Hank Azaria brings gusto to ‘Brockmire’
Hank Azaria stars in the over-the-top character study “Brockmire” (10 p.m., IFC, TV-MA). He’s Jim Brockmire, an oldschool Major League Baseball announcer who trades in folksy anecdotes and wears a signature plaid jacket. His career fizzles in 2007, after he finds his wife cheating on him and shares his rage during a drunken on-air meltdown.
Ten years later, Brockmire has become a viral video legend. He knows nothing of it as he has fled the country and avoids the internet.
Based pretty much only on Jim’s viral infamy, Jules (Amanda Peet) hires him to announce games for her down-market minor-league baseball team located in a bleak Pennsylvania town. There, Jim must submit to the indignities of a no-budget booth run by Charles (Tyrel Jackson Williams), a web-savvy intern.
Azaria’s amazing performance remains the show’s strength and possible limitation. Brockmire sounds very much like a take on Vince Scully that Azaria might do on “The Simpsons.” He never leaves his voice and “performance” behind. Jules seems entirely too young, beautiful and charming for the crusty relic Brockmire. But in the logic of a sitcom, they bond and then some.
Arriving at the beginning of a new baseball season, “Brockmire” offers a caustic, obscene bookend to “Pitch,” Fox’s reverent take on America’s pastime. The truth about baseball probably lies somewhere between these two extremes. Both shows are enjoyable in their own special way.
THREE MINUTES TO SCORE
“Talk Show the Game Show” (10 p.m., truTV, TV-14) offers an amusing media hybrid. Three celebrity guests sit down with host Guy Branum (“The Mindy Project”) and chat about their lives and latest projects. But they must do so in three-minute dollops, with their stories judged by studio panelists Karen Kilgariff and Casey Schreiner. Guests also receive points for things like names dropped and charities plugged.
The scoring and judging are ridiculously arbitrary and purposefully so. As silly as it sounds, “Talk Show the Game Show” makes an important, even witty, point about the canned and predictable nature of talk show “conversation.”
TONIGHT’S HIGHLIGHTS
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A search for reliable witnesses on “Shots Fired” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
› Angelo worries that Cookie’s past may scuttle his campaign’s chances on “Empire” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
› A costume-themed wedding on “Modern Family” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› Staff rivals bicker on “Major Crimes” (9 p.m., TNT, TV-14).
› Grace faces Mac’s new lover on “Greenleaf” (10 p.m., OWN, TV-14).
› Kirkman hopes to reset his agenda on “Designated Survivor” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› “Secrets of the Dead” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, revisits the life of Leonardo da Vinci.
› Cato takes a chance on “Underground” (10 p.m., WGN, TV-MA).
› Divide and conquer on “Hap and Leonard: Mucho Mojo” (10 p.m., Sundance, TV-MA).
› Every vote counts on “Survivor” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).
› Under scrutiny on “Blindspot” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
› Comic-book conversations on “The Goldbergs” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› Villains escape incarceration on “Arrow” (8 p.m., CW, repeat, TV-14).
› JJ is tested on “Speechless” (8:30 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› Lost in the desert on “Criminal Minds” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
› A suspect turns to blackmail on “Law and Order: SVU” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
› On two episodes of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (CW, repeat, TV-14), Joey Fatone (9 p.m.), Tamera Mowry-Housley (9:30 p.m.).
› Jealousy on “black-ish” (9:30 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› Missing in Bangladesh on “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).