Worth Watching: ‘Goldbergs’ Spins Off ‘Schooled,’ Snark Alert As ‘Worst’ and ‘Sorry’ Return
A selective critical checklist of notable Wednesday TV:
Schooled (8:30/7:30c, ABC): In what seems an oddly abrupt transition, The Goldbergs (8/7c) airs a new episode involving the frantic run-up to the wedding of Barry (Troy Gentile) and Lainie (AJ Michalka), with the groom beginning to have second thoughts. Then it’s time for Schooled, a broad and scattershot spinoff moving forward into the 1990s, focusing on Lainie as a failed — and notably single — rocker who returns to William Penn Academy with attitude intact, trying her hand at teaching music. (Glee this most certainly isn’t.) Tim Meadows is now Principal Glascott, looking askance at his new hire, and Bryan Callen blusters as Coach Mellor — who in a charming sign-off interacts with the genuine article.
You’re the Worst (10/9c, FXX): Now here’s a match made somewhere south of heaven. The bawdy comedy opens its fifth and final season with Jimmy (Chris Geere) and Gretchen (Aya Cash) plotting their raucous way to the altar. But first we’re treated to an allegory — for reasons that ultimately become naughtily clear — of a love match between two film buffs who celebrate stories that are “messy and complicated… forged out of passion and madness.” Just like Jimmy and Gretchen’s relationship!
I’m Sorry (10/9c, truTV): Or you could satisfy your snark quotient with the second season of Andrea Savage’s cringe-tastic comedy in which she stars as an unfiltered comedy writer who keeps the off-color jokes rolling at home with husband (Tom Everett Scott) and child (Olive Petrucci). In the opener, Andrea sends daughter Olive off to kindergarten, where the girl is exposed to precocious insights about puberty. Mom would probably be more upset if she weren’t so busy speculating how much money she might make as a prostitute. No apologies necessary.
Inside Wednesday TV: More parental concerns on ABC’s Modern Family (9/8c), when Claire (Julie Bowen) and Phil (Ty Burrell) move Haley (Sarah Hyland) and Dylan (Reid Ewing) into their own apartment, fretting they’re not quite ready for the arrival of a baby. (Who is?)… Does Fox’s The Masked Singer (9/8c) have legs, or were the strong opening-night ratings a result of novelty and perverse curiosity? We’ll see, when six new masked contestants — a Rabbit, Alien, Raven, Pineapple, Poodle and Bee — take the stage… PBS studies the history of oppressive authoritarian regimes in the six-part The Dictator’s Playbook (10/9c, check local listings at pbs.org), starting with the rise to power of North Korea’s Kim Il Sung.
