With Hulu’s Handmaid’s Tale and Harlots, one story ends as another begins
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Wednesday, July 11. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu): season finale
Harlots (Hulu): season premiere
It’s been a dark and difficult second season of The Handmaid’s Tale, but tonight brings the story’s second year to a close, anchored as always by Elisabeth Moss’ superb performance. Our own Allison Shoemaker will be here afterward to join us all in looking for hope amid the darkness. So if you’re searching for another compelling Hulu show about strong women trying to get ahead in a world that treats them as lessers, why not check out the second-season premiere of Harlots? Set in 18th-century London, the story of two clans of sex workers, led respectively by Samantha Morton and Lesley Manville as ambitious madams, has all the intrigue, sex, politics, and thrills you could ask for in a series. (See: our season-one headline “Harlots will just keep killing people until you start watching.”) Genevieve Valentine will be dropping in on the premiere for us.
Regular coverage
See above, re: Handmaid’s Tale
Wild card
Bobcat Goldthwait’s Misfits & Monsters (TruTV, 10 p.m.): While other channels are apparently having a competition to see which of their new shows premiering tonight can sound less appealing (Seatbelt Psychic on Lifetime? Dr. Pimple Popper on TLC?), TruTV continues to try and offer something of value to fans of comedy on the small screen. This new half-hour anthology series from writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait is a little like a warped, black-comedy version of The Outer Limits, an arrangement of self-contained stories often containing clear morality lessons or thematic reflections on society. The premiere—starring Seth Green as a voice actor who begins seeing his animated doppelgänger in the real world—is pretty bad, but things pick up noticeably in episode two, a thinly veiled allegory of how our country elects someone like Donald Trump, starring old pros David Koechner and Dave Foley.