TV tonight: 'Dust Bowl,' 'Two and a Half Men'

• 'The Dust Bowl' continues on PBS
• 'Two and a Half Men' fills in for canceled 'Partners'
• 'Mike & Molly' should put Swoosie Kurtz to better use

The Dust Bowl
PBS, 8 ET/PT (times may vary)

Ken Burns' evocative, invaluable film about the Dust Bowl works its way through the rest of "The Dirty '30s," as one survivor calls them, as new problems plague the drought-stricken farmers. This film does more than just explain America's worst man-made ecological disaster -- it lays out the cost our hubris exacted in human lives, and the risks that it could all happen again.

Two and a Half Men
CBS, 8:30 ET/PT

Well, here's the good news: CBS finally pulled the plug on Partners, a show so awful, it was damaging the reputations of its creators, Will & Grace's David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, and its star Michael Urie, who never seemed up to the demands of the part. Now for the bad news: The replacement is a repeat of Men's season premiere, an episode that makes you think the writers were challenged to prove they could work a penis joke into any conversation, no matter how unlikely.

Mike & Molly
CBS, 9:30 ET/PT

All in all, you may be left with new appreciation for the only bright spot in CBS' Monday lineup, Mike & Molly -- where Melissa McCarthy, Billy Gardell and a fine supporting cast never miss a laugh. It would be nice if some of the material given to the inimitable Swoosie Kurtz -- one of the best comic actors of our time -- were a shade less vulgar, but asking for less vulgarity from a CBS Monday comedy is like asking for less rain in Seattle. Oh, you can ask, but you're not going to get it.