- A closeup look at tonight's TV

Watching the quiet, moody, tightly wound mid-season return of The Walking Dead tonight, it's hard to believe that, at its heart, The Walking Dead was meant to be little more than another trashy TV thriller.

And yet, there are scenes in tonight's hour so poignant, so sad and so beautifully acted, it's as if one is watching something else entirely. Because what The Walking Dead has, that most pulp fiction lacks, is a throbbing, beating heart.

Tonight's episode picks up in the moments immediately following December's fall finale, in which a band of vigilante survivors gunned down the zombies they discovered in farmer Hershel Greene's (Scott Wilson) barn. Greene had hidden the zombies, which included members of his own family, in hopes that a cure might be found one day and they would be saved. Only one of the zombies turned out to be the little girl Sophia (Madison Lintz), whom the survivors had searched so long and hard for. The Walking Dead's reluctant hero, an increasingly rattled Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), walked up and put Sophia out of her misery, while her distraught mother looked on.

Tonight's hour opens with Carol (Melissa McBride), Sophia's mother, on the verge of falling apart while the group buries their dead. Greene, morose and blaming himself for what happened, vanishes suddenly, and Grimes resolves to find him and bring him back to the group. A trip to the nearby abandoned town follows, and a moment of unspeakable tension.

To the uninitiated, The Walking Dead must sound like pulp trash, but it's actually quite solemn and elegiac - profound, even, without being pretentious. With its long silences and unspoken words suggested in sideways glances, it recalls some of the great novels in classic science fiction, from Nevil Shute's On the Beach to John Wyndham's The Chrysalids.

The Walking Dead has managed to do that by creating fully rounded characters who are both believable and easy to relate to - not superheroes, but ordinary, everyday people just trying to do their best in difficult circumstances. There are moments in tonight's hour as exquisite and resonant as anything on the small screen today, and that's saying a lot in the era of Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Dexter.

6, 8 and 9: 30 p.m., AMC

Three to see

- LL Cool J is the host of tonight's 54th Annual Grammy Awards, which promises performances by Rihanna, Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Bruno Mars, Coldplay, Nicki Minaj, Kelly Clarkson and Sir Paul Macca McCartney - but Grammy experts and music cynics alike are dubbing this The Adele Show, for the songstress who's expected to run the table in the major categories.

8 p.m., Global, CBS

- If three hours of Adele love isn't enough for you, please know that CNN anchor and daytime talkshow host Anderson Cooper will profile Adele for a special segment on 60 Minutes, prior to the Grammys.

TV profiles are a dime a dozen these days, but 60 Minutes has a reputation for high-end, top-class profiles that probe beneath the surface. And Cooper is one of television's more astute interviewers.

7 p.m., CHEK, CBS

- Stephen Leacock was one of the great humourists of his generation, and one of the most respected writers, not just in Canada, but renowned around the world.

The made-for-TV movie Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, an adaptation of - and an homage to - Leacock's 1912 novel, features a virtual Who's Who of homegrown performers.

8 p.m., CBC

MONDAY VIEWING

Ironies abound. When House returns tonight with its fourth new episode in as many weeks, the series' fate has been sealed. This season, the show's eighth, will be its last.

The decision was made by the series' producers, and signed off on by House's parent network.

The real force behind the decision, though, as with most things to do with House, rests with its star, lead actor and, for the past several seasons, co-producer. Hugh Laurie was in the final year of his contract, and he has decided to move on to other things.

That's ironic, because tonight's episode, which follows on the heels of last week's Rashomon-esque tale of a patient prone to sudden acts of violence, focuses not on Dr. House, but on one of the supporting characters, Dr. Robert Chase (Jess Spencer).

Chase, still recovering from his stabbing injury at the end of last week's episode, treats a patient (guest star Julie Mond), a Catholic who believes in faith over reason.

8 p.m., Global, FOX Three to see In tonight's outing of Alcatraz, a mad bomber named Paxton Petty picks up where he left off in 1963, planting homemade explosive devices all over present-day San Francisco.

9 p.m., Citytv, FOX

- The Voice hit a high note last week in Canada with 1.9 million viewers - a 20 per cent jump over last season's average - and small wonder: The audition shows, in which pre-chosen singers perform for their prospective coaches with the coaches' backs turned, have produced some raw, genuine talent.

As opposed to laughingstocks. The Voice is positive and uplifting, where Idol is often just mean.

8 p.m., CTV, NBC

- Smash features a selfexplanatory outing, The Callback, in which the rivalry between Ivy (Megan Hilty) and Karen (Katharine McPhee) reaches new heights, while temperamental director Derek Wills (Jack Davenport) gets prissier.

10 p.m., CTV, NBC