Best-bets for March 16: brutal bikers and feel-good family

1) “Mayans M.C.” season-opener, 10 pm., FX. One of TV’s best (and roughest) dramas is finally back. It’s been 16 months since the previous season ended. Now this border town is filled with soldiers; the bikers have lost their drug sources. Dita Galindo convinced EZ and Angel (shown here in a previous episode) to kill her, making it look like a suicide. Their dad (Dita’s ex-lover) is despondent; so is her son, the drug boss. The result – acted and directed with subtle skill – is deep and dark and brutal; the final minutes are especially nasty Read more…

1) “Mayans M.C.” season-opener, 10 pm., FX. One of TV’s best (and roughest) dramas is finally back. It’s been 16 months since the previous season ended. Now this border town is filled with soldiers; the bikers have lost their drug sources. Dita Galindo convinced EZ and Angel (shown here in a previous episode) to kill her, making it look like a suicide. Their dad (Dita’s ex-lover) is despondent; so is her son, the drug boss. The result – acted and directed with subtle skill – is deep and dark and brutal; the final minutes are especially nasty

2) “Holmes Family Effect” debut, 8 and 9 p.m., Fox. Foe 15 years, Mike Holmes has been a cable star, fixing homes in his native Canada. Now he’s on the broadcast side for this two-week, four-hour try-out, alongside his telegenic kids – Sherry, 33, and Michael, 31 and 6-foot-4. In feel-good episodes, they rehab a trade school and a youth-opportunity center, meeting lots of idealistic mentors and teens.

3) “Soul of a Nation,” 10 p.m., ABC. This turns to a subject that PBS recently profiled beautifully – the Black church. Gospel star BeBe Winans hosts an hour that includes the history of the church’s fight for racial equality. One segment meets religious people on both sides of the abortion debate. Another ponders forgiveness, meeting survivors of the church shooting in Charleston, S.C. There’s also music and an interview with Nick Cannon, who has apologized for voicing anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

4) “Young Rock,” 8 p.m., NBC. This remains a mixed blessing: The bad news: It’s a comedy that rarely has humor. The good: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is admirably frank about his youthful sins. Previous episodes saw him as a teen shoplifter; now he’s a college freshman who crumbles after a football injury. He would eventually revive and become a back-up (behind Warren Sapp and other superstars) on a championship team. That part, however, is for another week.

5) “FBI,” 9 p.m., CBS. When a political reporter is kidnapped, the team begins probing her past relationships. That becomes complicated when she’s linked to Ethan, the boyfriend of FBI agent Isobel (Alana De La Garza).

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