Relations come to visit in Animal Kingdom and Uncle Buck, with wildly different results
Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Tuesday, June 13. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Animal Kingdom (TNT, 9 p.m.): The critically acclaimed 2010 Australian crime film that we totally keep meaning to watch—hey, it’s got Guy Pearce in it, that’s always good enough reason for us to go watch something eventually—gets an Americanized remake beginning with tonight’s two-hour premiere. Ellen Barkin takes over for Jacki Weaver as Janine “Smurf” Cody, the fearsome matriarch of a crime family that takes in an estranged grandson after the death of his mother. Fun fact: One of the Animal Kingdoms has Scott Speedman in it, while the other has Sullivan Stapleton. We’re not sure it really matters which is which.
Uncle Buck (ABC, 9 p.m.): Huh, tonight is a shockingly good night for “adaptations of movies about previously estranged relatives who come to visit and change things forever.” Admittedly, we’re going to guess there will be slightly fewer drug deals and murders in this Mike Epps-starring adaptation of the fondly remembered John Candy comedy. That feels like a safe bet. Although, if these two shows do want to start working toward one hell of a crossover event, we’d be fine with that.
Adnan Syed: Innocent Or Guilty? (ID, 9 p.m.): For anyone who felt the Serial podcast was a little too, well, NPR to unlock the full lurid true-crime potential of Adnan Syed’s guilt or innocence, here come the bold truth-tellers behind such shows as Evil Lives Here, Evil Kin, Evil-In-Law, Evil Twins, Homicide Hunter, Southern Fried Homicide, Swamp Murders, Beauty Queen Murders, Fear Thy Neighbor, Alaska: Ice Cold Killers, Happily Never After, I’d Kill For You, I Was Murdered, I (Almost) Got Away With It, Let’s Kill Mom and Momsters: When Moms Go Bad, Killer Instinct With Chris Hansen, Death By Gossip With Wendy Williams, and our personal favorite, Frenemies: Loyalty Turned Lethal. These definitely feel like the guys to crack this mystery at last.
Premieres and finales
To Tell The Truth (ABC, premiere at 8 p.m.; episode two at 10 p.m.): Providing the bread in ABC’s Uncle Buck sandwich is this new show, which airs a special preview at 8 p.m. before immediately settling into its regular 10 p.m. time slot. Anthony Anderson hosts an update of the classic game show, with a four-person celebrity panel of Betty White (who appeared starting in 1958 on the original version of this show), The Real Housewives Of Atlanta’s NeNe Leakes, former NBA player turned ESPN raconteur Jalen Rose, and a rotating fourth guest.
Wrecked (TBS, 10 p.m.): One more major premiere tonight, but this one lost out on top pick status because a) we needed to give ID’s game-changing exposé on Adnan Syed the space it deserved and b) it’s not an adaptation of a movie about an estranged relative coming to visit, thus breaking the pattern. Instead, this is basically a Lost pastiche about the survivors of a plane crash trying to survive on a deserted island. The most notable name involved is probably Flight Of The Conchords’ Rhys Darby, unless any Whitest Kids U’ Know stans out there want to learn us on how we’re disrespecting Zach Cregger, as though anyone who wasn’t Trevor Moore mattered on that show anyway. You know, even in this tangent-ridden feature, “unsolicited Whitest Kids U’ Know take” might be the most random tangent in What’s On Tonight history.
I Am Homicide (ID, 10 p.m.): Actually, maybe this is the ID show deserving of top-pick status. After all, the premiere episode is called “From The Gridiron To The Grave,” which is just peak ID episode titling.
Famously Single (E!, 10 p.m.): Eight people who E! assures us are celebrities—including Pauly D, Aubrey O’Day, Willis McGahee, and a bunch of other people we’re not even sure are famous, let alone famous for being single—move in together in a loft in Los Angeles to work with a relationship expert to figure out what they’re doing wrong in their romantic lives.
Chrisley Knows Best (USA, 10 p.m.): We’re not totally convinced this show isn’t just an elaborate fabrication USA has made up to prank Monday Night Raw viewers, but supposedly it’s the spring season finale. Speaking of Raw: Hey, look, wrestling!
And, yes, Vince McMahon booked himself to beat God (and Shawn Michaels, which frankly is even more preposterous).
Regular coverage: It’s pretty much Hulu or bust, you guys
The Mindy Project (Hulu, 3:01 a.m.)
Casual (Hulu, 3:01 a.m.)
Update: Oh, that’s right, and Person Of Interest
Person Of Interest (CBS, 10 p.m.)
Streaming pick
“With James Doohan,” The Ben Stiller Show (CW Seed): Maybe we’re just saying this because we’re the New Jersey aspect of the What’s On Tonight gestalt entity, but if anything this episode’s “Legends Of Springsteen” runner undersells the greatness of the Boss. Oh, and this show was brilliant and had a super-young Bob Odenkirk in it and apparently Scotty is the special guest in this episode, so yeah, go watch.