Watch It! on Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007

Insider Trading: For all the advances made in online content, sometimes you get these glaring disasters emanating from generally reputable quarters. For instance, if you go to TVGuide.com to check out the listings for “Inside Man” (7 p.m. HBO-300), the pop-up offers a link to a godawful movie from 1984 called “The Inside Man,” a Swedish-British Cold War melodrama that advertises Dennis Hopper as the main player on the cover, though he’s secondary or tertiary at best. You know the type — copies for $1.99 in a big vat of wrestling compilations and forgotten TV flicks starring Meredith Baxter next to the checkout at Wal-Mart. And they’re VHS, no less.

“Inside Man,” by comparison or by any measure, is top shelf: a Spike Lee-helmed suspense film with Denzel Washington, Clive Owen and Jodie Foster. As hostage negotiation films go, it’s unusually twisty, and Lee proves he can do a great mainstreamer without pushing hot buttons. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

“Rock” and Reruns: In basic cable/broadcast world, things are a tad sketchy: sweeps have ended, people are supposedly spending their evenings shopping or guzzling eggnog in front of a roaring fireplace or whatnot, so it’s rerunsville for “Ugly Betty,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Office.” Yes TiVo, you go hungry tonight on season passes except for “30 Rock” (7:30 p.m. NBC/KFOR-4), which involves Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) spending his community service hours coaching Little League — somehow, all those kids are going to end up at a strip club, I’m telling you. Meanwhile, Lemon (Tina Fey) gets hot and bothered with a barrista who is 17 years younger than she is. There’s a reason why they call this episode “Cougars,” and it’s not just the name of the Little League team.