Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, May 27, and Saturday, May 28. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Bloodline (Netflix, 3:01 a.m., Friday): The Rayburn family returns in the second season of this Netflix series about a wealthy, outwardly respectable Florida clan with some serious secrets to hide. The big new secret being that [redacted thing] that siblings Klye Chandler, Linda Cardellini, and Norbert Leo Butz did in last season’s finale. (We can’t keep redacting everything, so you should probably stop reading this now if you haven’t seen season one.) Anyway, it seems that black sheep brother Danny (the universally praised Ben Mendelsohn) isn’t completely gone after all—Bloodline’s meditative, time-shifting structure suggests several possible explanations—as the Rayburns try to pick up the pieces and put all that [redacted] behind them. Our own Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya is back in the Keys wading in hip-deep with her reviews, which will run every other day at 6 p.m., starting on Friday. (In his pre-air review, Joshua Alston suggests keeping your expectations on the low side this time out, though.)
Premieres and finales
Chef’s Table (Netflix, 3:01 a.m., Friday): In the second season premiere, master chefs from Brazil, Slovenia, Mexico, Thailand, and the United States whip up their own delicious varieties of sumptuously presented food porn. Sure, you’ll be eating frozen French-bread pizzas while you binge-watch it, but this’ll just make them taste soooo much better.
The Do-Over (Netflix, 3:01 a.m., Friday): The second of four Happy Madison films from Adam Sandler’s tenure as Netflix artist in residence sees Sandler tossing pal David Spade a second banana as a pair of losers who decide to fake their deaths and start over. In an inconceivable twist of happenstance, the new identities they’ve chosen come with some perilous comedy buddy movie-friendly baggage. Will Harris described it thusly: “[T]here’s a scene in the trailer where we’re forced to watch Spade feign erotic discomfort while a woman fellates him with an enthusiasm that couldn’t possibly have come naturally, and that’s the worst sentence we’ve ever had to either write or read.” Adjust your DVRs accordingly.
American Masters—The Highwaymen: Friends To The End (PBS, 9 p.m., Friday): The story of the ultimate country music crusty supergroup made up of Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson. Here they are as some sort of crusty ghost-singers.
Tyler Perry’s For Better Or Worse (Own, 9 p.m., Friday): Sure, maybe some people would prefer to see Michael Jai White hilariously battling kung fu treachery, but it’s no small achievement for him (alongside co-star Tasha Smith) to anchor this long-running family sitcom for eight seasons. The season wraps up tonight—maybe there’ll be just a little kicking? Mike? One kick?
ELeague (TBS, 10 p.m., Friday): The promotional materials for this video game tournament say this new series is looking to crown “the LeBron James of eSports.” So, that’s a thing. Anyway, this three-hour special kicks off a summer’s worth of teams with names like “Ninjas In Pyjamas” and “Mousesports” playing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and, presumably, trash-talking the new Ghostbusters movie.
Regular coverage
Lady Dynamite (Netflix)
Outlander (Starz, 9 p.m.)
Streaming pick
“Always There,” Rectify (Netflix): No offense to the often-quite-serviceable Bloodline, but with the spring TV lull in full effect, now’s the perfect time to catch up with (or revisit) another completely mesmerizing Southern crime drama. In this pilot episode, Aden Young is a revelation as Daniel Holden, recently released from death row, as he adjusts to life back in the hometown where he was originally arrested for a horrific murder. That might sound like a bummer, but Rectify is improbably uplifting (and, sure, heartbreaking), and there are only 16 episodes on Netflix at the moment, so dive on in. TV will be back… sometime.