Valentine Reality TV, Blasts from the Past on ‘FBI,’ ‘Auto’ Layoffs, ‘Lone Star’ Intrigue
Valentine’s Day romantics can take a Love Trip to Paris courtesy of Freeform, while Netflix launches a dating competition featuring veterans from their other reality shows. FBI reunites Maggie with her mentor, while FBI: International pairs Fly Team liaison Smitty with her predecessor. NBC’s American Auto attempts to find humor in the painful process of corporate layoffs. Danger lurks for several members of the 9-1-1: Lone Star crew.
Love Trip: Paris
Oo-la-la! Can four lovelorn American women—a real estate agent, a model, a podcaster and a personal trainer—find love in the City of Lights? In the unscripted series’ two-episode premiere, the new roomies embark on a Parisian adventure any Valentine’s romantic would envy, as they arrive at their penthouse to discover a floor of fine Frenchies interested in amour.
Perfect Match
Or you could just trash out with a steamy, sleazy dating competition featuring exhibitionists from past seasons of Netflix guilty pleasures including Love Is Blind, Too Hot to Handle and The Circle. Couples square off in compatibility challenges, with winners gaining the upper hand in making or breaking other matches. The series launches with four episodes, with four more each of the next two weeks.
FBI
Justified’s Joelle Carter guests as Gwen Carter, a former colleague and mentor of Maggie (Missy Peregrym), reconnecting while the team investigates an informant’s murder. Followed by FBI: International (9/8c), where the Fly Team’s Europol liaison Smitty (Eva-Jane Willis) reunites with her predecessor, Jaeger (Christiane Paul) on a case with historical resonance. They’re seeking an American in Berlin suspected of killing an elderly local who may have spied for the East German Stasi secret police during the Cold War.
American Auto
This brutal satire of big business finds the hapless incompetents of Payne Motors’ C-suite trying to cut costs by laying off employees among the executive ranks. How to do so without looking like it’s a “victory lap at a euthanasia party,” while avoiding an age-discrimination lawsuit, is just the beginning of their problems. Another headache: CEO Katherine’s (Ana Gasteyer) impending interview with CNBC, with optics that need to be seen to be disbelieved.
9-1-1: Lone Star
The crises this week are mostly personal, and very dangerous, as Owen’s (Rob Lowe) undercover assignment in infiltrating the Honor Dogs motorcycle gang blows up when his meeting with Sgt. O’Brien (Neal McDonough) is interrupted by gang members seeking a mole. Elsewhere, T.K. (Ronen Rubinstein) frantically looks for his kidnapped boyfriend Carlos (Rafael Silva). All in a day’s trauma.
INSIDER TUESDAY TV:
- Night Court (8/7c, NBC): Abby (Melissa Rauch) opens her court to bailiff Gurgs’ (Lacretta) tween nephew and his friends for a school project, but their real goal is to disrupt the courtroom process. As if anyone would notice.
- Finding Your Roots (8/7c, PBS): The X-Files’ David Duchovny and ubiquitous character actor Richard Kind (currently on East New York) are the latest subjects of Henry Louis Gates’ genealogy series, tracing their family histories from Eastern Europe to the U.S.
- Accused (9/8c, Fox): The Resident’s Malcolm Jamal-Warner stars in the story of a distraught dad seeking justice after his young daughter’s sexual assault. The Wire’s Wendell Pierce is a detective trying to make sure he doesn’t cross the line in his crusade.
- La Brea (9/8c, NBC): While the Exiles attack the clearing, a familiar face leaps back into 10,000 B.C. with a deadly agenda of their own.
- Will Trent (10/9c, ABC): The GBI initiates a cyber-investigation of a software company after a double murder. This case could be a special challenge for computer-challenged dyslexic Will (Ramón Rodríguez).