Best-bets for Nov. 17: witty “Fleishman,” pickled tourney

1) “Fleishman is in Trouble,” Hulu. Toby Fleishman (a typecast Jesse Eisenberg) is a decent chap. A divorced doctor and dad, he tries to do right by his kids… and kind of likes the new emphasis on dating apps and sex. Then his cold-hearted ex-wife (Claire Danes, very much against type) vanishes. (They’re shown here.) Adapting her first novel, Taffy Brodesser-Akner fills this nine-part mini-series with witty dialog and narration, satirizing an elite corner of the world. Read more…

1) “Fleishman is in Trouble,” Hulu. Toby Fleishman (a typecast Jesse Eisenberg) is a decent chap. A divorced doctor and dad, he tries to do right by his kids… and kind of likes the new emphasis on dating apps and sex. Then his cold-hearted ex-wife (Claire Danes, very much against type) vanishes. (They’re shown here.) Adapting her first novel, Taffy Brodesser-Akner fills this nine-part mini-series with witty dialog and narration, satirizing an elite corner of the world.

2) “Pickled,” 9-11 p.m., CBS. Pickleball – sort of small-scale tennis — soared during the pandemic. In the U.S., the number of players almost doubled, nearing five million. Here’s a celebrity tourney, with a boxer (Sugar Ray Leonard), a comedian (Tig Nataro), some singers – (Kelly Rowland, Dierks Bentley, Jimmie Allen) and lots of actors, including Emma Watson, Daniel Dae Kim, Jaime Camil, Aisha Tyler, Luis Guzman and Max Greenfield.

3) “Call Me Kat,” 9:30, Fox. Kat (Mayim Bialik) is exhausted from errands for her mom; Phil (the late Leslie Jordan) is exhausted from night life with his new boyfriend. Also, Ted Wass is back as Harley. Once a busy actor (including “Soap” and playing Bialik’s dad in “Blossom”), Wass, 70, he became a top TV director. His previous “Kat” episode was his first acting one in a quarter-century.

4) Alaskan overload. This seems like an all-Alaskan day, Animal Planet has “Alaska: The Last Frontier,” from 4 p.m. to 6 a.m. … National Geographic has “Port Protection Alaska” from 1-8 p.m., followed by “Life Below Zero” at 8 and 9 … And at 10 p.m., ABC has “Alaska Daily,” an excellent show based loosely on a real Anchorge reporter. Tonight, two missing women get uneven attention.

5) Mega-movies, Turner Classic Movies. A while back, movies loved size and scale; here are examples: “Giant” (1956), 4:30 p.m., runs three hours and 21 minutes; it has a high-profile cast (James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson) and drew 10 Oscar nominations, including best picture, winning one (director George Stevens). “Lord Jim” (1965), at 8 p.m., runs two hours, 34 minutes; Peter O’Toole plays a seaman, trying to redeem his reputation.

 

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