Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Wednesday, January 22, 2014. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Broad City (Comedy Central, 10:30 p.m.): The long-running web series makes the jump to TV—with a little help from executive producer Amy Poehler—with tonight’s premiere, as twentysomething screw-ups Ilana and Abbi navigate the insanity of New York City while holding absolutely nothing back about their personal lives. Erik Adams has already chimed in with his pre-air thoughts for Comedy Central’s latest effort, while Caroline Framke prepares to tag along on the pair’s misadventures on a weekly basis.
ALSO NOTED
Arrow (The CW, 8 p.m.): Arrow’s ex-girlfriend has damning evidence that a mayoral candidate is evil, but Oliver is hesitant to investigate because he already endorsed the guy. Alasdair Wilkins urges you to vote for the Supervillain Party this electoral season.
The Middle (ABC, 8 p.m.): A bus driver strike means Frankie has to carpool a bunch of kids to school, and she gets them there with the usual speed and efficiency for which she’s so rightly renowned. Will Harris feels like we might be overestimating the Heck matriarch just a tad, but he’s too busy wrapping his mind around the thought of Axl trying to tutor one of his fellow coeds.
American Horror Story (FX, 10 p.m.): This is the penultimate episode of Coven, which should mean that the various plots and intrigues should all be coming to a head… or possibly the whole thing is going to take a crazy right turn and the witches will all suddenly be fighting to free the people of Mars from the laser wizards or something. Todd VanDerWerff has prepared himself for either possibility.
REGULAR COVERAGE
Revolution (NBC, 8 p.m.)
Suburgatory (ABC, 8:30 p.m.)
Modern Family (ABC, 9 p.m.)
Top Chef (FX, 10 p.m.)
ELSEWHERE ON TV CLUB
At noon today, the TV Roundtable team of Sonia Saraiya, Brandon Nowalk, David Sims, and Pilot Viruet examines a terrific Sex And The City that’s about far more than computer trouble. Todd VanDerWerff deeply ponders the affable mystery that is Greg Kinnear in Fox’s new lawyer show Rake, while Molly Eichel pulls double duty as she explores the search for up-and-coming designers in Fashion Fund and the terrifying prospect of a Wahlberg business empire in Wahlburgers. And what would TV be without novelty albums? That’s the kind of soul-shattering philosophical question that our latest inventory won’t have to answer, thankfully.
WHAT ELSE IS ON?
My Dirty Little Secret (ID, 9 p.m.): A soccer mom tries to expose the gang activity in her town. If this doesn’t end with the soccer mom taking control of said gangs and building a fearsome, minivan-centric criminal empire… well, at least we’ll then know what our next unfinished screenplay is going to be about.
Tattoos After Dark (Oxygen, 9:30 p.m.): In an episode poetically entitled “Heads, Faces and Private Places,” we are confidently informed that “a client gets a double piercing in a sensitive area.” Are they talking about the butt? We feel like they’re probably talking about the butt. That’s just what we always assume, though.
Workaholics (Comedy Central, 10 p.m.): The fourth season kicks off tonight, although we likely won’t be giving the Comedy Central stalwart the weekly review treatment this year. As some small consolation, we recommend checking out Kyle Ryan’s pre-air review to get a sense of what to expect from this latest batch of episodes.
House Hunters (HGTV, 10 p.m.): A couple house-shopping in Charleston, South Carolina, are forced to decide whether they care more about a house’s function or a house’s charm. That seems to assume that there’s such a thing as a non-charming house in Charleston, which doesn’t sound right at all.
Chasing Shackleton (PBS, 10 p.m.): The final episode of this three-part series completes modern-day adventurers’ efforts to retrace the incredible 1914 journey of Ernest Shackleton, who braved Antarctic waters to save the lives of his men trapped for 500 days on the icebound Endurance, which really has to be the most aptly named ship ever. Seriously, it would seem like a waste of the name Endurance to not have that ship be trapped in ice for 500 days.
Ocean’s Thirteen (Oxygen, 6:30 p.m.): One of our less successful family viewing experiences was an attempt to watch Steven Soderbergh’s final Ocean’s movie with our mother, as we promised to explain any scenes that didn’t immediately make sense. As you might imagine, the enormousness of this task utterly defeated us, as we ended up pausing the movie about every 20 seconds for plot updates. Still a really fun movie, though.
JFK (Sundance, 9 p.m.): Oliver Stone’s epic, insanely long treatise on the Kennedy assassination and a New Orleans district attorney’s investigation into a potential conspiracy is almost certainly a load of hogwash. But it’s frequently entertaining hogwash, and literally every actor ever appears in this thing somewhere. Though we’re pretty sure this isn’t the director’s cut, which features a much-needed John Larroquette cameo. We can’t stress enough how much John Larroquette holds this thing together.
NHL Hockey: Blackhawks at Red Wings (Fox, 4:30 p.m.): The NHL’s radical, kind of kooky realignment plans mean that these longtime rivals are now in separate conferences, as the only Original Six team left in the Western Conference heads to Detroit for a rematch of last year’s conference semifinals. Chicago is having the better season, but there’s ton of talents here on both sides of the ice: The teams are each sending a league-leading 10 players to the upcoming Sochi Olympics.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Cougar Town: Last night’s episode revealed that Dr. Tom, everyone’s favorite creep, has built a perfect scale model of the Cul-De-Sac Crew’s entire lives. Les Chappell is working on something similar for the entire A.V. Club, but he’s waiting for just the right moment to unveil his creation. So, maybe next Tuesday? We should probably all coordinate our schedules or something.