Idris Elba ‘Hijack’-ed Again, Daytime TV’s ‘Dirty Talk’ Era, ‘Palm Royale’ Finale, ‘Riot Women’ on BritBox

Has Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) ever considered just riding a bicycle? This seasoned corporate negotiator isn’t faring so well with public transportation. In the first season of this Emmy-nominated thriller, he was caught in the middle of a hostage crisis aboard a flight from Dubai to London. Now he’s in Berlin, and understandably watchful and suspicious as he boards an underground train heading toward peril. (You know we’re in for it when a controller remarks, “Nothing exciting ever happens on the U5.”) The situation becomes increasingly intense through the first chapter of an eight-episode season (dropping weekly), but even so, you’ll likely be surprised by what Sam announces in the cliffhanger ending. All aboard next week!

“Ruled” may be too strong a word, but there was a time when the antics of sensational daytime TV talk shows — chairs being thrown, noses being broken, brawls a commonplace — commanded headlines despairing of where our world, and culture, were heading. A three-part docuseries, airing weekly, relives those inglorious “glory days” of the 1990s, when shows hosted by the carnival-barker likes of Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, and Geraldo Rivera set the lowest bar imaginable for rubber-necking entertainment. The series features commentary by Povich, Sally Jessy Raphael, Montel Williams, Leeza Gibbons, producers of the Springer and Geraldo shows, and eyewitness accounts from Steve Wilkos, a former Springer bodyguard who became a host of his own show.

The campy, ’70s-era comedy goes out in high style and a flurry of farcical incoherence in the Season 2 finale, with Maxine (Kristen Wiig) and Evelyn (Allison Janney) spending much of the hour trying to hide and dispose of a body. (Long story, none of which makes much sense.) Their goal is to clear the deck of any complication that would halt the Palm Beach wedding of Maxine’s ex, Douglas (Josh Lucas), and the very pregnant Mitzi (Kaia Gerber). There are other complications and subplots before the stylized climax, which gives Carol Burnett a memorable spotlight in one of two musical interludes that’s also a sweet callback to her longtime pal Julie Andrews. A bigger production number emphasizes the show’s fantastical nature and doubles as a fairly satisfying series finale, should the show not be renewed.

“We sing songs about being middle-aged and menopausal and more or less invisible. And you thought the Clash were angry.” Meet the Riot Women, a group of five West Yorkshire women of a certain age and temperament who form the most unlikely of punk bands for a talent contest and find new purpose by rocking out. From one of British TV’s top creators, Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax), Riot Women will have you rooting for and hooting along with these unfiltered and unleashed heroines, played by Tamsin Grieg (Episodes), Joanna Scanlon (Getting On), Rosalie Craig (the West End Company revival), Lorraine Ashbourne, and Amelia Bullmore. Launching with two episodes.

Series star Tyler James Williams directs an episode heavy on conflict, when the PTA and a group of angry parents confront the staff with loaded questions about how long their kids are going to be going to school in an abandoned mall, with storefronts as classrooms (and a giant Ben Franklin head that’s shredding everyone’s nerves). The buck stops with principal Ava (Janelle James), but will she be forced to face the music? In a tasty subplot, Jacob (Chris Perfetti) and Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) suspect that the deeply unpopular Mr. Morton (Jerry Minor) is trying to steal Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) away from their friend group.

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• Nature (8/7c, PBS): The series explores a “brotherhood of elephants” in Tusker, observing a colony of male African elephants, known as “super tuskers” for their giant tusks weighing at least 100 pounds, at various stages of life in the region of Mount Kilimanjaro.
• Chicago Med (8/7c, NBC): A road-rage incident keeps the Emergency Department busy. On Chicago Fire (9/8c), Cruz (Joe Minoso) helps Severide (Taylor Kinney) in his arson investigation while Capt. Van Meter’s (Tim Hopper) life hangs in the balance, followed by a new episode of Chicago P.D. (10/9c).
• Shifting Gears (8/7c, ABC): Matt’s (Tim Allen) reunion with a high school buddy (Tuc Watkins) gets testy when he meets his very opinionated spouse (Community‘s Jim Rash).
• The Masked Singer (8/7c, Fox): Johnny Knoxville brings a Fear Factor vibe to the singing competition in a not-so-subtle promotion for the new Fear Factor: House of Fear series, which repeats its series premiere in its regular time period at 9/8c.

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