Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Sunday, July 17. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Power (Starz, 9 p.m.): In our Q&A lamenting the shows we couldn’t make room for on our Best TV Of 2015 list, Joshua Alston was full of praise for Power’s second season, praising Omari Hardwick’s “sociopath par excellence” Ghost for holding together the show’s clockwork complexity of quadruple-crosses, and calling it “the rare crime drama that skews decidedly female without condescending to its audience or sanding down its hard edges.” In the third season, Ghost is trying to go legitimate as a nightclub owner, but the allure of the criminal world still haunts him—as does his former partner Tommy, who’s been ordered to kill him by drug kingpin Lobos. We’ll have to see if Ghost can keep it together or if it all falls apart around him, a fate that Power often skirts in its ambitious-bordering-on-exhausting storytelling.
Ballers (HBO, 10 p.m.): Tonight’s season two Ballers premiere is called “Face Of The Franchise,” which is a welcome excuse for us to remind you that Dwayne Johnson referred to himself as “franchise Viagra” for his gift of rejuvenating properties by virtue of showing up in them. (Please consult your doctor for Johnson film marathons lasting longer than four hours.) And that in turn is a welcome excuse to remind you that according to our reviewers, Johnson is the only thing keeping Ballers remotely watchable, between Kyle Fowle’s indictments of “underdeveloped character[s], sexist bit[s] of dialogue, and horrifically paced plot” and Dennis Perkins chastising it for “facile storytelling and consequence-less drama.” This season is shaking up the formula by adding Andy Garcia as Johnson’s adversary, and we’ll have to see if he’s brought paper or scissors to take down The Rock.
Vice Principals (HBO, 10:30 p.m.): If the consequence-free bro-tastic lifestyle of Ballers is a callback to the days of Entourage, its new timeslot partner (replacing the late and wholly unlamented The Brink) is a callback to the days of Eastbound And Down. Eastbound creators Jody Hill and Danny McBride are moving from professional baseball to public education, as McBride and Walton Goggins play a pair of vice principals hungry for the chance to replace the former principal. (Said principal is played in the trailer by Bill Murray, who we assume turned down a bigger role because it didn’t fit his late career-coasting agenda.) Danette Chavez audited the first few classes, and handed in an evaluation that says there’s more to this feud than you’d expect:
In tone and setting, it’s a spiritual sequel to the duo’s previous premium-cable outing… There’s even a blustering man-child at the center of the story. But while the profanity reliably reaches virtuosic levels, it rarely ever does so at the cost of more meaningful discussion. What Hill and McBride end up with, after the LSD-laced shenanigans, is as much a meditation on disillusionment one’s life as it is a clash of would-be titans.
With a confirmed run of only two seasons, this feud is guaranteed to heat up quickly. Kyle Fowle’s registered for the first day of school and will have his weekly coverage ready by fifth period.