Satirical ‘Sherman’s Showcase’ returns
“Sherman’s Showcase” (10:30 p.m., IFC, TV-MA) returns for a second season. For the uninitiated, this satirical sketch show ransacks Black pop culture history to send up and mash up fleeting trends and dimly remembered songs, movies and celebrities. Its format recalls the long-running Saturday morning dance showcase “Soul Train,” with the fictional Sherman McDaniels (Bashir Salahuddin) channeling the late Don Cornelius.
The season opens in 2003, with a singular focus on fashion. Look for Tim Gunn jokes, a guest stint from Sen. John Edwards, “the future of the Democratic Party” and an appearance by Iman (Issa Rae) in all her icy regality. “Showcase” moves at a fast pace, so if you don’t get every reference or dropped name, there’s plenty more coming at you. By the end of the episode, Sherman is explaining his influence on director Wes Anderson.
Episodes of “Sherman’s Showcase” can also be streamed on AMC+.
› After its brief theatrical run, Netflix streams the 2022 medical murder mystery “The Good Nurse,” about a nurse (Jessica Chastain) who discovers that one of her colleagues (Eddie Redmayne) has been systematically killing patients for more than a decade. Noah Emmerich also stars.
› “Secrets of the Dead” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) turns its scientific and historical gaze on “The End of the Romans,” the slow collapse of an imperial system that had conquered and organized a great deal of the known world for nearly 1,000 years. What forces contributed to this epic implosion?
Curiously, many factors may seem plucked from today’s headlines. Over the course of an hour, “Dead” uses technology to assess various theories. Some contend that Rome was undone by climate change. Steadily cooling temperatures not only caused massive crop failures but may have contributed to the westward migration of marauding hordes that challenged Rome’s authority in the east.
Another theory points to disease. From the second to the fifth century, Rome and its environs endured three major plagues.
Over the centuries, religious writers have blamed Rome’s decline and fall on a decadent society that deservedly received the wrath of an angry God. Curiously, some Romans thought the same thing.
After a second-century conquest in Mesopotamia, Romans brought home a giant statue of Apollo from a sacked city. Some contemporary Romans believed they had offended the deity, who punished them with a pandemic. It’s more likely that the returning Roman legion brought the virus home with them.
It’s interesting to note that the notion of blaming divine retribution for natural disasters, epidemics and societal chaos didn’t start with Pat Robertson.
› The seventh season of “Jay Leno’s Garage” (10 p.m., CNBC) concludes with a visit from President Joe Biden, who displays some limousines outfitted by the Secret Service and joins Leno in a discussion of the growing popularity of electric cars.