‘Teen Beach 2’ serves up poppy, silly nostalgia
As diverting as cotton candy and half as nutritious, “Teen Beach 2” (7 p.m., Disney) rings in the silly summer season. A brightly colored extravaganza that’s equal parts musical numbers and fantasy, “Teen” blends the fashions and sensibility of 1960s beach movies with contemporary pop music and choreography.
Its fantastical story (this is a musical, after all) revolves around the stars of a 1960s beach musical who depart the screen for the “real world,” pursued by rival gangs of midcentury teen icons from film genres like biker and surf movies.
None of this really has to make sense because the focus is on the forgettable songs and the remarkably elaborate dance numbers. Ross Lynch (“Austin & Ally”) and Maia Mitchell (“The Fosters”) star.
“Teen Beach 2” has much to live up to. Its predecessor, “Teen Beach Movie,” ranks as the second-mostwatched made-for-cable movie ever. The ratings crown belongs to Disney’s “High School Musical 2.”
Time-travel also looms large in the new Disney series “Best Friends Whenever” (8:53 p.m.). Best pals Shelby (Lauren Taylor) and Cyd (Landry Bender) inadvertently invent a time machine that allows them to glance back at history, peek at the future and, most importantly, patch up the social gaffes that have made their journey through high school so difficult.
If live-action kids’ tales don’t thrill you, there is the CGI fantasy “Dragons: Race to the Edge” streaming exclusively on Netflix, beginning today. It’s curious to see this DreamWorks project arrive on a very big day for its competitor, Disney.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
China and the U.S. meet in the FIFA Women’s World Cup (6:30 p.m., WHBQ-TV Channel 13).
An exercise in sharing, “The Briefcase” (7 p.m., WREG-TV Channel 3) concludes its short season.
Problems large and small beset an 11-year-old and his family in the 2014 comedy “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” (7 p.m., Starz).
Chandler’s team joins a resistance movement on the second-season debut of the TNT drama “The Last Ship” (7 p.m., WLMT-TV Channel 30).
Candid cameras catch ethical dilemmas on “What Would You Do?” (8 p.m., WATN-TV Channel 24).
An NBA oddity tries his hand at personal diplomacy in the 2015 documentary “Dennis Rodman’s Big Bang in Pyongyang” (8 p.m., Showtime).
A wicked warlord tricks the bounty hunters on “Killjoys” (8 p.m., Syfy).
Lack of evidence keeps a suspected cop killer at large on “Blue Bloods” (9 p.m., WREG-TV Channel 3).
Seriously off course on “Dark Matter” (9 p.m., Syfy).
“Lisa Lampanelli: Back to the Drawing Board” (9 p.m., Epix) features the stand-up work of a selfstyled “mean” comedian.