Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Season 2 of this comedy about the S&M scene gets darker, but not in a bondage sense. Surprisingly, and commendably, it gets darker and deeper by taking its two main characters, and their relationships, seriously. Zoe Levin plays Tiff, who embarks on a new chapter of her life in New York by becoming a dominatrix in training. Brendan Scannell plays Pete, who’s embarking on his own New York aspirational quest – to become a successful standup comedian. The two of them knew each other in high school, and reconnect as friends: Even though they dated once, on prom night, he’s since come out as gay. Tiff persuaded Pete to join her as her “assistant” in her dungeon sessions, and Season 1 was about the two of them learning the ropes – literally. But this season, which Netflix unveils today in its eight-part entirety, is more concerned about their respective relationships, with their significant others and with one another, and the growth and changes they experience in this short season are more than most TV characters deal with over the course of an entire series.
BBC America, 8:00 p.m. ET
Next month, CBS premieres Clarice, a new TV spinoff series based on Thomas Harris’ 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs, so this seems a good time to revisit Jonathan Demme’s Oscar-winning 1991 film treatment. Clarice won’t be the first to draw inspiration from Harris’ serial-killer imaginings. Before Harris’ Lambs novel, in fact, the murderous Hannibal Lecter also was central to Harris’ 1981 novel Red Dragon – and the two novels have spawned, in addition to Demme’s fabulous film starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, one other TV series (NBC’s Hannibal, from 2013-15), and such movies as 1986’s Manhunter, 2001’s Hannibal, 2002’s Red Dragon, and 2007’s Hannibal Rising. Taken together, that’s a lot of fava beans.
Syfy, 10:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: Alan Tudyk, who co-starred in two cult Joss Whedon TV series,
Firefly and
Dollhouse, gets a genre series of his own in this new Syfy series. He plays an alien who arrives on Earth with bad intentions (for earthlings, anyway), but once he assumes the identity of a small-town Colorado doctor, his perspective begins to change a bit. Think of it as an intergalactic version of
Northern Exposure… and try it.
For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower, and for
behind-the-scenes info, see Mike Hughes' Open Mike.