WHAT'S HAPPENING : TELEVISION.

Really big shows: Think beyond big. Think abundant, extravagant, two Gargantuan views. This week we've got ambitious opera on KCET (Channel 28) and a monster marathon of ``Homicide: Life on the Street'' on Court TV.

Premiering 8 p.m. Wednesday on public television's ``Great Performances,'' ``A Streetcar Named Desire'' is an ``operatic reconception'' of Tennessee Williams' tragic play. Andre Previn conducted the bold production by the San Francisco Opera. Soprano Renee Fleming stars as faded beauty Blanche DuBois.

Beginning 9 p.m. Thursday, go from classic to killer with a 24-hour, 24-episode ``Homicide'' spree on Court TV. The cable channel has acquired the rerun rights to the edgy NBC cop show. Its crime binge begins with the series premiere from 1993. Starting Jan. 4, the series encores daily at 6 and 9 p.m. weekdays, also from episode one.

- Kinney Littlefield

Orange County Register

art

Artistic maverick: Although her career has swallowed up six decades' worth of it - and counting - artist June Wayne never has troubled too much about time.

In the late 1940s and early '50s, for instance, when Abstract Expressionism set the pulse of the U.S. art scene, Wayne marched to the inner drumbeat of her own aesthetic concerns.

Fascinated by physics, optics, John Donne's poetry, and symbolic systems of representation, Wayne began creating prints and tapestries that were as striking for their eccentric fixations as they were for their beauty and scientific precision.

In 1959, with a major Ford Foundation grant, Wayne founded Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles, launching the revival of an artistic medium that had been all but abandoned in the United States. By the 1970s, more than 200 printmaking workshops throughout the country had been established by Tamarind-trained master printers and their students.

That chapter alone of Wayne's legacy would justify the current, long overdue overview of her work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Running through Feb. 15, ``June Wayne: A Retrospective'' offers a rare chance to grapple with the career of one of the most original and technically innovative of postwar American artists, in all its effusive contrariness. LACMA is at 5905 Wilshire Blvd., on Museum Row in Los Angeles. Call [phone].

- Reed Johnson

film

Easy dose of Shakespeare: The mere mention of Shakespeare is enough to strike fear in the hearts of people scarred from dry high school reading assignments and scared of a torrent of words that can often fly in one ear and out the other. But the delightful ``Shakespeare in Love'' plays equally well for those familiar with the Bard and those who have never read or seen his work.

John Madden (``Mrs. Brown''), directing from a wonderfully witty script by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard, succeeds in taking Shakespeare out of the realm of myth and making him a regular guy (albeit one with an incredible gift for words and ideas) who needs love, money and inspiration.

Here, young Will (Joseph Fiennes) is putting the finishing touches on a new play, ``Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter,'' but can't get over the feeling that he could do better. He just needs the love of a good woman. Enter Viola (Gwyneth Paltrow). Their torrid affair gives Shakespeare just the inspiration he needs to find the direction to take his play.

Star-making performances from Fiennes and Paltrow and supported by a wonderful cast that includes Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth, Geoffrey Rush as a toothless producer and Ben Affleck as a vain actor, the Bruce Willis of Elizabethan stage. Romantic, ribald and genuinely intelligent, ``Shakespeare in Love'' contains all the elements found in the Bard's best work.

Just don't let that scare you away.

- Glenn Whipp

music

Dokken returns: Reunited but definitely not reformed, leather-clad rockers Dokken are heading back to the Strip to see Christmas out with a bang.

Don Dokken got his first break when he was recruited to sing backup vocals on a 1982 Scorpions album. He was allowed to use the leftover studio time to produce demos of his own material.

Dokken formed his namesake band with flashy guitarist George Lynch in Hollywood in 1979, but the group disbanded 10 years later after recording three albums.

Back together for three years but without Lynch, Dokken appears Saturday at the Key Club in West Hollywood.

The Key Club is at 9039 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Show time is 9:15 p.m., and admission is $20. Information: [phone].

- Fred Shuster

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

PHOTO (1) A 24-hour ``Homicide: Life on the Street'' marathon begins 9 p.m. Thursday on Court TV.

(2) Gwyneth Paltrow plays Viola, who has a yen for the playwright in ``Shakespeare in Love.''

(3) While the members of Dokken may not look much like they do in this 1987 file photo, the reformed heavy metal group should sound just about the same.