Elizabeth Banks and her blouses take center stage on Mrs. America
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Wednesday, May 6. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Mrs. America (FX On Hulu, 3:01 a.m.): While Mrs. America tells the overall story of the battle over the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, each episode usually focuses on one of the women involved. While this has been mostly successful, last week’s episode broke from that format, with great results. Here’s Sulagna Misra:
Something I’ve struggled with in the past few episodes, through no fault of Mrs. America’s creative team, is how larger than life some of these people were. So much is known about them, their opinions, and their personal affairs that it’s hard not to put all the characters’ emotional cards on the table… But that means that when the show pulls away from the major character per episode format, it feels refreshing and energetic. It’s not trying to be a mini-biography, but a true vignette about this heady time. Because of this, “Phyllis & Frank & Brenda & Marc” reminded me a lot of particularly nervy episode of Mad Men.
This week, we’re back to a single-name title—“Jill,” as in Republican Jill Ruckleshaus, played by Elizabeth Banks—but the change in energy remains. Perhaps that’s because Jill isn’t as well known as some of the other figures in this story. Perhaps it’s because she should, in theory, have more in common with Phyllis Schlafly than the other women fighting for the E.R.A. Whatever the case, it’s a solid episode and Sulagna stands ready to recap it all.
Can you binge it? All episodes to date await you on Hulu.
Regular coverage
Riverdale (The CW, 8 p.m.): season-four finale
What We Do In The Shadows (FX, 10:00 p.m.)
Wild card
Brockmire (IFC, 10 p.m., series finale): “It’s easy nowadays to draw the shades and retreat from the world, just when it needs us the most. Brockmire began its four-year run with its title character doing just that following his public humiliation in the broadcast booth. He withdrew from society to drown his feelings in drugs and drinks, only to return and find his life in the same shambles where he left it. With its last episodes, Brockmire makes a radical pitch right as our reality hurdles toward dystopia: Don’t run away. Find or create communities of loved ones, try to shape the world in any minor way, and cherish the moments of anticipatory calm before the proverbial crack of the bat. Brockmire, the show that started as a throwaway Funny Or Die sketch, fervently argues that life might be short, but there’s still some time. And despite all evidence to the contrary, you’re going to want to see what happens next.” Read the rest of Vikram Murthi’s season review.