Worth Watching: Get ‘Woke’ on Hulu, ‘Tiger King’ Follow-Up on ’48 Hours Suspicion,’ HGTV’s ‘Brother vs. Brother’
A selective critical checklist of notable Wednesday TV:
Woke (streaming on Hulu): “I’m not controversial,” insists Black cartoonist Keef Knight (New Girl‘s disarming Lamorne Morris), who’s celebrating his arrival in the lucrative syndication marketplace with his inoffensive “Toast & Butter” strip. “I keep it light.” That all changes when he has an unexpected run-in with the San Francisco police, a harrowing incident that launches this eight-part comedy into more provocative territory. Suddenly, Keef (based on the life and work of artist Keith Knight) sees the light — and that’s not all. He’s seeing and hearing from things that shouldn’t be talking to him: malt-liquor bottles, trash cans and especially a belligerent marker (that voice of J.B. Smoove) telling him, “It’s time to make your mark.” Is Keef having a breakdown or an awakening — or both? Either way, the timely Woke is fresh and funny, finding humor in one of society’s most fraught socio-political issues.
48 Hours Suspicion (10/9c, CBS): A new spinoff of the enduring true-crime series gets off to an explosive start in “The Tiger King Mystery,” as correspondent Richard Schlesinger looks into the still-unresolved disappearance of animal-rights activist (and future Dancing with the Stars contestant) Carole Baskin’s former husband Don Lewis in 1977. The report includes the first TV interview with Trish Farr-Payne, the ex-wife of Baskin’s former handyman, Kenny Farr, in which Trish reveals her suspicions that her ex may have had a hand in Lewis’s sudden vanishing act.
Brother vs. Brother (9/8c, HGTV): Not quite Cain and Abel, the friendly sibling rivalry of HGTV’s star Scott twins, Drew and Jonathan, rears up in a reprise of the series that pits the brothers in a home-renovation contest. The stakes are high as they take on multi-million-dollar mansions in L.A.’s Hancock Park (Drew’s home neighborhood), where local regulations limit how extensively these historic homes can be altered. Their elder brother, JD, acts as referee during the challenges and resulting pranks, and fellow HGTV stars (including, in the premiere, Build Me Up‘s Orlando Soria) judge the design at various stages. The winner of each weekly challenge gets a reward, while the loser gets punished (example: a blooper reel shown on Entertainment Tonight). Proceeds from the home sales, which determine the ultimate winner, go to Turn Up! Fight Hunger.
Inside Wednesday TV: If exposure to HGTV inspires you to attack your own home’s clutter, check out the new Netflix series Get Organized with The Home Edit, in which The Home Edit founders Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplit tap into their inner Marie Kondo with interior styling and form-meets-function tips for clients, including such celebrities as Reese Witherspoon, Eva Longoria, Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka and the hilarious Retta… Also new to Netflix: The Social Dilemma, a documentary exploring the darker side of our dependence on social media… Science Channel’s two-hour special NFL Super Stadiums (8/7c) looks at the engineering challenges of building L.A.’s Sofi Stadium, set to open Sunday (without fans) as the new home of the Rams and Chargers, as well as the future site of Super Bowl LVI and the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2028 Olympics… PBS’s Human Nature (8/7c, check local listings at pbs.org), a 90-minute Nova special, investigates a new gene-editing technology, CRISPR CAS-9, which may be the answer to attacking genetic diseases, while raising ethical questions about altering human DNA… With the first season soon to join Fox’s prime-time lineup, Spectrum Originals drops a second season of L.A.’s Finest, the Bad Boys spinoff starring Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba as tough L.A. detectives.
Brother vs. Brother where to stream
