WEDNESDAY
MAY 31
2017

BIANCULLI’S BEST BETS

 

Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET

SERIES PREMIERE: Once again, strutting chef Gordon Ramsay has taken a successful entry from his string of hit British cooking shows and adapted it for American viewers, starring again in the process. This time it’s based on The F Word, a sort of one-hour “food variety” series, encompassing interviews, taped field pieces, and a one-off cooking competition, that premiered in the U.K. a dozen years ago. It finally ends up stateside, but with one distinctive difference: Except for the field segments, this new one-hour Fox series will be televised live. So when Ramsay throws a tantrum, this time he can’t throw it as far…

 
  
 
 

NBC, 9:00 p.m. ET

SEASON PREMIERE: Jerrod Carmichael has established this sitcom as this generation’s equivalent of a Norman Lear topical comedy, with an issue-of-the-week approach to topics and character reactions. Season 3 opens by continuing this practice and doing so with an issue that has caused its share of controversy even here at TVWW: a rape joke (lesson learned). Actually, the setup is serious, as a friend of Maxine’s reveals her prior sexual assault on social media – but as her post is read back, it leads to a debate on whether she was assaulted at all. Before long, the entire family is debating what constitutes and defines rape, and, while doing so, dropping some jokes along the way. The episode’s title ought to start things off: “Yes Means Yes.”

 
  
 
 

PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET

One reviewer has called this new episode of Nova, about the history of the degradation of the quality of water fed to the residents of Flint, MI, “probably the most concise, compelling retelling yet of what happened in Flint.” And that opinion matters, because it comes courtesy of the Detroit Free Press. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET

Part 2 of 3. Tonight’s concluding installment, “We Are What We Eat,” breaks down foods into key components, then breaks down some of the cooking methods to explain exactly how the preparation of certain foods alters what happens to them in the process, and how those results affect us afterward. Watch, in particular, for a segment on baking, where it’s explained how the chemical reaction sparked by kneading breads leads to the production of gluten, and the chemical reaction that leads to the rising of dough. When baking bread, because it’s so tricky a science and so fussy an art, you can’t always get what you want – but if you try sometimes, well, you just might find you get what you knead. Check local listings.

 
  
 
 

FX, 10:00 p.m. ET

Last week, Ray Stussy (Ewan McGregor) went down the path of revenge, hoping to find and confront, and punish, the thugs who had beaten up his fiancé, Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Instead, he was detoured by twin brother Emmit, who asked for a quick meeting to settle old scores. They did so, but not in the way either had intended – and now Nikki is in severe danger from those same thugs of Varga’s, without Ray there to help her. And Varga (David Thewlis, pictured) is fast turning out to be perhaps the most vicious Fargo villain of all, which is quite a description.

 
  
 
 

TBS, 10:30 p.m. ET

Go ahead, please, Sam. Explain the most recent holiday week to us. I beg you. And dare you.

 
  
 
 
 
 
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David Bianculli

Founder / Editor

David Bianculli has been a TV critic since 1975, including a 14-year stint at the New York Daily News, and sees no reason to stop now. Currently, he's TV critic for NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and is an occasional substitute host for that show. He's also an author and teaches TV and film history at New Jersey's Rowan University. His 2009 Dangerously Funny: The Uncensored Story of 'The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour', has been purchased for film rights. His latest, The Platinum Age of Television: From I Love Lucy to the Walking Dead, How TV Became Terrific, is an effusive guidebook that plots the path from the 1950s’ Golden Age to today’s era of quality TV.