Equal parts Bravo docu-soap, “Yellowstone” and “The Golden Bachelor,” the new series “The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys” drops on Peacock.
The docuseries follows a fractured ranching family, principally focusing on the photogenic sons of philandering patriarch Steve McBee, a recently divorced hot pistol who appears to have a hands-on relationship with the company’s CFO, Galyna, a woman who may or may not have been born a blond and who sports a Boris and Natasha accent.
The sons are given to driving enormous, shiny new pickup trucks and discussing succession issues in all the most unrealistic ways. A great deal of what passes for dialogue might be distilled onto bumper stickers or wind up in beer commercials or bad country songs. Suffice it to say, they’d rather die than lose the family farm or firm.
It seems dear old randy Daddy has run heavily into debt. Unlike Galyna, I’m no financial whiz, but the boys might save a few dollars if they didn’t insist on so many new toys or trips to the hair salon. As groomed as Ken dolls, these cowboy heirs take their hair seriously!
— Moving from the Wild West to the Midwest, “Lakefront Empire” (10 p.m., HGTV, TV-PG) breaks new docuseries ground on the Lake of the Ozarks.
Located in Missouri and created by the damming of the Osage river for hydroelectricity, the Lake of the Ozarks has emerged as one of the great tourist and leisure attractions in the center of the nation. “Empire” follows rival real estate agents as they compete for moneyed buyers eager to purchase fantasy getaways on the shores of one of the largest artificial bodies of water in the nation.
We are continually reminded that the Lake of the Ozarks has more shoreline than the entire state of California. And these agents seem determined to exploit every inch.
As TV docu-distractions go, “Empire” is helped by the many facets of the tourist getaway. The Lake of the Ozarks offers very expensive locations, where the waterside docks cost more than most people’s houses. These customers seem house proud of the fact that they are buying into the Midwest’s version of the Hamptons.
But there are also family-friendly locations and other areas with reputations for extravagant hedonism, where flotillas of boats filled with the scantily clad, or completely uncovered, engage in unending spring break orgies. Take that, “Jersey Shore”!
— The Swedish teen drama “Young Royals,” about a handsome heir’s romantic dalliances and daydreams at a prestigious prep school, enters its third season on Netflix. The series has earned international praise for casting actors who actually look like teenagers, with all of their insecurities and real and metaphorical blemishes.
— A young woman’s sudden blindness plunges her into despair until her trained dog leads her to a handsome suitor in the 2023 romance “Guiding Emily” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
By filling its schedule with brazenly formulaic fare, entirely too dependent on Jane Austen and Christmas, the Hallmark Channel has done what few cable networks have done in years: gain viewers. While most cable networks devolve into interchangeable outlets for repeats, Hallmark has become more Hallmark-y — if that’s possible.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Blind auditions send the chairs spinning on “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
— Torres wants revenge on “NCIS” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— A data breach is no day at the beach on “NCIS: Hawai’i” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— Fists fly on “Deal or No Deal Island” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
— “Bad Romance: A Special Edition of 20/20” (10 p.m., ABC), a news division’s take on tales of love gone wrong, concludes its first season.
CULT CHOICE
A crusading populist (James Cagney) becomes a political demagogue in director Raoul Walsh’s 1953 drama “A Lion in the Streets” (6:15 p.m., TCM, TV-PG). It was compared unfavorably to the 1949 adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s “All the King’s Men.” Both were loosely based on the life of Louisiana’s Huey Long.
SERIES NOTES
Calvin feels his years on “The Neighborhood” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … Mystery seafood sets the agenda on “MasterChef” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … Roses and thorns on “The Bachelor” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … Cremains of the day on “Bob Hearts Abishola” (8:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … Cat Deeley hosts “So You Think You Can Dance” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Ewan McGregor, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Evan Rachel Wood and Marcus King on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Bowen Yang and Kara Swisher visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
