The midseason shuffle continues as NBC brings back Mr. Mayor and Young Rock for their second seasons. PBS’ Frontline explores the seeds of the tragic Ukraine conflict in Putin’s Road to War. NBC’s This Is Us begins a “Big Three” trilogy of episodes with the focus on new parent Kevin. The Bachelor ends its season with a two-hour recap of Clayton’s journey.
NBC
Mr. Mayor
The absurdist workplace comedy from 30 Rock’s Tina Fey and Robert Carlock shakes things up as Season 2 begins, when Mayor Neil Bremer (the charming Ted Danson) installs a new Innovation Team of trendy consultants, who immediately start looking for “dead weight.” Which could pretty much be clumsy communication director Jayden’s (Bobby Moynihan) job description. With their noses out of joint because of the interlopers, chief of staff Mikaela (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Vella Lovell) and chief strategist Tommy (Mike Cabellon) conspire to have Jayden’s back, while scornful deputy mayor Arpi (Holly Hunter) does her best to bedevil the office newbies.
Daniel Delgado/NBC
Young Rock
NBC’s Tuesday lineup starts with the quasi-autobiographical showcase for Dwayne Johnson, where the flashbacks are far more diverting than the framework in which Johnson and hapless interviewer Randall Park discuss the superstar’s presidential prospects in 2032. Season 2 opens with a discourse on the bonds between father and son, when little Dewey (Adrian Groulx) in 1984 feels left out after his beloved dad Rocky (standout Joseph Lee Anderson) hits his WWF peak as a tag-team champ. Harder times in 1987 force a move from Hawaii to Nashville for teenage Dwayne (Bradley Constant), while young adult Dwayne (Uli Latukefu) struggles to fit in with the Canadian Football League when he joins the Calgary Stampeders in 1996.
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Frontline
With the news from the Ukraine war zone more devastating by the day, PBS’ premiere documentary program delivers a timely two-hour analysis of Putin’s Road to War, from filmmaker Michael Kirk and his political team. Interviewing U.S. intelligence experts, diplomats and Russian politicians, as well as historians and journalists, the two-hour special profiles the Russian President’s rise to power from the KGB, describing the political motivations and grievances that led Putin to launch this disastrous and tragic invasion.
Ron Batzdorff/NBC
This Is Us
Milo Ventimiglia directs the first episode of a “big three” trilogy that will give each of the Pearson siblings their own spotlight. (Mandy Moore and Justin Hartley direct the next two episodes.) First up is Kevin (Hartley), who wants to step up as dad to his twin babies—but he may have overstepped by pledging to fly with the squalling infants across the country to check on the cabin’s progress. Despite some heavy-handed metaphors in the flashbacks, involving jumping into the deep end and having a solid foundation, it’s ultimately affecting to watch Kevin face his self-doubts. This is also an especially strong episode for military vets Cassidy (Jennifer Morrison) and Uncle Nicky (Griffin Dunne).
ABC/John Fleenor
The Bachelor
Another made-for-TV romantic journey comes to an end as Clayton Echard wraps his Bachelor season by answering to the three women with whom he allegedly fell in love. Jesse Palmer moderates the conversation in a live two-hour finale.
Inside Tuesday TV:
- NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament: First Four (6:30/ET, truTV): Find out which of the outlying teams will make it into the field of 64 when the First Four games tip off in Dayton, Ohio tonight and Wednesday. The first matches pit Texas Southern against Texas A&E-Corpus Christi, followed at approximately 9:10/ET by Wyoming taking on my alma mater, Indiana. On Wednesday, Wright State plays Bryant and Rutgers takes on Notre Dame.
- Phoenix Rising (9/8c, HBO): A two-part documentary (concluding Wednesday) profiles actress Evan Rachel Wood (True Blood) in her evolution as activist when she goes public about her history of domestic violence in a relationship with Brian Warner (aka rock star Marilyn Manson). Wood later co-authored and lobbied for passage of California’s Phoenix Act, which extends the statute of limitations for domestic violence cases.
- Fixer to Fabulous: Welcome Inn (9/8c, HGTV): Renovation experts Dave and Jenny Mars have their hands full in a four-part special as they transform an historic 1880s home into a B&B vacation rental.
- Catherine Cohen: The Twist …? She’s Gorgeous (streaming on Netflix): In her first Netflix comedy special, the actress/author uses music to make her points about relationships and modern feminism in a meta display of performance art from New York’s Joe’s Pub.
- Holy Heist (streaming on discovery+): A two-hour true-crime documentary revisits a 1993 armored-car robbery in Rochester, N.Y., where the cast of characters includes a priest, a boxer, an Irish rebel with IRA ties and a suspicious guard who was kidnapped during the heist and released unharmed. Only $2 million of the $7.4 million take was ever recovered.
- How I Met Your Father (streaming on Hulu): The romcom ends its first season with Sophie (Hilary Duff) getting some welcome romantic advice. She may need it, given that the series has already been renewed for a second year.