culture
Televisualist: Wig Level—American
Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.
The Americans have mad wig game.
Monday
The 2015 AHL All-Star Game is tonight, in case you really wanted to watch minor-league hockey. Some of you do. This is Canada, after all. (Sportsnet, 7 p.m.)
Hey, it’s Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials 2015, wherein Boomer Esiason and Katharine McPhee let us watch old advertisements and pretend they are culture. (CBS, 8 p.m.)
Tonight’s edition of WWE Raw should be interesting, because last night the organization aired the Royal Rumble—traditionally one of their most popular shows of the year—and by the end of the show, the entire arena was booing the hell out of the company because they decided to make Roman Reigns “the next big thing,” rather than one of the wrestlers the crowd actually liked. (This is not a knock against Reigns, who is talented and handsome—he just doesn’t exactly have a lot of organic crowd support.) They booed so hard that the WWE sent out The Rock to try and get the fans to cheer Roman Reigns (who, incidentally, is the Rock’s second cousin), and the fans booed The Rock, which is to say, they booed the most popular professional wrestler in history. Anyway, tonight marks WWE’s first chance to try and manage this shitshow—assuming they don’t try simply to push through it and hope it doesn’t stick, which is entirely possible. (The Score, 8 p.m.)
Airshow is a new reality show about Canadian air-show performers and the life they lead. It turns out working the air show is a dangerous job that doesn’t pay well enough, which of course means it’s perfect as a reality show subject. (Discovery, 10 p.m.)
Tuesday
CHCH debuts The Pinkertons, a dramatic show about the legendary detective agency that will focus exclusively on their early days before they became better known for murdering labour activists and putting down anti-slavery rebellions in Cuba. You know, the good old days, when they were just the hired thugs of the railroads. (8 p.m.)
Wednesday
At some point, The Americans, FX’s historical drama about undercover Russian spies, became the best show on television (or at least Televisualist’s choice for the best show on television). At some point during the second season, probably. We’re saying this because the third season debuts tonight, and you don’t want to become one of those people who isn’t cool and has to play catch-up, right? Of course not. Because you’re still cool. You are. (FX Canada, 10 p.m.)
Mississippi Men is a new reality series about people who make their living off the Mississippi River and the TV critics who have to use spell-check a lot more often as a result. (History, 10 p.m.)
Ground Floor had the sort of middling-to-decent first season that a lot of U.S. cable-network sitcoms strive for: they aimed for a solid double rather than trying for the home run, and succeeded with a nice little workplace/class-relations comedy featuring some decent performances. It’s hard to write about something that strives simply for competence and succeeds admirably at meeting that relatively low bar. (Comedy Network, 10:30 p.m.)
Thursday
Parenthood, a fine series that lasted much longer than anybody expected, will conclude juuuuust after making it to the magical 100-episode mark that makes syndication so much more likely (and, seriously, everybody in the show deserves some sweet residuals). (NBC, 10 p.m.)
Friday
Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is the animated cartoon adaptation of the DC Comics event that led to the “New 52” relaunch of the DC Universe: one result of this was that Superman now wears silly armour, so we are predisposed not to like it. (Teletoon, 9 p.m.)
The Weekend
The Seattle Seahawks take on the New England Patriots at the annual Super Bowl—unless the Patriots somehow get disqualified because a bunch of footballs were under-inflated. Those were some seriously under-inflated footballs! Anyway, it’s the Super Bowl: one in five of you care about the NFL, and three of the remaining four of you will be watching only because you’re at a party where there’s chili, or because you want to see the commercials. (CTV, 6 p.m. Sunday)