AMC’S ‘Feed the Beast’ deserves a starvation diet
We live in the age of the slow-to-build TV drama. I’ve heard people say, with entirely straight faces, that a show “doesn’t really get going until the eighth episode.” While some good series may be rewarding for the patient viewer, bad shows usually tend to announce their terribleness right away. “Feed the Beast” (10 p.m. Sunday, AMC, TV-14) wastes no time. You know you’re in trouble when a dashing soon-to-be-released prisoner has sex with his fetching lawyer even before getting out of his orange jumpsuit. This isn’t a spoiler; it happens about three minutes into “Beast.”
That prisoner is Dion Patras (Jim Sturgess). All of the correctional officers are sad to see him go. You see, he’s a gourmet chef who has made their every meal a delectable affair. Any resemblance to the incarcerated gourmands in “Goodfellas” is strictly intentional. “Beast” includes plenty of shots of blue flames on top of expensive stoves, cracking eggs and sizzling sauces. They are a welcome distraction from the dialogue.
Most of the more painful speeches belong to Tommy Moran (David Schwimmer), who used to be Dion’s best friend. Then Dion got high on cocaine and burned their mobbedup restaurant down and went to prison. This happened on the same night that Tommy’s wife died in a hit-and-run accident, the tragic incident that traumatized his son, TJ (Elijah Jacob). The poor kid hasn’t spoken a word since.
It’s sad we can’t say the same for Tommy.
He’s a sad-sack sommelier-turned-wine wholesaler who samples too much merchandise. We see him at his wife’s grave, at grief counseling and consulting with his son’s therapist when not unburdening himself of great dollops of plot explication as Dion whips up yet another fourstar feast.
When not cooking or engaged in hands-on sessions with his lawyer, Dion is on the run from the mobsters whose restaurant he torched. Chief among them is The Tooth Fairy (Michael Gladis), a pliers-wielding heavy with a taste for Dion’s pan-roasted quail. He’d rather use Dion’s culinary genius as a meal ticket than murder him. This forces Dion to sweet talk Tommy into rebooting their dreams of opening a Greek restaurant. In the Bronx, of all places.
“Beast” makes the most of the borough’s bleak industrial scenery and its up-and-coming status as “the new Brooklyn.”
The urban backdrop adds just one more brooding ingredient to this cafeteria of cliches.
TONIGHT’S HIGHLIGHTS
› Nothing thwarts a bride-to-be’s plans like the existence of the groom’s deranged stepsister in the 2016 thriller “You May Now Kill the Bride” (8 p.m., Lifetime). Tammin Sursok, Ashley Newbrough and Rocky Myers star.
› Viewers can spend today watching or re-watching all 10 episodes of the superior second season of “Fargo” (10 a.m.-7 p.m., FX, TV-MA). But for the existence of FX’s “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story,” this “Fargo” prequel could easily be considered the best drama of the year.
› The new docuseries “The Vet Life” (10 p.m., Animal Planet, TV-PG) follows three doctors and Tuskegee University graduates as they open a new clinic in Houston and try to balance time spent with their families and caring for critters.
› Skateboarding and more on the X Games (6 p.m., ESPN).