dummies and nose-dived it into the Sonoran desert. Their shocking conclusion: It’s totally unpleasant for the passengers. Kinda cool for viewers, though.

Steel Magnolias (9 p.m. Sunday, Lifetime) The 1989 film about birth, death, hair and nails, remade by Queen Latifah with an all-black cast.

Titanic: Blood And Steel (8 p.m. Monday, Encore) Long before 1,502 passengers and crew members went down with the Titanic, the ship had already cost more than 100 lives during the 15 years it took to build the ship in Belfast. This 12-part miniseries — with a mostly Brit cast, though colonists Chris Noth and Neve Campbell are along for the ride — airs over six consecutive nights.

Gossip Girl (9 p.m. Monday, The CW) The Upper East Side’s Queens of Mean (well, princesses, anyway) kick off their sixth and final season.

Nashville (10 p.m. Wednesday, ABC) This country-and-western-scented soap, with Connie Britton ( Friday Night Lights) as a fading star and Hayden Panettiere ( Heroes) as the ruthlessly ambitious kid who aims to take her place, is grandly entertaining. For a full review, see page 1M.

Beauty and the Beast (9 p.m. Thursday, The CW) A reimagining of the romantic fairy tale as a police procedural, with a young female homicide getting investigative help — and really amazing hickies — from her new werewolf boyfriend. Peculiar, but not without merit.

American Horror House (9 p.m. Saturday, Syfy) Sorority girls are plagued by ghosts and a serial killer. I guess this hazing stuff really is getting out of hand.

Glenn Garvin

Let Miami Herald TV critic Glenn Garvin program your TiVo! Just click on his best bets for the week at http://www3.tivo.com/tivo-tco/mix/index.do