Here’s what’s up in the world of television for Monday, August 18. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
America’s Next Top Model: The Boyz R Back (The CW, 9 p.m.): The reason why this is tonight’s Top Pick isn’t because “the boyz r back” (gross), or even because it’s the twenty-first season premiere of an American treasure (at least according to Tyra Banks/What’s On Tonight’s collegiate self). No, this premiere is tonight’s Top Pick because the big kickoff challenge is…to take the best selfie. While walking a runway. We’re not as cranky about selfies as some—we’ve even been known to take them alongside our brunch with very little irony—but this is objectively hilarious. We at least hope there’s a dramatic third act reveal that someone meant to use the Valencia filter, but she accidentally clicked Lo-Fi, so is she even serious about this competition at all?! But who are we kidding—we just want this moment again, always.
Also noted
Switched at Birth / The Fosters (ABC Family, 8 p.m./9 p.m.): ABC Family Correspondent Carrie Raisler will be writing up the season finales of this emotional bloc, which features a graduation, surprising reveals, and various building tensions of the teen variety (our personal favorite).
Gargoyles (1 p.m.): In our haste to pay tribute to Channing “Human Treasure” Tatum, we neglected to highlight Oliver Sava’s Gargoyles review for TV Club Classic, and we’ve felt bad ever since. Observe us righting that wrong now.
Dallas (TNT, 9 p.m.): Did you know that the new Dallas has been around long enough and has done well enough to have a third season premiere? We did not, but we suppose there are stranger things in this crazy world of ours. Like this. Or this. Or this. (If you couldn’t tell, we here at What’s On Tonight are equally fascinated and terrified by the ocean, which is seventy-one percent of the Earth and yet we still haven’t explored ninety-five percent of it, and…what were we talking about to get here, again? The TNT “we know drama” remake of a once-beloved primetime soap? Cool, just checking.)
Elsewhere on The A.V. Club
Today kicks off The A.V. Club’s 1994 Week! There will be many articles in the coming days to remind you of pop culture past and your dwindling mortality, but for now, you can read Gwen Inhat on how Friends changed sitcoms forever, Sean O’Neal on how Reality Bites maybe ruined him forever, and a whole mess of A.V. writers on the trends that defined 1994…forever? That sentence structure didn’t really pan out like we had hoped. TL;DR—these are good pieces, you should read them.
Regular coverage
Teen Wolf (MTV, 10 p.m.)
Under the Dome (CBS, 10 p.m.)
TV Club Classic
The Young Ones (11 a.m.)
Other things that are on
MasterChef (FOX, 8 p.m.)
Partners (FX, 9 p.m.)
Anger Management (FX, 10 p.m.)