‘Full Swing’ follows PGA players
The docuseries “Full Swing” begins streaming on Netflix. It will follow a group of professional golfers as they embark on the PGA tour.
Over eight episodes, we meet players and their managers. We visit their homes, gyms and private jets. We meet their wives and friends, who share their hopes, dreams and fears about careers and fortunes that can change overnight.
At its very best, golf can be a rather serene experience. The courses are perfectly manicured, and the game is steeped in tradition. By the standards of other sports and their loud play-by-play announcers, golf features hushed tones and respectful silences.
“Full Swing” puts the players and their commentary front and center. Like anyone who has practiced the same game their entire lives, they are not exactly sparkling conversationalists — their tone runs the spectrum from swagger to insecurity. While their mastery of the game can be awe-inspiring, it just isn’t terribly interesting listening to these men speak in a torrent of bromides, obscenities and sports cliches.
One interesting wrinkle to “Full Swing” is the emergence of a Saudibacked rival to the PGA, a new league with bottomless pockets eager to poach players from a long-established organization. The specter of Saudi Arabia as a bloody petrodictatorship that oppresses women, foments proxy wars and has political critics dismembered with bone saws gives some of the players pause. Others simply cash their paychecks.
› Also streaming on Netflix, “The Law According to Lidia Poet” is a six-episode historical miniseries following the emergence of Italy’s first female lawyer in the 19th century.
Forbidden by law to practice her profession as a woman, she became the brains behind a firm fronted by her brother and passes along scoops to her brother-in-law, Turin’s leading journalist.
› The musical profile “Wu-Tang: An American Saga” enters its third and final season on Hulu. In other musical programming, “Power Hour” (10 p.m., AXS) offers a
weekly roundup of events, concerts and news in the world of rock music.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› The Brooklyn Nets host the Miami Heat in NBA action (7:30 p.m., ESPN).
› The weather takes a nasty turn on “Chicago Med” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
› “The Masked Singer” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) enters its ninth season.
› Canids survive extreme conditions on “Dogs in the Wild: A Nature Miniseries” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).
› While in Brazil, Josh discovers a new distilling technique on “Moonshiners” (8 p.m., Discovery, TV-14).
› The gang raises funds for a good cause on “Chicago Fire” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
› The trash in the alley isn’t going to clean itself on “Tough as Nails” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).
› “NOVA” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) explores archaeological discoveries of hitherto unknown sites that point to a prehistoric Amazon civilization capable of erecting enormous structures.
› Nell has history with her latest obituary assignment on “Not Dead Yet” (9:30 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
› A drug case gets complicated on “Chicago P.D.” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).