Apple’s ‘New Look,’ Return of Syfy’s ‘Resident Alien’ and ‘Love Is Blind,’ Who’s Cool in ‘Abbott’s School

The New Look

“For me, creation was survival,” recalls fashion icon Christian Dior (an excellent Ben Mendelsohn), looking back at his four-year ordeal of living under Nazi occupation in Paris during World War II. Those years are the focus of the first three episodes of an evocative historical drama, co-starring Juliette Binoche as the more established design queen Coco Chanel, whose complicated involvement with a Nazi officer (Bad Sisters’ Claes Bang) threatens to tarnish her reputation with allegations of collaborating with the enemy. Dior is willing to risk anything to protect his sister Catherine (Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams), a Resistance fighter. When the fog of war clears, a classic fashion rivalry will ensue.

Resident Alien

After a nearly year-and-a-half wait, the sci-fi comedy about an alien residing awkwardly in a human body is back for a third season of intergalactic mayhem and interpersonal farce. Harry (the inspired Alan Tudyk), sent to Earth to destroy it, has become more humanized by the season, and is now working with stern Gen. McCallister (Terminator heroine Linda Hamilton) to stop the Grey aliens from finishing the job. One complication: handsome Grey hybrid Joseph (Enver Gjokaj) is posing as the Colorado town’s new deputy, and he’s making a play for Harry’s closest friend Asta (Sara Tomko), who Harry sees as his personal Kryptonite. “If I could just kill you, I could save the world,” he confides in his almost love interest, which for Harry is tantamount to whispering sweet nothings. Glad to have him back.

Love Is Blind

Hard to say what St. Valentine would make of it, but here we are with the sixth season of the reality hit where singles (this year from Charlotte, North Carolina) vow to wed without actually meeting. Nick and Vanessa Lachey, who had the luxury of knowing each other before tying the knot, return as hosts, with six episodes to start and more following weekly as the couples decide if their makeshift romance has what it takes to last.

Abbott Elementary

When an admiring and possibly jealous Jacob (Chris Perfetti) tells Gregory (Tyler James Williams) that the swaggering students from his 8^th-grade class have designated Mr. Eddie “the cool teacher,” Gregory snaps, “Take it back.” The aloof 1^st-grade teacher is not amused, but his colleagues think it’s a hoot that this unlucky-in-love teacher is the one the older kids are turning to for pointers. Elsewhere, Janine (Quinta Brunson) learns the frustrations of District-level bureaucracy when she tries to hire an American Sign Language interpreter for Jacob’s class. Will red tape dim her optimism? Or will it be principal Ava’s (Janelle James) insistence that Janine is now her “mole?”

Nature

No, the revered Sir David Attenborough is not joining the Jurassic Park franchise (though he’d be welcome to bring some gravitas to those increasingly silly movies). In this edition of Nature, titled Attenborough and the Jurassic Sea Monster, the veteran host brings a spectacular fossil find to life—through innovative visual effects. With two experienced British fossil hunters, Attenborough follows a 2022 expedition to the Jurassic Coast in southwest England to excavate the skull of a mammoth sea predator, the pilosaur, thought to be 40 feet long with enormous flippers, daggers for teeth and jaws of death that would make Steven Spielberg’s version pale by comparison.

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• The Conners (8/7c, ABC): Will Valentine’s Day be the right time for Becky (Lecy Goranson) to introduce her FedEx pilot boyfriend Tyler (Sean Astin) to daughter Beverly Rose (Charlotte Sanchez)? Followed by a Valentine-themed episode of Not Dead Yet (8:30/7:30c), where Nell (Gina Rodriguez) begins to wonder if she’s using the ghosts as a barrier for new romance.
• Nova: Building the Eiffel Tower (9/8c, PBS): The science series explores the engineering miracle that resulted in the iconic Paris landmark being completed in just over two years in time for the 1889 World’s Fair.
• FBI True (10/9c, CBS): Agents past and present discuss the four-decade investigation into the 1963 bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. that killed four young girls, a tragic catalyst for the civil-rights movement.
• Feud: Capote vs. the Swans (10/9c, FX): A socially exiled Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) tries to dry out and sober up, while the wine-swilling swans continue to close ranks. Quote of the week, from Slim Keith (Diane Lane): “After three marriages and one Truman, I’ve come to a conclusion: Solitude is what I’ve been looking for all along.”
• Players (streaming on Netflix): Valentine’s Day romcom alert: Not Dead Yet’s Gina Rodriguez is a cynical sportswriter and veteran player when it comes to setting up hookups for her friends (including Damon Wayans Jr.), but will she play for keeps when she falls for a dashing war correspondent (Lucifer’s Tom Ellis)? “I’m 33, and I want an adult,” she says. Who can blame her?