July 28, 2012 by Kathryn Shattuck
8 P.M. (NBC) 2012 LONDON OLYMPICS The Americans Ryan Lochte, above, and Michael Phelps face off in the 400-meter individual medley on the first night of the swimming finals. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings, two-time gold medal winners, compete in early-round beach volleyball. Other prime-time events include the 400-meter individual medley in women's swimming and the team qualification in men's gymnastics. Earlier in the day the United States women's basketball team plays Croatia, at 11:45 a.m.; the women's volleyball team takes on South Korea, at 3 p.m.; and Jake Gibb and Sean Rosenthal, the No. 4 seed in men's beach volleyball, meet Freedom Chiya and Grant Goldschmit of South Africa in a qualifying round, at 5.
10:30 A.M. (13) RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY Kim Lawton reports on how changes in Roman Catholic life introduced by Vatican II have played a role in the current crisis with some American nuns, who in April were accused by the church's hierarchy of ''doctrinal confusion.'' David Gibson of Religion News Service discusses the reaction to the Aurora, Colo., shootings and the sentencing of Msgr. William J. Lynn for not reporting sexual abuse
by priests under his supervision. And Sheila Canby of the Metropolitan Museum of Art talks about the significance of religious works in the museum's Islamic art galleries.
NOON (13) RICHARD HEFFNER'S OPEN MIND Mark C. Zauderer, a New York trial lawyer, describes how some law firms have adopted business models to run their offices, sometimes to their detriment.
8 P.M. (HBO) WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER? (2011) Ally Darling (Anna Faris), a free-spirited bachelorette in her 30s who is still searching for Mr. Right, is upset to discover that she has tallied the highest number of lovers among her friends: 19. After reading a survey claiming that 96 percent of women who have slept with 20 or more men never marry, she enlists her dishy next-door neighbor, Colin Shea (Chris Evans, right with Ms. Faris), to help her track down the guys from her past, while hoping that one might propose and keep her from hitting the dreaded 20. For helping her locate the suitors, Ally allows Colin, a lothario musician, to hide out
from his one-night stands in her apartment until they have left his. ''Although the movie is a mere wisp of an idea, sloppily developed, it is a serviceable platform for Ms. Faris's zany Fourth-of-July sparkler fizz and pop,'' Stephen Holden wrote in The New York Times about this adaptation, directed by Mark Mylod, of Karyn Bosnak's book ''20 Times a Lady.''
9 P.M. (Syfy) THE PHILADELPHIA EXPERIMENT (2012) A secret government research project recreates a World War II experiment in which a cloaking device, designed to make warships invisible, supposedly caused one to disappear. Now the warship is back. The cast includes Malcolm McDowell and Michael Par?who starred in the 1984 feature film version, and Nicolas Lea, above.
10 P.M. (Cinemax) DREAM HOUSE (2011) Will (Daniel Craig), a Manhattan publisher, moves with his wife (Rachel Weisz) and two small daughters to a bucolic New England town and meets with strange behavior from the locals, including his secretive neighbor (Naomi Watts), in what Jeannette Catsoulis, writing in The Times,
called a ''haunted-house tale of gobsmacking foolishness'' from the director Jim Sheridan. But soon Will, who looks like a Burberry spokesmodel, has morphed into a halfway-house deadbeat as a bitter custody battle and a five-year-old massacre come to light. ''Blessed with a cast of this caliber, a film should be able to boast of more than how well Mr. Craig fills out a T-shirt,'' Ms. Catsoulis added. ''Even if that is very well indeed.''
MIDNIGHT (BBC America) TWENTY TWELVE After being shot in the foot by a starting pistol doctored to take live ammunition, Ian Fletcher (Hugh Bonneville), who directs the Olympic Deliverance Commission in this mockumentary series, discovers that his personal assistant, Daniel (Samuel Barnett), has taken another job. Meanwhile, the commission members try to kick off Inclusivity Day and Diversity Day in different places at the same time. And Siobhan Sharpe (Jessica Hynes) works to boost women's football ticket sales. At 12:40, it is discovered that the fireworks planned for the opening ceremony will trigger the missiles that have been installed for security at the Games. And a newly divorced Ian tries to figure out what to do with the rest of his life -- and with Sally Owen (Olivia Colman).