The Week in Gay TV:"RuPaul's Drag Race" Starts Its Third Lap and "Spartacus" Returns to the Arena

Welcome to another edition of The Week in Gay TV, your guide to the shows that will be battling for your attention in the week ahead. A number of shows are taking a break before February sweeps gets going next week, though there are also several new shows making their debut including the Spartacus prequel, Gods of the Arena, a new season of RuPaul's Drag Race and more animated espionage and incompetence on Archer.

For those of you who were missing your Friday night dose of beefcake and battles since Spartacus wrapped up its first season last April, Starz returns to the gladiator arena with Spartacus: Gods of the Arena. This prequel takes a look back to examine how Batiatus rose to prominence in Roman society and, even better, gives us a chance to get to see gay gladiator Barca again.

This time we'll get to see Barca in a relationship with another gladiator, Auctus. That's quite a change of pace from his relationship with Pietros, since Auctus is an alpha male like Barca, which should let us see another side of Barca. And means Barca doesn't really have a "type."

The Onion News Network's alpha anchor Brooke Alvarez

Friday also brings a new comedy block to IFC starting with the debut of the Onion News Network, which finally brings the voice of the satirical newspaper to TV. This one looks like a pitch perfect mockery of overproduced cable news shows, with those flashy graphics, discussion panels of "experts" and egotistical hosts. I've been a longtime fan of The Onion and their short videos capture the fun of the paper edition.

Following the Onion News Network, Fred Armisen stars in a new sketch comedy series, Portlandia. The city of Portland is a unifying theme for  the sketches, where a culture of social responsibility, Seattle-envy and quirkiness provides plenty of comedy inspiration, including a sketch where diners first verify how their chicken dinner was raised before ordering it.

VH1 brings a new installment of Friday Night Alright. This time the concert series will feature Vampire Weekend with out keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij. Meanwhile, the Oprah Winfrey Network has a new episode of Your OWN Show: Oprah's Search for the Next TV Star. This week, the hopeful stars have to put together a late night talk show, complete with comedy monologue. Good thing comedy is part of out competitor Ryan O'Connor's skill set.

BBC America has a new episode of Law & Order: UK and, this week, Ben Daniels' prosecutor is in the spotlight as he suspects a man released from prison after serving a sentence for sexual assault is a danger to society. That sounds familiar. I think Prosecutor Steele could spend some time with Officer Cuddlybear. Finally, Syfy has a new episode of Merlin where Merlin has to handle a goblin who lives under the castle.

Saturday is pretty quiet for gay TV but Logo is premiering the drag comedy Girls Wil Be Girls. The movie stars Evie Harris, Coco Peru and Varla Jean Merman as a trio of women living together in Hollywood. The story follows the chaos that happens when Varla moves into Evie's home, gets discovered and becomes a rising star, inspiring jealousy in Evie, a former B-list star whose best years (not very good to begin with) arew way behind her.

Not only is it a pretty fun way to spend two hours (and a good way to get in the mood for Monday's return of RuPaul's Drag Race), but the cast includes Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet in a role from before we knew him as Cameron Stewart.

Meanwhile, BBC America has a new episode of The Graham Norton Show with Matt LeBlanc, Donald Sutherland and David Mitchell. LeBlanc ends up discussing his entire career, from his modeling days, to being a part of Friends to playing a fictionalized version of himself on Episodes. I expect Graham will skip over his Married... with Children days.