'Finding Mrs. Claus' shows us the less-than-wonderful life

What kind of monster emerges as the victor in a contest like this? I predict a spinoff series called Legal Methods for Getting Rid of Your Psycho Franchise Owner.

Leverage (7pm Tue, TNT)
The team of do-gooding grifters are accustomed to setting up elaborate con games to save the day for a client. This week they go even further, attempting to change a bad guy to a good guy by messing with his mind.

A one-time benevolent factory owner has inexplicably turned evil. At the request of an employee, Nate (Timothy Hutton) and his crew take great pains to convince him that he’s dreaming. That way, they can lead him through a virtual-reality landscape and get to the bottom of his psychological problem.

Granted, this plotline is pretty extreme. In it’s fifth season, Leverage has decided to go for baroque. Still, the episode works. The filmmakers hook you with the concept and work it out beautifully over the course of the hour, avoiding the pitfall of pretentiousness.

Extremism in the defense of entertainment is no vice.

Million Dollar Decorators (9pm Tue, Bravo)
In season two, the show’s high-end interior decorators prove themselves to be among TV’s most enjoyably despicable reality subjects. They make snobby pronouncements like: “Glamour is everything!” They talk about themselves in messianic terms, even though their jobs basically come down to choosing between shades of wallpaper.

“I don’t follow the trends,” brags Jeffrey, “I set them!”

Million Dollar Decorators proves that glamour isn’t everything. Humility — conspicuous by its absence here — counts for something, too.