Practice your knife skills, folks: Top Chef Amateurs has arrived
Bravo spends the whole evening in the kitchen. Plus: Ed Solomon and Steven Soderbergh team up with a helluva cast for a period crime caper
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Thursday, July 1. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Top Chef Amateurs (Bravo, 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., series premiere, first two episodes): “The latest Top Chef spin-off, Amateurs, will see the most ardent fans take over the competition. The contestants don’t have formal training, but that doesn’t mean they lack the chops to impress judges like Gail Simmons and Gregory Gourdet. These “amateurs” will team up “All-Stars,” pros and previous winners like Dale Talde and Richard Blais, to execute the kind of mouth-watering dishes that would be at home in the flagship series. But that also means that the judges’ tastes will be just as exacting. If you’ve ever watched an episode of Top Chef and thought, “I could do that,” Top Chef: Amateurs may convince you otherwise.” Read more about this and other new shows coming to your TV this month in our July TV preview.
Top Chef (Bravo, 8 p.m., 18th-season finale): But it’s not just the TC fans hanging out in the kitchen; tonight marks the end of Top Chef: Portland.
Watch What Happens Live (Bravo, 10 p.m.): And if you discover that two hours of Top Chef simply isn’t enough Top Chef for you, Tom, Padma, and Gail are all hanging out with Andy Cohen tonight.
Regular coverage
Why Women Kill (Paramount+, 3:01 a.m.)
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars (Paramount+, 3:01 a.m.): A quick reminder that coverage on this All Stars season is embargoed until 3 p.m. on Friday, so look for our recap then.
From Film Club
No Sudden Move (HBO Max, 3:01 a.m.): “Movies routinely place characters in desperate, life-or-death situations, but rarely do we see them behave in a genuinely desperate way. No Sudden Move, a period crime drama written by Ed Solomon and directed by Steven Soderbergh, corrects this oversight in a way that’s at once hilarious and distressing. With masked men holding his wife and young children at gunpoint back at home, mild-mannered businessman Matt Wertz (David Harbour) shows up at his boss’ house, demanding a certain hush-hush document that the criminals seek. When the boss refuses to comply, Wertz increases the pressure with a series of quasi-apologetic threats, flailing in his effort to communicate just how serious he is without actually explaining what’s going on (since another masked gunman is listening from just outside the door). ‘I’m gonna punch you now, sir,’ Wertz warns, practically in tears, after tackling his boss to the floor. ‘I’m punching you. This is gonna be a punch.’ Refreshing words to hear from someone who’s clearly never thrown one before.” Read the rest of Mike D’Angelo’s film review.
Wild cards
Tom And Jerry In New York (HBO Max, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): An animated feline and canine go full chaotic neutral in this new series, which “follows the iconic cat and mouse duo as they settle in to their new digs at the Royal Gate Hotel and unleash mayhem across the big city, inciting hilarious chaos uptown, downtown and everywhere their manic escapades take them.”
Smother (Peacock, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): This Irish import starts in Big Little Lies territory before veering someplace stranger. A second season has already been ordered.