‘Untold’ Sports Stories, Hip Hop History in ‘Mixtape,’ Mob Intrigue in ‘Justified,’ an ‘Iconic’ Bridge
A new season of the Untold sports anthology opens with a profile of boxing’s bad boy Jake Paul. Hip hop’s origin in underground mixtapes is explored in a new music documentary. Raylan Givens clashes with the Albanian mob in Justified: City Primeval. PBS’ Iconic America wraps its season with an appreciation of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Untold: Jake Paul the Problem Child
Documentary Premiere
The anthology of cautionary sports documentaries packs an outrageous punch when it returns for a third season with four weekly installments. The opener, directed by Andrew Renzi (Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?), profiles Jake Paul, the YouTube upstart who took boxing by storm by, as one commenter notes, “[picking] a fight with an entire sport.” Is the former Disney star a huckster relishing his villain role, or the real thing? Depends on which of his millions of fans and/or critics you ask.
Mixtape
Documentary Premiere
A sign of the times: This documentary about the importance of mixtapes to the breakthrough of hip-hop culture is produced by MTV Entertainment Studios, but it’s premiering on the company’s streaming platform and not on the one-time music channel. Among the many DJs, hip-hop stars and industry personalities rapping about how the mixtape subculture went mainstream: DJ Khaled, 2 Chainz, Fat Joe, Funkmaster Flex, Jadakiss, Kid Capri, KRS-One, Lil Wayne, Mark Ronson and many more.
Justified: City Primeval
At the halfway point of the gripping Justified sequel, transplanted U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) faces a new menace in Detroit when he learns he’ll be competing with the Albanian mob to take down out-of-control psychopath Clement “Oklahoma Wildman” Mansell (Boyd Holbrook). As the mob leader (Terry Kinney) warns the lawman, “Justice requires more than the law is willing to provide.” And Raylan’s not just being chivalrous when he offers to help protect Mansell’s lawyer, Caroline Wilder (Aunjanue Ellis). The loose-cannon villain’s web of chaos knows no limits.
Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories With David Rubenstein
Season Finale
The docuseries’ finale explores the construction and cultural impact of the suspension bridge opened in 1937, an engineering triumph that connects San Francisco and Marin County. Beyond this national symbol’s history, host David Rubenstein questions whether this type of defining infrastructure project is a thing of the past.
INSIDE TUESDAY TV:
- Cash Cab: Canada (10/9c and 10:30/9:30c, AXS TV): Hosted by comedian and licensed Toronto cab driver Adam Growe, the Canadian version of the popular game show on wheels airs back-to-back episodes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
- Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge (10/9c, NBC): In the first of a two-part finale (concluding next Tuesday), three qualifying winners from past episodes return to create another life-size Hot Wheels car with an extra $50,000 on the line. The ultimate winner also gets their design turned into a die-cast toy to be sold by Hot Wheels.
- Granite Harbour (streaming on BritBox): A Scottish mystery drama pairs a former Royal Military Police officer (Romario Simpson), newly transferred to Aberdeen, with a mentor (Hannah Donaldson) just in time for a high-profile murder to plunge them into a case involving corporate power plays.
- My Lovely Liar (streaming on Rakuten Viki): Another import, from South Korea, features K-Pop star Hwang Min Hyun (NU’EST) in a thriller about a music producer whose involvement in a murder case sends him into hiding—next door to a woman (Kim So-hyun) who has a rare Poker Face-style ability to tell if people are lying. So why isn’t her gift/curse working on her neighboring fugitive?
