USA’s ‘Miz & Mrs’ is must-miss TV
I keep telling myself it’s just a show. But why does a show like “Miz & Mrs” (10 p.m., USA, TV-14) have to exist?
I must heed my own advice and assure myself that the mere existence of one series is not a sign of cultural decline or the coming apocalypse. But I return to my gut reaction and wonder just why a show as dumb as “Miz & Mrs” was ever created. How did its stars become famous? What kind of audience finds them worth watching?
Just pondering those questions, and their answers, makes me feel slightly queasy and not a little sad.
In a world with literally thousands of programming choices, the meaning of a single show and its ability to serve as a metaphor for good or bad, enriching or depressing, has shrunken to near insignificance. But I can’t help myself from thinking about a corporate boardroom full of people who watched “Miz & Mrs” and said, “Yeah, let’s broadcast THAT!”
Watching the titular wrestling superstars scream at each other and the audience about their life, their fondly anticipated parenthood and their plans to schedule the pregnancy around plans for Wrestlemania by way of a nude photo shoot is enough to make you worry about the future of the species.
Worse, neither member of this loudly anointed “power couple” departs from their wrestling ring personas. Real comedy, interesting reality TV and fun stories emerge when people deviate from their “act.” Ozzie didn’t go around biting heads off bats on “The Osbournes.” The whole point of “GLOW,” one of the smartest series now streaming, is the vast difference between campy wrestling characters and the real women who play them.
In contrast, these two seem incapable of shedding their WWE shtick. Their “real” lives unfold with all the subtlety of a Shamwow infomercial. You just want to shut them up, change the channel and take a hot shower to cleanse yourself of the aggressive stupidity of this series, just in case it’s contagious.
SERIAL KILLER
Set in the 1990s, the two-hour special “Bad Henry” (9 p.m., ID, TV-14) recalls the reign of terror of a serial killer named Henry Louis Wallace, who claimed the lives of 10 young African-American women in the Charlotte area.
U.N. SEX ABUSE
Postponed from an earlier date, Tonight’s “Frontline” (10 p.m., PBS) studies reports of systemic sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers in some of the world’s poorest countries.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› Jane worries she may never be a mother on “The Bold Type” (8 p.m., Freeform, TV-14).
› Talents compete on “World of Dance” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
› Efforts to get a new trial for Julius Jones begin on the season finale of “The Last Defense” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
› Scheduled on “Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel” (10 p.m., HBO), the Rams coach Sean McVay; freediving in the Philippines; an NFL lineman with a medical degree and a followup on a 2014 story about low wages in baseball’s Minor Leagues.
› A Naval officer expires on “NCIS” (8 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› Acts audition on “America’s Got Talent” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG)
› Jamie Foxx hosts “Beat Shazam” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
› On two episodes of “The Middle” (ABC, repeat, TV-PG), Mother’s Day (8 p.m.), Frankie wants Axl closer to home (8:30 p.m.).
› Clarke struggles to save Abby on “The 100” (8 p.m., CW, TV-14).
› A sudden deployment leaves families in the lurch on “SEAL Team” (9 p.m., CBS, repeat, TV-14).
› Andy Cohen hosts “Love Connection” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
› On two episodes of “blackish” (ABC, repeat), college selection (9 p.m., TV-PG), holiday jingles (9:30 p.m., TV-14).
› Talon can’t control the creature she has summoned on “The Outpost” (9 p.m., CW, TV-14).
Kevin McDonough can be reached at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.