What’s On Television in Costa Rica This Week

For those living in Costa Rica they have to be used to the delayed programming of trendy television series, like Castle, NCIS and the more recent, Resurrection.

Although these shows are available on the U.S. television affiliates, ABC and CBS, broadcast in Costa Rica, the two hour time difference means having to watch 60 Minutes at 5pm on Sundays and prime-time shows starting at 6pm during the week.

Catching them online is difficult at best. The U.S. networks will not allow broadcast of full episodes in Costa Rica. There are legal and illegal ways of getting around that, but that is not the scope of this article

English language (for the most part) channels like SONY, WB, AXN and Universal, for example, offer most of the great shows and at better times and the best part, repeats, either in the same day or during the week and with some shows, a “maratón”, a series of three to five shows in one sitting.

So, what’s hot this week on Tico television?

My favourites are:

RESURRECTION (AXN Tuesdays at 8pm) is airing this week part 5 and 6 of the 8 part series. Since three weeks ago, the channel has been airing two new episodes back to back.

NCIS (AXN, Wednesday at 8pm), the new shows – in difference of the repeat of the old shows daily at 10am – is only a few weeks behind the U.S. debuts.

BLACKLIST (Sony, 9pm Wednesdays). What can we say, James Spader in a totally different role than his past choices, offering us a totally different type of character that is not Spader-like at all. Can’t wait to learn if I am right, that Reddington is really Lizzie’s father. He has denied it so far, but then Reddington is full of lies and deception, using the FBI for his personal gain and his only reason insisting on Elizabeth Keen as his direct contact is..

EL MARIACHI (AXN weekdays at 4pm). Ok, this is not the same as the mariachi portrayed by Antonio Banderas, maybe better because the story unfolds in over 55 hours (70 episodes of about 47 minutes each) instead of only 90 minutes as in the movies. This series is in Spanish only, and no subtitles. The MARIACHI story is coming close to the end, this week we start into episodes 60, ending with the last episode on Friday next week.

There are many more shows than what I have listed, but, remember you are in Costa Rica. There is a lot happening around you, to be glued to the television set or computer screen.