Back in 2010, politician/activist Jimmy McMillan became a viral sensation with his exquisitely named Rent Is Too Damn High party, magic white sideburns, and a ready catch phrase that SNL would pick up on and immortalize. Today, that catch phrase gives name to a new Netflix culinary travel show with a guest every episodes — one of whom is a long time cast member of… wait for it… Saturday Night Live (it’s Kate McKinnon). Also, a BBC heart-jerker comes to Sundance and Stephen King’s playhouse returns for a second season.
KATHERINE’S PICK:
Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner [Netflix]
David Chang’s newest Netflix show explores three square meals with celebrity friends (Seth Rogen, Chrissy Tiegen, Lena Waithe, and Kate McKinnon) in Vancouver, Marrakesh, Chicago, and Los Angeles. If all else fails, we can watch this the way we streamed Ugly Delicious: with curious disgust.
JASON’S PICK:
The Cry [Sundance, 10p]
The title’s not kidding, and this may be too maudlin for my personal taste, but this (melo?)drama originally aired on BBC and is about the journey — both literal and metaphorical — of a young Scottish couple with child who suffer trauma when traveling to Australia to fight for his teenage child from another marriage.
BRAD’S PICK:
Castle Rock [Hulu]
Ever wanted to know the secret origin of Annie Wilkes (otherwise known as Paul Sheldon’s number one fan)? Then the second season of this Stephen King anthology is for you! Lizzy Caplan plays the young Annie with psycho aplomb.
ALSO ON TAP TONIGHT:
- Something probably makes Sistas not exactly Tyler Perry’s Girlfriends, perhaps? This new BET series is indeed written, directed, produced, and probably best boyed and key gripped by the never-resting Perry and features four diverse female friends trying to navigate the dating world. And in the spirit of Shondaland (Medea-ville?), it’s a two-fer of Tyler tonight as his soap opera about an interracial first family, The Oval, also debuts tonight.
- If you’re up for some ghosts of colonialism, and the worst possible zag in a “what’s on tonight” column, ABC’s got Harry & Meghan: An African Journey. Yes, 19th-in-line-to-the-British-throne Meghan Markle is African-American, but this still feels like it could fall somewhere in between problematic and downright icky. Or maybe we’re just cynical and it’ll be a spiritual journey that puts to bed racism.
- If a traveler from the 1950s first act was to turn on a television to The CW, their brain might explode Scanners-style upon seeing what’s become of both Nancy Drew and the Riverdale crew. There’s a nor’easter rolling in on the latest from the former and a car wash fundraiser on the latter — both of which sound like they could fit in with the original Nancy, Archie, Jughead, etc. — but there’s also bound to be a lot of dark secrets revealed.
- However, a traveler from the 1980s would feel right at home if they tuned to FX and stumbled upon the latest iteration of Ryan Murphy’s signature series American Horror Story: 1984 as the slasher camp’s survivors look at their lives, look at their choices.
- Coach Mike Leach has always had a unique perspective for how to win college football games. While he made his name with the excellently named Texas Tech Red Raiders, he’s now fronting the more trad-named Washington State Cougars. HBO’s 24/7 Sports takes a deep dive into the Leach-iverse tonight.