New Season of ‘Trying’ & ‘Maximum’ Suspense on Apple TV, ‘Guy’s Grocery Games’ Goes Global

Trying

Adoptive parents Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall) keep trying to do their best by their now-adolescent children as the domestic British comedy enters its fifth enjoyable season. The latest hurdle to happiness on the home front: Nikki atoning for having tracked down the kids’ biological mother, Kat (Charlotte Riley), and then lying about it, for which daughter Princess (Scarlett Rayner), now sporting shocking pink hair, has yet to forgive her. The season opener follows the fractious family to a supervised theme-park outing, during which Princess hopes to get to know Kat better, made more difficult by neurotic Nikki’s lurking, including on thrill rides that challenge Nikki’s already frayed nerves. Elsewhere, Nikki’s sister Karen (Sian Brooke) faces weeks of alone time with precocious daughter Stevie (Matilda Flower), now that husband Scott (Darren Boyd) has taken on the daunting challenge of rowing solo across the Atlantic. As one does.

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed

Expertly blending suspense with humor, the thriller nears the end of its first season with Paula (Tatiana Maslany) tracking down other victims of the elaborate cam-boy blackmail scheme, prompting co-worker Rudy (Charlie Hall) to declare, “This is like some Epstein file, Joe Rogan-level conspiracy.” And he’s got the scars to prove it. With a custody battle looming, Paula continues her quest for exoneration, unaware that she’s once again putting her and others’ lives in danger.

Guy’s Grocery Games

Guy Fieri’s popular cooking competition takes on an international flavor with a five-part tournament, titled Guy’s Grocery Games: Global Games, featuring eight masters of world cuisine battling it out in the kitchen for a $50,000 grand prize. Fieri divides the field into two teams, and in the opener, Group A is challenged to prepare their best version of international street food, including the Red Torch Special ingredient of pumpernickel bread. In the elimination round, the bottom two chefs tackle a rice dish with 10 or fewer ingredients.

Sharks: Reef Rivals

The weeklong SharkFest heads back Down Under to Australia for back-to-back explorations of shark activity. In Reef Rivals, scientists study an island on the Great Barrier Reef where an unusual variety of ocean predators converge to hunt for turtles, birds, and other sources of survival. Followed by Great White Gauntlet (10/9c), which tracks shark experts on remote Greenly Island as they tag a great white shark with a camera to reveal their hunting practices among a colony of seals and sea lions.

The American Southwest

A visually glorious meditation on nature’s bounty and diversity, this hour-long journey along the Colorado River is also a lament about the dwindling availability of a precious resource: water. It’s “the divine force in this unforgiving landscape,” says narrator Quannah Chasinghorse in soothing yet concerned tones. The film takes a macro view of the sprawling, nearly 1,500-mile river and its tributaries, then zeroes in at a micro level on wildlife from elk in the woodlands to beavers in the wetlands and the endangered California condors that perch along the sheer cliff faces of the yawning canyons. It’s the next best thing to being there.

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• Emmy Nominations (11:30 am/ET, livestreamed on Emmys.com/nominations): Find out which shows made the cut when Emmy winners Liza Colón-Zayas (The Bear) and Jeff Hiller (Somebody Somewhere) announce the nominees. Expect last year’s winner The Pitt and Apple TV‘s breakout Pluribus to do well in drama, and a contest between the final seasons of Hacks and The Comeback in comedy. As always, there will be surprises and snubs.
• Kitchen Chaos (10/9c, Food Network): Think America’s Funniest Cooking Videos as professional chefs react to clips of culinary calamities in back-to-back episodes featuring deep-fried turkey traumas, barbecue meltdowns and baking mishaps.
• Save My Skin (10/9c, TLC): U.K. dermatologist Dr. Emma Craythorne treats patients with extreme skin issues in the reality series’ sixth season, opening with a woman whose obesity may be responsible for the growth of skin tags on her neck.

ON THE STREAM:

• Return to Fox Hollow: New Victims, Darker Secrets (streaming on Hulu): A sequel to the docuseries The Fox Hollow Murders: Playground of a Serial Killer continues to explore the crimes of serial killer Herb Baumeister with a search for additional victims and possible accomplices.
• A Woman of Substance (streaming on BritBox): The saga continues with a young and pregnant Emma (Jessica Reynolds) charting a new course for her and her baby’s future, while in the 1970s, Emma (Brenda Blethyn) confronts her daughter Edwina (Rosie Cavaliero) and discovers her granddaughter Paula’s (Mara Huf) romantic secret.
• Wardriver (streaming on Paramount+): Dane DeHaan stars in a caper making its streaming debut, playing a hacker who’s drawn into a million-dollar cyber-heist scheme with violent consequences.
• TikTok LIVE x Food Network Presents: Tomato Season (8 pm/ET, streaming on TikTok, @tiktoklive_us, @jose.elcook, @foodnetwork): Food Network chef Antonia Lofaso and TikTok creator Jose el Cook collaborate in an hourlong livestream demonstrating recipes and other ways to make the most of your summer crop of tomatoes.