TV Sunday: 'Race' wrap, 'Homeland' detour

• 'The Amazing Race' season hits the finish line
• 'Help for the Holidays' is more original than most Christmas movies
• 'Homeland' tries to brush off criticism

The Amazing Race
CBS, Sunday, 8 ET/PT

One of TV's best contests — and best produced shows, period -- wraps up another run as the teams make their way through France to New York. Here's hoping your team wins, or at least that the team you hate loses.

Help for the Holidays
Hallmark, Sunday, 8 ET/PT

You can't shake a stick these days without hitting a cable Christmas movie, but at least Help sounds a bit more original than most. Summer Glau stars here as a dissatisfied elf who's bored by toy-making and yearns for adventure. She gets her wish when Santa sends her to Los Angeles to serve as a nanny for a family that thinks it's too busy for Christmas. Chances are they're going to learn that they really aren't.

Christmas with Holly
ABC, Sunday, 9 ET/PT

We get very few network movies these days, and far too few of Hallmark's Hall of Fame specials — and those we get tend to be holiday specials based on light-reading, romance or inspirational novels. As in this adaptation of Lisa Kleypas' Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor, which stars Sean Faris as a single man who becomes the guardian of his 6-year-old niece when her mother dies. Into their lives comes Maggie (Eloise Mumford), a single woman who opens a toy store in town. Feel free to bet that romance blossoms just in time for that holiday in the title.

Homeland
Showtime, Sunday, 10 ET/PT

Into every great show, some complaints must fall — and they rained down on Homeland after an episode last week that left some wondering whether the show's plotting had gone off the rails. No series is beyond reproach, but before you write off a show this good, you might want to wait and see where that plot is headed. After all, you only have two episodes until it gets there.