The Week in Gay TV: Russell Tovey Is Still Figuring Out "Being Human," and "The Amazing Race" Teams Have Unfinished Business

It's time to take a look at The Week in Gay TV for the shows that will be battling for your attention and DVR space in the week ahead.

This week, a new season of the Amazing Race kicks off, Riley and Zane are back in the spotlight on Degrassi and Russell Tovey is back in a new season of Being Human.

We haven't seen much of Riley or Zane since The Boiling Point ended but we'll finally see them again on Friday's Degrassi, as Riley's mom walks in while Riley is kissing his "study buddy." As i've detailed before, I have mixed feelings about Degrassi.

What we've seen of Riley's story has been powerful. Still, I'm a little weary at the thought of another story focusing on Riley struggling with coming out. Degrassi has frequently been good at revealing different dimensions to its characters and I wish Riley had more variety of storylines.

Hopefully, there will be time to explore Riley and Zane's reaction to modern art.

For example, last week saw Anya dating her mother's doctor and lying to him about her age to make the relationship seem less inappropriate. Riley was there when Anya first met the doctor (they argued about the doctor's sexual orientation), and instead of Riley continuing to be part of Anya's story, they abandoned him and plugged busybody Holly J into that slot.

While I'm frustrated by the missed opportunities with Riley (or that we don't know anything about Zane other than he's Riley's boyfriend) I'm going to just try to enjoy Friday night's episode and not think about "what might have been."

Meanwhile, Rosie O'Donnell is the latest celebrity to be asked Who Do You Think You Are? O'Donnell was young when she lost her mother and, in an attempt to connect with her will be investigating her mother's family history. That investigation takes her to Ireland where she learns about the difficulties her ancestors faced.

ABC's Primetime: What Would You Do? takes on another gay-related topic as the hidden cameras takes a look at how diners respond to a fellow customer letting them know that he has AIDS.

At least, we're guaranteed plenty of thighlights.

Starz has a new Spartacus: Gods of the Arena as Battiatus plans a gladiatorial tournament. I have to admit I'm starting to feel eager to see how some of these characters will not end up seeing Spartacus' revolution.

It's been a while since one of the New Apocalypse villains have appeared on Smallville, but Friday sees the debut of Desaad, one of Darkseid's most terrible henchmen. So far, Smallville has managed to make the bizarre Jack Kirby creations work in its relative sunny universe. It'll be interesting to see if that continues. 

Friday's TV also sees Dean rush to Lisa's aid on a new Supernatural while Carson Kressley helps pick a winner on Your OWN Show. Finally, BBC America has a new episode of Law & Order: UK, while I'll be watching to see if the story of disgraced anti-gay Senator North continues on The Onion News Network.