Seven Days of Television: September 15 to September 21
A seelct viewing guide to the next seven days of television
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15 MasterChef (Fox, CTV, 8 p.m.) Hold onto your salad forks: The search for America’s next great chef comes to a boil in tonight’s two-hour finale, so gather the family accordingly. After three months of bruised egos, harrowing challenges and tasteless soufflés, MasterChef major domo Gordon Ramsay and fellow judges Gordon Elliott and Joe Bastianich have whittled the group of amateur chefs to three finalists: Courtney, the high-heeled “aerial dancer” with a flair for presentation but occasional bouts of brain freeze; Elizabeth, the tough, tall New Yorker with pastry flair and a tart tongue; and Leslie, the cocky fiftysomething Malibu house dad whom everyone despises. In the second half of tonight’s closer, the two last chefs standing will have to prepare a classic American dessert. Humble pie time, Leslie!
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 16 New Girl (Fox, 9 p.m.) Want to feel real old real quick? This sassy sitcom kicks off its fourth season tonight! Why, it feels like just yesterday that we fell in love with Zooey Deschanel as the precocious Jess, an uber-cool schoolteacher who dumps her cheating boyfriend and inexplicably moves in with three (four?) dudes, like, platonically. And one of the best parts of New Girl is that the bond between Jess and her boyos has remained intact for upwards of 60 episodes. As the new season opens, the entire gang is assembled at the final wedding of the summer, where they make a pact that each one has to find a bedmate by the evening’s end. Jess ends up fighting a tough and sexy scientist (Jessica Biel) for the affections of the best man. Schmidt (Max Greenfield) and Nick (Jake Johnson) hook up with two ladies way too easily. And Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.) realizes that he’s already slept with every woman at the reception. These kids today!
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 17 The Mysteries of Laura (NBC, CTV, 10 p.m.) If there’s a sleeper hit this new broadcast season, this is the show. Watch and see if viewers don’t lean into the TV return of Debra Messing, best known for her years on the sitcom Will & Grace but seen more recently on last season’s ill-fated musical drama Smash. Messing is equally deft in drama or comedy and she’s an instant fit here as one Laura Diamond, a tough NYPD detective with a misery of a personal life. Laura and her handsome hubby (Josh Lucas) have already split, but she can’t bring herself to sign the divorce papers. And despite her demanding job, Laura also seems the primary caregiver for their two young hellion twin boys. Every once in a while she has to shoot a bad guy, but she still makes the parent-teacher meetings. You rock, Laura.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 18 Whitey: United States of America v James J. Bulger (CNN, 9 p.m.) In wake of solid reviews at film festivals and a brief theatrical run, this powerful documentary chronicling the shocking true story of Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger is by far tonight’s best TV bet. Stylishly assembled by Oscar-nominated documentarian Joe Berlinger, the film rewinds Bulger’s ruthless rise to the top of the heap and the horrors exacted by his Winter Hill Gang. According to this report, the cops and everyone else in Boston knew for decades that Whitey himself had killed or helped kill at least a dozen people, so why did the FBI give him a pass? If you’ve ever seen The Departed – in which Jack Nicholson plays a fictionalized version of Whitey – this is the real story.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 19 Carnival Eats (Food Network, 9 p.m.) If you’ve ever been dragged to a county fair or local carnival, then you’ve probably eaten something you’d never eat otherwise. Which more or less seems to be the entire premise of the new series that launched two weeks ago. To his credit, host Noah Cappe exudes genuine enthusiasm in his search for outrageous foodstuffs dished up to gluttonous fairgoers all over the U.S. of A. Tonight: Canada may have its Timbits, but at the Oak Mountain Spring State Fair in Alabama, you can get yourself some fried-bread pudding bites, a perfectly sensible treat just before you ride the triple-loop rollercoaster. And next time you’re in Oklahoma for the Apache Rattlesnake Festival, be sure to try the fried rattlesnake. Y’all come back now, hear?
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 20 Network (TCM, 9:45 p.m. ET) The late Sidney Lumet was eerily precognitive with this black comedy that dominated the 1976 Oscars. Working off Paddy Chayesky’s acidic indictment of the TV medium, the film stars William Holden as the world-weary network executive Max Schumacher, who is instructed to fire his best friend, newscaster Howard Beale, played with manic rage by Peter Finch, because "he skews old." The unhinged anchor promptly announces on air his intent to commit suicide on his final broadcast. All of a sudden, Howard is the biggest name on TV. His ratings soar, and the suddenly-hot network merrily goes down the road of reality television - a phrase, by the way, that didn't even exist in 1976.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 21 Madam Secretary (CBS, Global, 8:30 p.m.) Tea Leoni should probably send Hillary Clinton a nice fruit basket. There’s a good deal of Hillary-style spunk in Leoni’s portrayal of completely fictional U.S. Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord, and not just because Hillary held the job herself in recent years. Now an older and wiser actor, Leoni displays the proper amount of restraint in her portrayal of McCord, a former college professor and CIA analyst (she left for ethical reasons) who is suddenly plunked into the extremely important position. And whether at home or abroad, she’s usually the smartest person in any given room, this being a TV show and all. On the homefront, Liz has a handsome husband (Tim Daly) and two genius kids. Oh, and her Chief of Staff is played by Bebe Neuwirth, formerly the ferocious Lillith of Frasier and Cheers.