Settle in for some Worn Stories
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Thursday, April 1. All times are Eastern. Absolutely no times are secretly an April Fools’ joke, as April Fools’ Day is the worst.
Top picks
Worn Stories (Netflix, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): Like the bestselling book by Emily Spivack that serves as its source material, Worn Stories stitches together a life-affirming tapestry from dozens of stories about unique items of clothing. Each of the eight half-hour episodes in this moving docuseries follows a different theme, including community, loss, and love. It’s not always immediately clear how these stories all fit into their respective themes, which is what makes this a lovely little nesting doll of a show. But Worn Stories is dedicated to finding the common thread among all these garments, accessories, and people. Some installments are particularly complementary—the episodes on “Community” and “Loss” are joined by the absence of something. Jenji Kohan, who adapted the Worn Stories book for TV, intersperses the more in-depth segments with brief asides from interview subjects. Standout segments include the “renaissax” of Tim Cappello, a musician who’s toured with the likes of Tina Turner and Peter Gabriel, but who’s best known as the Sexy Saxophone Man from The Lost Boys, and the decades-in-the-making reunion of Mike Africa Jr., Debbie Africa, and Mike Africa Sr., whose plights were recently explored in the HBO documentary 40 Years A Prisoner. Ultimately, what Worn Stories posits is that, just as often as it acts as armor, clothing can serve as a beacon. [Danette Chavez]
Made For Love (HBO Max, 3:01 a.m., series premiere, first three episodes): “HBO Max’s Made For Love deconstructs a relationship, one foreboding flashback at a time. The eight-part drama-comedy is faithful in tone and structure to its source material, the 2017 novel of the same name, right down to its in medias res opening. But where Alissa Nutting introduced her book’s protagonist by also introducing her father and his interesting new girlfriend, as a writer and executive producer on the TV adaptation, she has Hazel (Cristin Milioti) crawl out of a sewer in an iridescent green dress, like some haute couture alligator. The series’ opening is an inspired way to evoke the novel’s Florida-ness (though the setting has been relocated to some undisclosed state), but it’s also indicative of its main drawback—a tendency to over-punctuate story beats.” Look for the rest of Danette Chavez’s pre-air review on the site later today.
Regular coverage
Clarice (CBS, 10 p.m.)
Wild cards
Time for another wild card lightning round.
The Challenge: All Stars (Paramount+, 3:01 a.m., series premiere): It’s a throwback season of The Challenge, with a roster of competitors who already know this particular dance, having once participated in days of yore.
The Great Pottery Throw Down (HBO Max, 3:01 a.m., complete fourth season): Oooh, oooh, idea! Make one episode of The Challenge a crossover with the Throw Down! Imagine the hijinks!
Creepshow (Shudder, 3:01 a.m., season-two premiere): Shudder’s horror anthology returns with a new batch of episodes featuring the likes of Keith David, D’Arcy Carden, Breckin Meyer, and horror legend Barbara Crampton.
Top Chef (Bravo, 8 p.m., season-18 premiere): We’ll be running an odds piece on this season’s Portland-bound competitors after the premiere.
United States Of Al (CBS, 8:30 p.m., series premiere): Chuck Lorre’s latest living-room intrusion, which stars Adhir Kalyan and Parker Young, centers on “the friendship between Riley (Young), a Marine combat veteran struggling to readjust to civilian life in Ohio, and Awalmir (‘Al’) (Kalyan), the interpreter who served with his unit in Afghanistan and has just arrived to start a new life in America.” Take a look at Saloni Gajjar’s C review of the new series, possibly before CBS greenlights Young Al.