Documentary Now! returns, and heads straight into some wild, wild country

By Allison Shoemaker | February 20, 2019 | 6:00am

TV Lists What's On Tonight

Documentary Now! returns, and heads straight into some wild, wild country

Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Wednesday, February 20. All times are Eastern.

Top pick

Documentary Now! (IFC, 11 p.m., season premiere): The third—sorry, 52nd—season of IFC’s ruthless and affectionate mockumentary series bows tonight with a two-part skewering of Wild Wild Country and The Source Family. As you’d expect from those titles, it centers on a fictional stand-in for the “counter-cultural, controversial utopian societies that garnered mass followers in the ’70s and ’80s.” They’re called the Shawbardites. Their leader: Owen Wilson.

Regular coverage

Modern Family (ABC, 9 p.m.)
You’re The Worst (FXX, 10 p.m.)
Deadly Class (Syfy, 10 p.m.)

Wild card

Single Parents (ABC, 9:31 p.m.): Every so often, an episode title comes along, and it’s all you need. Assuming the series is entertaining enough, that is. Single Parents is entertaining enough, and the title, she’s a beaut. Here goes: “John Freakin’ Stamos.”

What more do you want? It doesn’t even appear that he’s in the episode. He’s not credited, anyway. So for some other reason, this is called “John Freakin’ Stamos.” We must know the why. We must.