We’ve seen some people complaining online about the wall-to-wall coverage of the anniversary of the siege on the Capitol Building last year. It was a coup… it should have been the only thing talked about in 2021. In any case, we’re a TV site, so we will talk about some other things (although there certainly will be a lot of programming from many angles–some worth watching).

BRAD’S PICK:
Star Trek: Prodigy [Paramount+]
Gwyn continues to find her place aboard the Protostar and Dal tries his leadership skills on the Holodeck. This episode is all about personal growth. It’s a Star Trek show definitely aimed towards kids, but there is some pretty good storytelling going on that all ages can enjoy.

KATHERINE’S PICK:
The Wasteland [Netflix]
Alternately titled The Beast, this Spanish-language horror film is set in a remote cabin in the 1800s. A “crazed mother” and her young son watch in trepidation as an otherworldly force approaches from the horizon.

JASON’S PICK:
Women of the Movement [CBS, 9p]
As we remember the country’s most recent “darkest day,” we can also look back at one of the other of the U.S.A.’s most shameful moments–or the horrific, evil act that embodied the original sin at the center of our creation. This six-part series–intended to launch an anthology–follows the story of the mother of Emmit Till as she seeks justice for her brutally murdered child. 

FIONA’S PICK:
Project Runway [Bravo, 9p]
This week the designers must work with clients from Bravo’s The Real Housewives. Can the designers maintain good relationships with their highly demanding clients without losing themselves in the process? 

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

• The original Joe Millionaire was both dating reality and prank show as our bachelor, presented as a richie rich, turned out to be of modest means. Would love survive? Well, we’re not gonna look it up, but its success rate was probably as good as any other of these contrivances. In any case, it was not a sustainable idea given that people would know the twist. Therefore, the reboot, Joe Millionaire: For Richer or Poorer needed to add a layer. That layer is to have two bachelors, one an actual millionaire, the other not so much. Both of them look… fun (see above). There’s something almost perfect about this coming out on the anniversary of an unprosecuted attempted coup. God blessed America for we?
• From a fictional Joe M. to a very real one, the Peacock documentary Joe Montana: Cool Under Pressure looks at the unflappable signal caller for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish then the San Francisco 49ers and finally the Kansas City Chiefs. As it’s on an NBC property, we’re hoping they look back at his tour de force performance as Sincere Stu on SNL.
• Back on NBC’s mainland, the descendents of the show Tracy Jordan once called its tentpole return for another half-season. Benson and Stabler show up with new episodes of their respective offshoots, the longest running drama in TV history, Law & Order: SVU and the sophomore series Law & Order: Organized Crime.
• A few quick words from Jason’s original pick for rec before realizing on a day like today, touting a silly sitcom over a prestige mini-series about systemic racism seemed tone deaf. CBS’ Ghosts is better than you might think. While it seems like such an absurd concept, that it’s easy to dismiss. It doesn’t help that CBS’ sitcoms don’t tend towards the innovative. However, this one, while often conventional and silly, is also often very funny, building strong compelling backstories for both the young couple dealing with a haunted house and for the apparitions from various eras. It is even occasionally poignant. It returns with the second half of its inaugural season tonight.

• It’s surely no coincidence that the six-part series on Paramount+, Indivisible: Healing Hate shares its title with a resistance group that formed days after the election of a certain POTUS in 2016. Mandy Patinkin hosts the look into the causes and effects of the insurrection of a year ago, when, might we remind you, a mob of people, many with firearms, brutally attacked cops, stormed the Capitol, while chanting for the deaths of many political figures in an attempt to overturn the results of an election. You know, normal tourist stuff. Sorry, we’re just frustrated.
• On a lighter note–well lighter than real-life nationalist attacks on our form of government–we have the return of the Turkish drama The Club on Netflix, set in the 1950s, as beset ex-con Melissa continues to try to elude the government, creeps, and anti-semites, while trying to reconnect with her daughter.
• Back in America, James Spader’s Redd Reddington continues to check his made list twice on the NBC show that still stunningly goes on. The Blacklist returns for the second half of its ninth season which is surprisingly not its last. We’re not really knocking the show. It’s a well made piece of television intrigue at its best, and it’s got Spader. It’s just that we can’t shake the feeling in the correct timeline, it ended years ago.