Matthew Rhys Haunted in ‘Widow’s Bay,’ MrBeast Visits ‘Survivor,’ ‘Supernatural’ Reunion on ‘The Boys,’ Living on a ‘Shared Planet’

Widow’s Bay

Emmy winner Matthew Rhys (The Americans) stars in an offbeat series blending humor with horror, set on a New England island town with dreams of becoming the next Martha’s Vineyard. If only life on Widow’s Bay weren’t such a nightmare. That’s what jittery mayor Tom Loftis (Rhys) discovers when he lures a New York Times travel writer to the isle in hopes of boosting tourism, dismissing local superstitious legends of boogeymen and assorted things that go “Boo!” in the thick of the ever-present fog. “Island’s awake now,” warns town doomsayer Wyck (the terrific Stephen Root) when Tom accepts a challenge to stay overnight in the supposedly haunted inn. The series, created by Katie Dippold (Parks and Recreation) and directed by Atlanta‘s Hiro Murai, launches with two episodes.

Survivor

There are few more prominent fans of Survivor than YouTube superstar Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, who set a recent episode of his Prime Video Beast Games competition on Survivor‘s island. Jeff Probst returns the favor by welcoming Donaldson as a guest during the milestone 50th season, in an episode featuring the ever-popular Survivor auction.

The Boys

It’s the reunion Supernatural fans have been thirsting for, when Jensen Ackles (Soldier Boy) is reunited with his former costars Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins. The long-awaited meeting occurs during a trip to Los Angeles, where Soldier Boy and his son, Homelander (Antony Starr), are following a lead to acquire the coveted V1 drug. The Hollywood detour includes a bonanza of Hollywood cameos and in-jokes, culminating in classic Boys-style mayhem. Other segments of a very busy episode unfold from the perspectives of Firecracker (Valorie Curry), Black Noir (Nathan Mitchell), and Butcher’s (Karl Urban) loyal English bulldog, Terror.

Shared Planet

Can’t we all learn to get along? A four-part environmental docuseries takes a hopeful look at how people in cities, forests, watery climes, and grasslands have adapted to nurture the flora and fauna around them. Filmed in ultra-high definition 8K in multiple continents, the series opens in big cities that have learned how to coexist with nature, from coast to coast in Los Angeles, where the fate of a mountain lion brings communities together, and New York City, where the Billion Oyster Project is helping to rebuild reefs. Other stops include a reforestation movement in Singapore and the creation of a wildlife habitat in the urban wetlands of Kolkata, India.

The Testaments

Ann Dowd won a 2017 Emmy as The Handmaid’s Tale‘s formidable Aunt Lydia, who in this gripping sequel now runs a finishing school for future wives of Gilead’s Commanders. But who was she before, and how did she become this protector and tormentor of the repressive nation’s female population? A riveting flashback reveals her surprising survival story, which can be summed up in the observation, “Enduring is the only way through.”

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• MasterChef: Global Gauntlet (8/7c, Fox): African cuisine is on the menu as eight home cooks audition, with only five earning aprons and moving on in the competition.
• Chicago Med (8/7c, NBC): A mother’s complicated labor stirs up painful memories for Hannah (Jessy Schram). Followed by Chicago Fire (9/8c), where Severide (Taylor Kinney) combats his new Battalion Chief’s crusade of retaliation while investigating a fire at an abandoned storefront where squatters are living; and Chicago P.D. (10/9c), with a wounded Ruzek (Patrick John Flueger) exploring mysteries that lurk within a VHS tape found among his father’s belongings.
• Nova (9/8c, PBS): In “Athens: Birth of Democracy,” historians and archaeologists comb through 2,500-year-old Greek ruins to discover the origins of a then-radical form of government adopted by America 250 years ago.
• America’s Culinary Cup (9:30/8:30c, CBS): The five remaining chefs face their toughest challenge yet, a global skills test in which they’re tasked to create three dishes representing three different nations in three hours.

ON THE STREAM:

• The House of the Spirits (streaming on Prime Video): Isabel Allende’s masterpiece of South American politics and magical realism receives a deluxe six-part Spanish-language adaptation.
• Margo’s Got Money Troubles (streaming on Apple TV): The unorthodox family heads to Las Vegas for Shyanne’s (Michelle Pfeiffer) wedding — in an Elvis wedding chapel, natch — where secrets spill out during a raucous bachelorette’s night out.
• Criminal Record (streaming on Apple TV): DS June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) faces a new ethical dilemma when DCI Hegarty (Peter Capaldi) loops her into his scheme to use prison escapee Billy Fielding (Luther Ford) as an undercover asset to bring down Cosmo Thompson’s (Dustin Demri-Burns) criminal gang. Also on Apple TV: the finale of the mystery drama Imperfect Women.
• Fawlty Towers (streaming on BritBox): Both seasons of John Cleese‘s uproarious 1970s farce set at a hapless hotel are now available for bingeing on the Anglophile streamer.