Doing ‘Time’ in a British Women’s Prison, ‘grown-ish’ Growing Up, the AI Revolution, Moses’ Life Story

Time

Watching the second season of creator Jimmy McGovern’s harrowing drama anthology about life in prison is Time well spent—if you can bear the grueling journey that often makes Orange Is the New Black feel like a trip to Disneyland. The first season was set in a men’s prison, and Time now moves on to a women’s facility, where over three episodes the series ultimately conveys a hopeful message of redemption and reconciliation, but not without a cost. Stars include the remarkable Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us) as a desperate addict whose unexpected pregnancy provides a lifeline, Doctor Who alum Jodie Whittaker as a single mom plunged into a spiral of debt and family estrangement, and the impressive Tamara Lawrance as their cellmate, who becomes a pariah when the tragedy of her inexplicable crime is revealed. (See the full review.)

Grown-ish

All good things come to an end, and that includes one’s college days. The black-ish spinoff returns to finish out its sixth and final season, with Junior (Marcus Scribner) soon to graduate from Cal U, with several more essential life lessons on the syllabus. As the series resumes, he and Annika (Justine Skye) are still dealing with the fallout from their breakup, causing Junior to lose himself in his work, creating distance from his friends who’d otherwise be there to help their friend get through the ordeal. Guess someone skipped Relationships 101.

Testament: The Story of Moses

If you simply can’t wait for ABC’s annual broadcast of Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 epic The Ten Commandments (airing Saturday), consider sampling this three-part docuseries. Ample dramatic sequences (which may have you pining for Charlton Heston) depict the life of the prophet whom one scholar describes as “a founding father” of the Judeo-Christian religion.

Survivor

Idol, idol, who’s got an idol? That common obsession of Survivor players sends one tribe on a wild goose chase for an immunity idol. Followed by The Amazing Race (9:30/8:30c), which sends teams up 708 stairs to the top of Colombia’s El Peñon de Guatapé rock formation to get the clue that launches the third leg of the race.

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• Chicago Med (8/7c, NBC): Here’s something you don’t see every day: a soon-to-be father who says he’s telepathic and getting messages from his unborn son. Elsewhere, Zola (Sophia Ali) thaws out a frozen criminal. Followed by Chicago Fire (9/8c), responding to a hazmat call at a dialysis center, and Chicago P.D. (10/9c), where Upton (Tracy Spiridakos) enlists SVU detective Petrovic (Bojana Novakovic) to help in a kidnapping case.
• The Masked Singer (8/7c, Fox): The celebrity panelists kick off a night devoted to TV theme songs by performing the earworm opening to Gilligan’s Island.
• Top Chef (9/8c, Bravo): Season 15 Top Chef Colorado winner Joe Flann returns to join host Kristen Kish for the Quickfire Challenge, in which the chefs scurry to make a dish featuring hops.
• Resident Alien (10/9c, Syfy): Season 3’s penultimate episode is a wild one for alien-in-disguise Harry (Alan Tudyk), who snaps out of his heartbreak funk when he realizes his alien baby has returned to Earth to settle a score with the father who abandoned him.

ON THE STREAM:

• Constellation (streaming on Apple TV+): The mind-teasing psychological thriller ends its first season with Jo (Noomi Rapace) learning the truth behind all the weirdness when she’s taken to an astronaut rehab clinic.
• Palm Royale (streaming on Apple TV+): In the Palm Beach period comedy, Maxine (Kristen Wiig) goes to court against Robert (Ricky Martin) over who’ll be conservator of Norma’s (Carol Burnett) estate while the ailing socialite lies in a stupor. Bruce Dern makes his first appearance as Linda’s (Laura Dern) father and Evelyn’s (Allison Janney) estranged husband.
• The New Look (streaming on Apple TV+): The historical drama’s penultimate episode finds Christian Dior (Ben Mendelsohn) behind schedule and understaffed as he prepares to open his design house, while bringing his fractured family together for their father’s funeral. Still in exile in Switzerland, Coco Chanel (Juliette Binoche) reaches the breaking point with her unstable lifelong friend Elsa (Emily Mortimer).
• Dead Hot (streaming on Tubi): A kinky six-part thriller follows Liverpool bohemians Elliot (Bilal Hasna) and Jess (Vivian Oparah) as they seek answers in the disappearance five years ago of Peter, his lover and her twin brother.