Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Tuesday, June 28. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Dead Of Summer (Freeform, 9 p.m.): For hack headline-writing purposes, a show with this title really needs to premiere in a few weeks, when we’re deep in the summer TV doldrums. (This fact clearly did not deter us from our hack headline-writing, as a quick glance up top indicates.) Anyway, this show follows seven counselors at a summer camp in the 1980s, which could be a recipe for absurdist hilarity if not for the fact that this particular camp is being reopened after being abandoned for several years. So yeah, we’re in spooky shit territory here, and the presence of Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell as the camp’s new owner only strengthens the sense that we’re in for some deep, dark, possibly incomprehensible mysteries. Oh, and two of the main characters are called “Cricket” and “Blotter.” If you know what to do with that last bit of information, you’re a better person than we are.
Frontline (PBS, 10 p.m.): Our general policy of “If Frontline is new, probably just give it a top pick” is in full effect here, as tonight’s episode examines police corruption in Newark, New Jersey. As someone with a good decade of New Jersey living under our belt, we feel very confident in saying, yeah, that’s probably going to be some pretty bad corruption.
Animal Kingdom/Wrecked/Feed The Beast (TNT/TBS/AMC, 9 p.m./10 p.m.): We left these shows off of last week’s listings, and we’ll leave you to speculate wildly whether this was out of malice or incompetence. (Hint: It’s pretty much always incompetence.) So let’s rectify that by combining the TV adaptation of the Australian crime movie, the Lost pastiche, and the David Schwimmer sommelier drama (say that 10 times fast) into one unwieldy, poorly thought-out combined entry, because that feels like as good a way as any to keep the whole incompetence thing going, you know? Anywho, join Kenji Fujishima for Animal Kingdom, Danette Chavez for Wrecked, and Scott Von Doviak for Feed The Beast.
Premieres and finales
Zoo (CBS, 9 p.m.): Aw yeah, Zoo’s back, baby! Summer really hasn’t officially started until the broadcast networks start rolling out their goofy disaster shows, and it doesn’t get much goofier or disaster-y (a word entirely distinct in meaning from “disastrous,” for the record) than this show about all animals turning on humanity and trying to murder us at every opportunity. We can only hope the second season can match the first for glorious, psycho-animal inanity.
Gold Medal Familes (Lifetime, 9 p.m.): If you’ve managed to avoid all the reports about how the upcoming Olympics in Rio De Janeiro are going to be a gigantic shitshow—and even by the standards of previous pre-Olympics shitshows like Athens or Sochi, this one is looking real bad—here comes the two-hour premiere of a docuseries to get you all inspired about athletes and the sacrifices they make to realize their Olympic dreams. Oh, and presumably their families are there to support and/or undermine them, hence the show’s title.
No Man Left Behind (National Geographic, 9 p.m.): Real-life combat veterans recount their war stories, and the premiere is starting with a big one, as the survivors of the incident depicted in Black Hawk Down discuss what happened after their helicopters were shot down over Mogadishu, Somalia.
F In Fabulous (BET, 10 p.m.): This new show follows “four young tastemakers in New York,” which sounds damn close to peak levels of insufferable. Mostly because of the “tastemakers” bit, but the New York part isn’t exactly helping.
Guy Code Vs. Girl Code (MTV2, 11:30 p.m.): The greatest crossover since 1961’s “Flash Of Two Worlds” premieres tonight as MTV2 combines Guy Code, a show where a bunch of mostly male personalities you’re not familiar with talk about guy-centric stuff, with Girl Code, a show where a bunch of mostly female personalities you’re not familiar with talk about women-centric stuff. The synopsis promises (threatens?) that “some of the topics viewers can expect to be debated in this epic battle of the sexes include cheating, relationships, listening, one night stands, money, and much more.”
Regular coverage AKA Oh hi, The Mindy Project!
The Mindy Project (Hulu, 3:01 a.m.)
Orange Is The New Black (Netflix, 1 p.m.)
Wrestling, wrestling, get your wrestling!
No particular theme this week. Have some Stone Cold.
Streaming pick
Wet Hot American Summer (Netflix): We already linked the prequel series up top, so why not close things out with the movie that started it all? Sure, it’s no Heavyweights, but then, what is? What. Even. Is.