Suburgatory offers you all the T-ball you need to get through this dark, baseball-less time
Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Wednesday, February 20. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Suburgatory (ABC, 9:30 p.m.): The idea of Tessa handing out romantic advice, even if people don’t really want it, seems like it could make for a good episode of this show, particularly in the midst of a season where you never entirely know what you’re going to get from any given episode. The episode’s also going to offer some kickass T-ball action, and Claire Zulkey, who’s missing her beloved White Sox, will hope the T-ball fills the gaping void in her heart. Also, right, Second Opinions Week enters day four, which is why Claire’s covering the show.
REGULAR COVERAGE
Arrow (The CW, 8 p.m.): A jewel thief named “Dodger” drops in for a spell, and we’re hoping he’s artful. Phil Dyess-Nugent, Second Opinioning for Alasdair Wilkins, is going to spend all of his review singing “Consider Yourself.” We will consider ourselves one of the family. We’ve taken to you so strong!
The Middle (ABC, 8 p.m.): It’s always nice when the Heck family watches something that’s airing on ABC later in the week, but Frankie’s so worked up about Brick going to Chicago on a class trip that she can’t get into the Oscars like she’d like. Alasdair Wilkins, filling in for Will Harris, can’t get into them either.
Survivor (CBS, 8 p.m.): “Another castaway is voted out of the game,” says the TV Guide plot summary, and we’re reminded of just how little the TV Guide summaries help us out when this show is on the air. They may as well tell us that Jeff Probst says, “The tribe has spoken!” Carrie Raisler has also spoken.
Modern Family (ABC, 9 p.m.): Todd VanDerWerff offers the latest of many Second Opinions on this show, and he’s particularly excited about a plot that will send Jay to a bowling tournament. He doesn’t see enough red-hot bowling action on TV since Ed went off the air. But he misses many things about Ed.
Supernatural (The CW, 9 p.m.): A witchcraft-practicing cop is terrified when his murderous dreams start becoming reality. Phil Dyess-Nugent once had his dreams become reality, and he woke up to discover that the movie Beethoven’s 3rd actually existed. Since then, he hasn’t slept. You’d fall apart, too!
The Americans (FX, 10 p.m.): Genevieve Koski had to step away this week, so Todd VanDerWerff called in a ringer, in his own wife and podcast host, Libby Hill, who drops by for the week to have a little discussion about the near assassination of Ronald Reagan and whether the Soviets were behind it.
Southland (TNT, 10 p.m.): Lydia looks into the death of a female boxer’s husband, and that plot description just reminds us that Lydia is on this show, and she’s one of our favorite characters on TV! Kevin McFarland hopes that if he’s ever murdered, she’s on the case. That would be pretty cool.
Top Chef (Bravo, 10 p.m.): Wasn’t this show Top Chef: Seattle at one point? The chefs are in Los Angeles now for the finale, and they’re cooking at a restaurant owned by TV’s Tom Colicchio. Emily Withrow has never dined at a Colicchio establishment, but if she could, she would order the stuffed jalapeno poppers.
Workaholics (Comedy Central, 10 p.m.): Blake joins an artists’ collective for teens. Of course! It’s what all the kids are doing nowadays. Kevin McFarland has also joined an artists’ collective for teens, and he plans to make such lovely things out of Popsicle sticks. Somebody fire up his hot glue gun! He’s ready!
Kroll Show (Comedy Central, 10:30 p.m.): Nick Kroll and company examine the exotic phenomenon of “dining and dashing,” in an episode helpfully entitled “Dine And Dash.” We sort of hope it’s Kroll and his friends practicing their dine and dash moves around Los Angeles, but David Sims doubts it will be.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
Slings & Arrows (1 p.m.): With only two episodes to spare, the show finally gets into the meat of Hamlet rehearsals, and we’re sure everything will go well. It’s not like the lead refuses to do the text as written! It’s not like Geoffrey doesn’t have a set! Todd VanDerWerff has been there, show. He’s there right now!
WHAT ELSE IS ON
American Idol (Fox, 8 p.m.): If you’re one of those people who tunes out the audition episodes of this show, well, we’re to the competition rounds now, even if we’re still working our way down to the top 12. Tonight, the top 10 men perform, and no, we’re still not going to cover the show, even if you ask.
Criminal Minds (CBS, 9 p.m.): The crew goes to Austin to investigate a string of murders where the victims watches are all set inaccurately, because that’s the true way to strike terror in the hearts of men. Listen, we were on about cheap violence on TV, but violence against watches isn’t the way to fix this!
Mad About Oscar With Katie Couric (ABC, 10 p.m.): Just like TV’s Frankie Heck, Katie Couric is mad about the Oscars, and that almost certainly means she’ll do some hard-hitting investigative work about the state of the film industry. Or just talk to the nominees about how exciting it is to be nominated.
Weed Country (Discovery, 10 p.m.): A part of us really thinks it would be great to cover this, because every time we cover a program that so much as mentions marijuana, a bunch of you read it. But even more of us isn’t sure. Tune in later to see if we talk ourselves into getting off our asses and reviewing it!
Toy Story (Disney Channel, 8 p.m.): The terrifying specter of a potential Toy Story 4 reared its ugly head yesterday, all thanks to some Colombian radio personality talking about it on Twitter. The item was eventually debunked, but watch this anyway, just to be eternally vigilant and say, “The CLAWWWW!”
Drumline (ABC Family, 8:30 p.m.): Orlando Jones and Nick Cannon star in this surprisingly entertaining movie about college drumlines, just like you hear about in the title. Yeah, the movie never met a cliché it couldn’t embrace wholeheartedly, but not just any movie is going to give you sweet drumline footage.
NHL Hockey: Flyers at Penguins (NBC Sports, 7:30 p.m.): A few years back, the Penguins looked like they might be one truly great team, but then it all fell apart. We’re not sure why. The ravages of time, most likely, huh? Except they’re leading their division so far? Man, we really have to keep up with this.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
The Mindy Project (Tuesday): All we know about this one is that Dennis Perkins told us he still liked The Mindy Project in a quiet little voice, and then we slammed our fists on our desks and told him he couldn’t have Christmas Day off. Well, something like that happened. We blacked out for a while.