Worth Watching: ‘Top Chef’ Finale as Padma Tastes the Nation, Roy Cohn Profiled in HBO’s ‘Bully,’ Syfy’s ‘Great Debate’
A selective critical checklist of notable Thursday TV:
Top Chef All-Stars (10/9c, Bravo): It’s “finito!” for a spectacular season of the Emmy-winning cooking competition, which has upped its game since moving to Italy for the final weeks. The last round gives the three remaining chef-testants — far-and-away front-runner Melissa, slow-and-steady Bryan and inspiring underdog Stephanie — the opportunity to prepare the multi-course meal of their lives. I’m excited to see who wins, but I really can’t wait to see where they’ll be serving. The settings for the last few meals have really ignited my wanderlust (not that everyone isn’t going stir crazy). Bring your appetite.
Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi (streaming on Hulu): The glamorous Top Chef host wasn’t meant to be competing with herself, but the streaming service moved the premiere of her culinary travelogue up a day (out of respect for Juneteenth observation), so foodies and fans can really dig in for a Padma smorgasbord. In this 10-part series, Lakshmi travels across the USA to explore and celebrate the diverse food cultures of immigrant groups who have helped redefine how to consider American cuisine.
Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn (9/8c, HBO): Also relocated from a scheduled Friday premiere, this documentary is bound to leave a much more unpleasant aftertaste. The original date was intended to coincide with the June 19, 1953 execution of convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, grandparents to filmmaker Ivy Meeropol. Her film profiles the notorious lawyer from the 1950s, when he also played hatchet man as chief counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the HUAC hearings, through the 1980s, when he mentored the current president. Among those interviewed: Tony Kushner and Nathan Lane, who immortalized Cohn as a closeted hypocrite in a recent production of Kushner’s epic Angels in America; the miniseries version, starring Al Pacino as Cohn, is always available for screening on HBO platforms.
Syfy Wire’s The Great Debate (11/10, Syfy): Genre buffs may not be able to gather in person at San Diego Comic-Con summer, but this popular panel (hosted by Mystery Science Theater 3000‘s Baron Vaughn) comes to TV in a format that poses leading questions — like who’d be the worse boss, The Joker or Darth Vader? — to a rotating panel of passionate celebs. (The roster includes The Big Bang Theory‘s Mayim Bialik, Superstore‘s Colton Dunn and American Gods‘ Orlando Jones.) First night’s topic will take us back to the 1980s — which I’m not sure some of these fans have ever left.
Inside Thursday TV: Missed the fourth and final season of IFC’s uproarious baseball comedy Brockmire, which jumped into a dystopian future — like the present isn’t? You can now stream it on Hulu… Also streaming, on Sundance Now, the fifth season of the acclaimed French spy thriller The Bureau… Could a step-dad be in the picture on NBC’s Council of Dads (8/7c)? Things could get messy now that widowed Robin (Sarah Wayne Callies) is falling for Sam (David Walton), but things are already complicated enough when the Council agrees that it’s time for Robin to drop a bombshell on stepdaughter Luly (Michele Weaver). In other Dads news, Oliver (J. August Richards) and Peter (Kevin Daniels) decide to adopt, until they get alarming news about the birth mother… Cheech Marin guests on the penultimate episode of CBS’s one-season-and-done comedy Broke (9:30/8:30c). As Don Dominguez, the dad of snarky servant Luis (Izzy Diaz), he takes time off from working for Javier’s (Jaime Camil) wealthy father to see how the offspring is doing after being cut off from the family fortune.
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C
Hate to pick on Matt since everyone seems to get this wrong, but Joseph McCarthy, as a Senator, had no involvement with HUAC which was a House committee.
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J
My only new show tonight is Burden of Truth. I have to admit, this season has been pretty depressing, and I don't anticipate a significant "win" anytime soon. I'm sure there will end up being a big win at the end, but for now, it's one disappointment after another.
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C
So true , not exactly the most riveting season of Burden of Truth. But it remains watchable thanks to above par acting and some intriguing subplots. Ironically the main custody fight storyline is the dullest part of the show. I’ll continue watching because my only other scripted broadcast show is Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. which has been impressing me more than ever with extremely creative storylines this 7th season .
The team is just time traveling but the showrunners are injecting the appropriate nuances to each era. Last week the “film noir” episode was shot in black and white with the perfect amount of mood lighting , narration and mystery to give it that classic aura. Truly felt like a movie from 40s almost all the way through. And next week the team travels to the jiggly 70s with all of the corny special effects and music that defined the era. It will be a blast!
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J
Re last night's episode of Burden of Truth..... NOW we're getting somewhere. Now that Joanna has a "system" or "institution" to go after, things will pick up a lot more and get more interesting. It took way too long for the show to get to this point, though.
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C
In past summers I had so many more scripted network shows. The ones I miss most are Salvation , Blood and Treasure, Grand Hotel, The Crossing, Reverie, The In Between, The Outpost and others that I forgot the titles.
Most of the aforementioned were canceled, but I did read that Blood and Treasure and The Outpost will return . If not this summer, hopefully this upcoming season .
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J
I don't think I've heard when Blood & Treasure and The Outpost will be back. But since they return on primary networks (CBS and The CW), I'm sure we'll get some warning. If I hear anything definite I'll try to mention it on this site somewhere. I also watch Bulletproof, a buddy-cop show. I don't know why it's on The CW, as it's not their usual fare, but this is the second season, and it has some good bad guy/good guy action.
Also, in addition to the two above, I'll be watching The Alienist when it returns in July. Another show that was on last summer that was good was The Red Line, on CBS. I don't think that one has a season 2 coming, though.
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