Shonda Rhimes, Netflix team up to tell the story of con artist Anna Delvey in Inventing Anna
Also this weekend: Dollface and Love Is Blind return for season 2, and it's rom-com time with Marry Me, I Want You Back, and Tall Girl 2
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, February 11, and Saturday, February 12. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Inventing Anna (Netflix, Friday, 3:01 a.m.):
Created by Shonda Rhimes, the show is based on Jessica Pressler’s 2018 The Cut article documenting [scam artist] Anna Sorokin’s exploits. Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky) is a stand-in for Pressler (who also wrote the article that inspired the 2019 film Hustlers). The show juggles aspects of Anna’s (Julia Garner) life in nine overlong episodes—at least three installments cross the 70-minute mark, with the finale capping out at a dawdling 82 minutes. We see things through Vivian’s perspective as she interviews Anna and obsessively investigates her schemes, background, and relationships.
Regular coverage
RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1, Friday, 8 p.m.)
The Afterparty (Apple TV+, Friday, 12:01 a.m.)
Wild cards
Love Is Blind (Netflix, Friday, 3:01 a.m.): Netflix’s dating reality show hosted by Nick and Vanessa Lachey returns for its second season. In the show, 30 men and women date each other in different pods where they can talk but not see each other. Season two will premiere with five new episodes, with the next four airing on February 19. The grand finale is set for February 25.
In her review, Quinci LeGardye writes: “In its second season, the high-stakes reality show does a better job of getting viewers invested in the relationships in the pods, before the drama of the real world sets in. If the first season presented the series as spectacle, the second shows how the couples that result from this intensive dating experiment try against the odds to make their unconventional relationships work.”