The Plot Against America introduces more nefarious schemes, and Beef House opens its doors

By Sulagna Misra  |  March 30, 2020 | 5:00am
TV Lists What's On Tonight
The Plot Against America introduces more nefarious schemes, and Beef House opens its doors
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The Plot Against America Photo: Michele K. Short

Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Monday, March 30. All times are Eastern.

Top pick

The Plot Against America (HBO, 9 p.m.): In the HBO series’ previous episode, the characters deal with the aftermath of fear and terror of the 1940 election. Noel Murray describes it thusly: “I have no idea whether David Simon and Ed Burns were inspired to bring Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America to television due to the uncanny similarities between the 1940 presidential race in the book and what happened in the real world in 2016. But there’s definitely a sense of passion and purpose to the miniseries’ second episode, which deals most directly with the run-up to election night. ‘Part 2’ isn’t just a cockeyed nostalgia-piece from an alternate timeline. It’s saying something.”

Beef House (Adult Swim, 12:15 a.m.; series premiere available at AdultSwim.com), premiere drop-in:

Adult Swim dropped the premiere of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s latest a few days early, but Randall Colburn has already paid a visit to the Beef House:

“Beef House makes no effort to explain its core dynamic, which finds Tim’s rock and roll slacker living alongside three middle-aged oddballs—Awesome Show’s Ron Austar, Tennessee Luke, and Ben Hur—in the suburban home of Eric and his wife, Megan (Jamie-Lynn Sigler), who is both a detective and the only person on the show who appears to have a job. The lack of explanation for the circumstances—along with the amorphous, undefined idea of what, exactly, constitutes a “beef house”—ends up being one of the show’s biggest strengths, as it cleverly evokes how many ’90s sitcoms ended up airing out of order and, given that they premiered in a pre-TiVo era, relied on viewers’ familiarity with the format to connect the dots on their own.” Read the rest of Randall’s recap here.

Regular coverage

Better Call Saul (AMC, 9 p.m.)
Dispatches From Elsewhere (AMC, 10 p.m.)

Wild card

The Great Pottery Throw Down (Amazon Prime and YouTube): This is a pretty standard competitive reality show, except it’s about pottery. If you’ve ever tried pottery (or watched Ghost or this episode of Community), you know that the mechanics of it seem deceptively simple, but are in fact incredibly hard to do. All of the contestants are talented in different ways: The fluted edges! The little dents! The multiple ceramic sets they make in one sitting! Look, you’ve already finished The Great British Bake Off—why not take The Great Pottery Throw Down for a spin?

 
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