WATCH-O-RAMA THE HIGHLIGHTS AND LOWLIGHTS OF THE COMING TV WEEK.

Byline: David Kronke

``Young Blades''

(Pax; 8 tonight)

Think: Remember our good friend, actress Karen Cliche, who, we suggested awhile back, should change her name if only to avoid lame critical quips on her projects? Well, she hasn't; that hasn't prevented her from finding work in this swashbuckler set in 17th-century France, portraying a headstrong young woman on the lam from corrupt leaders who disguises herself as a man and enrolls in the Musketeer Academy, run by Bruce Boxleitner. (These Musketeers must be monumentally dim not to immediately see through her masquerade.) There's some kooky mysticism, too.

Don't think: Crotch and poop and bosom jokes? This isn't your father's Pax. Oh, wait - your father didn't have a Pax.

In a nutshell: Pretty amateurish at times, but harmless and whimsical; Mark Hildreth is amusing as a Musketeer whose ideas for inventions are decidedly anachronistic.

``Island at War''

(KCET; 9 tonight through Feb. 20)

Think: ``Masterpiece Theatre'' miniseries about the Nazi occupation of the British Channel Islands during World War II, and how one island's occupants variously respond to the crisis.

Don't think: Prince Harry would've felt right at home.

In a nutshell: Tonight's installment is slow in developing but quickly becomes a thoroughly absorbing exploration of moral quandaries, courage, cowardice, grace and indignities under extraordinary circumstances. In future episodes, spies sneak onto the island in service of the Empire and the Nazis start feeling a little randy.

``Dirty War''

(HBO; 9 p.m. Monday and Thursday)

Think: Islamist radicals detonate a radiation-spewing dirty bomb in the heart of London and the city's rescue workers and politicians attempt, wanly, to respond in this grimly effective speculative fiction.

Don't think: When a politician tells us that we're ``safer than ever before,'' this film suggests, it doesn't mean we're actually safe at all, just less imminently imperiled.

In a nutshell: Evisceratingly gripping.

``Widow on the Hill''

(Lifetime; 9 p.m. tonight)

Think: Natasha Henstridge plays a nurse accused of killing her latest husband (James Brolin), a wealthy landowner. Is she a money-grubbing black widow or a luckless innocent?

Don't think: ``She doesn't deserve to be stared at like that,'' Brolin warns a young buck of Henstridge. How, exactly, does she deserved to be stared at?

In a nutshell: Capably but prosaically rendered.

``Digging for the Truth''

(History Channel; 9 p.m. Monday)

Think: ``CSI: Ancient Egypt.'' ``Explorer and survival expert'' Josh Bernstein employs forensics and other research to consider new theories regarding who built the pyramids and when, not to mention Queen Nefertiti's mysterious past.

Don't think: If Indiana Jones is wondering what happened to his wardrobe, he need look no further than Bernstein's suitcase.

In a nutshell: Bernstein's an affable host and his investigations are genuinely intriguing.

``Celebrity Poker Showdown''

(Bravo; 8 p.m. Tuesday)

Think: Ray Romano, Brad Garrett, Sara Rue, Catherine O'Hara and Curt Schilling (his ankle still in a cast after his post-World Series surgery) play cards for charities.

Don't think: If a studio audience will actually whoop and shriek its way through two hours of this, I'm seriously considering installing a studio audience in my den while I write.

In a nutshell: After a Garrett joke flops, Romano deadpans, ``Now you know why I'm ending the show.'' There's more japery than poker drama, though they spend a lot of time pretending that the poker matters. And amiable as the show is, how little of a life must one have to sit through two hours of this?

``The Simple Life: Interns''

(Fox Channel 11; 9 p.m. Wednesday; thereafter, 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays)

Think: Girls Gone Insipid: Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie take their trademark insouciant ineptitude on a Greyhound bus and storm the country, making life horribly unpleasant for blue-collar Americans, then sniggering condescendingly about it.

Don't think: The show's deeply grating sound-effects-music soundtrack is 10 times worse than any sitcom laugh track and 10 times more insulting to the viewer, but it might perfectly accompany Paris' other video work.

In a nutshell: Their contempt for people who have the bad taste not to be born heiresses is pretty staggering. Honestly, if they don't care about what they're doing, why should we?

``The Exonerated''

(Court TV; 9 p.m. Thursday)

Think: Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon, Brian Dennehy, Delroy Lindo and Aidan Quinn star in this adaptation of a long-running off-Broadway play examining real-life Death Row inmates who were eventually found to be innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted.

Don't think: Of course, you could make an equally manipulative pro- death-penalty movie of monologues from murder victims' survivors.

In a nutshell: Unassailable performances elevate the earnest material.

David Kronke, [phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) ``THE SIMPLE LIFE: INTERNS''

(2) ``YOUNG BLADES''