A look back at the best and worst of TV in the past week (Aug. 1-7), and a peek ahead at what’s coming up.

Highlights

Don't mess with Michael's loved ones. (USA photo)

1. “Burn Notice.” Great season finale. It’s always nice to see Michael with a sense of purpose when someone close to him is threatened. He relies so often on subtlety and MacGyver-esque tricks that it’s almost a shock when he ditches it all and turns into a well-armed freight train who will stop at nothing to get the job done. His method of negotiating with his “agent”? Crude but effective, and very satisfying. Things got wrapped up a bit too neatly (how did they tie the Irish dude to the agent?), but I can get past that. Nice little shock at the end too. Not exactly a cliffhanger, but enough to provide a little closure while creating eager anticipation for next season. Look for another eight episodes in January, probably.

2. “Skins.” It’s not every show that can make Chuck Bass look like a model student. But this British high school comedy/drama blows away “Gossip Girl” in the raciness and bad behavior departments. Let’s put it this way: The first line of dialogue in Thursday’s Season 3 premiere was “F— that.” (Apparently you can say the f-word on the BBC. A lot.) And a major plot point is a girl who’ll have sex with whichever guy can be first to check off a list of things that will get one expelled from school – drink on campus, smoke on campus, do drugs on campus, have porn on campus, start a fire on campus, and – of course – have sex on campus. This is a show that will realize your worst fears about teenagers – they really are sex-crazed, drug-using, rebellious little sociopaths. Conservative groups would riot if “Skins” ran on an network TV in the U.S. But it’s such a wickedly over-the-top, snarky, wild ride that you can’t turn away. Add this to my weekly to-watch list. One note: The accents are ridiculously thick; I’m good understanding British and Irish accents, and even I was lost and welcomed the occasional subtitles.

3. “Wild Russia: Urals.” At the beginning of the week, I would have figured if I had a nature documentary on this list, it’d be something from Shark Week. And while “Air Jaws” was great, “Wild Russia” was even better. Somehow I’d overlooked this six-part series on Animal Planet; Thursday’s episode on the wildlife of the Ural Mountains was the series finale. But I’m going to have to go back and find reruns of old episodes, because it’s amazingly good. Shot over three years across the wildlands of Russia, the series presents incredible close-up looks at a remarkable range of wildlife; the Urals had everything from baby minks to migrating moose to a tense standoff between a bear and a wolf. It’s fascinating viewing for all ages, and episodes will be rerun the next two Sunday afternoons. It’s the best nature doc I’ve seen since Discovery’s “Planet Earth.” And absolutely gorgeous in HD.

Lowlights

1. “Blood in the Water.” Oh Shark Week, you disappoint me so. This was an awful, awful docu-drama. And really, it’s a little disingenuous for Discovery to run show after show that plays into the whole “sharks are terrifying monsters who will devour you” theme then add a little PSA at the end urging the protection and preservation of endangered sharks. Next year, how about about less shock value and more documentaries along the lines of “Air Jaws”?

2. “Entourage.” So now Gollum is E’s voice of reason? Ugh.  I hate her so much. And did we really need to see her and E (especially E) sprawled out near-naked on the couch? And E dismissing Facebook as just for kids? What is this, 2006? (And it he doesn’t understand new media, maybe that explains why he has no clients.) On the plus side, David Schwimmer was awesome as a self-absorbed jerk version of himself, and I liked Turtle’s comment about how Jamie dressed him to look like Chuck Bass. I feel better knowing both Turtle and Larry David watch “Gossip Girl” too.

3. “Rescue Me.” Not enough Maura Tierney! One scene?!? No! More! More!

Looking forward to . . .

1. “No Reservations” (10 p.m. Monday, Travel Channel). Bourdain’s coming to San Francisco; lock up your booze and street food! I can’t wait to see where Tony goes. Supposedly the episode retraces the chase scene in “Bullitt,” so that means . . . what, he’s going to pop up at random locations across the city and end up at the Cow Palace? Hmmm. Expect to see some Mission eats, Red’s Java House, and some of snout-to-tail goodies at Incanto.

2. “Man vs. Wild” (9 p.m. Wednesday, Discovery). Yeah, I know Bear Grylls is a faker and the risk of danger is way overblown. But it’s still fun. The season premiere has Bear stuck in the Arctic Circle.

3. “Being Human” (9 p.m. Saturday, BBC America). I’m digging this show. Tonight is an Annie-centric story and we’ll a little more insight as to why she hasn’t crossed over yet.