Life can sometimes resemble mysteries wrapped within silences and unspoken estrangements. That’s the theme of “MaryLand,” a new limited series debuting on “Masterpiece” (9 p.m. Sunday, PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
Created by Suranne Jones (“Gentleman Jack”, “Vigil”) and writer Anne-Marie O’Connor, “MaryLand” concerns sisters Becca (Jones) and Rosaline (Eve Best) who have long kept each other at a distance. Becca is first seen at the breakfast table of her Welsh home, shepherding her teenage children from breakfast to school. Rosaline’s life in London could not be more different. She’s first seen at a cancer screening. And not her first, judging by her clear familiarity with the procedure. She also has the middle-aged luxury of fending off the affections of a much younger lover.
Both women find themselves thrust into crisis when word comes that their mother has died on the Isle of Man. Becca, who considered herself closer, or at least more in touch with, their mother, is completely blindsided by the news. She presumed her mother was in Wales, where presumably, she belonged.
Knee-deep in the emotional turmoil and indignities of dealing with their mother’s death, Rosaline continues to project an emotional reserve. She’s quick to accept that her mother went for a walk on the beach, slipped, hit her head and died. But then more details emerge. She’d had a date, it seems, with the man (Hugh Quarshie) who found her body.
Then the sisters discover facts that even Rosaline can’t compartmentalize and dismiss; facts that suggest a secret double life. And then there’s a mysterious American friend (Stockard Channing), a woman with secrets of her own.
From the early going, “MaryLand” doesn’t seem so much a whodunit as a “who-the-heck-was-Mom in the first place?” Jones and Best bring a quiet assurance to their very different characters and more than hold their own with screen veteran Channing.
— For some time, I have wondered if anybody would try to make a film as silly, ephemeral and overstuffed with comics as the old 1963 comedy “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.” I figured it would be too expensive to assemble the talent.
Apparently, I was wrong, and my pipedream has come to fruition of the freeze-dried variety. “Unfrosted,” streaming on Netflix, is producer, director and writer Jerry Seinfeld’s strenuously silly fever dream about the creation of Pop-Tarts. This pastry legend jams in countless tropes of 1960s pop culture and history from the Kennedy White House and the Space Race to the Cold War and beyond.
While Jim Gaffigan, Melissa McCarthy and Amy Schumer have major co-starring roles, the film is stuffed with dozens of actors, from Tony Hale to Jon Hamm to Peter Dinklage, many playing familiar figures from the period. James Marsden, currently cast as a joyless John Adams in “Franklin” on Apple TV+, portrays fitness guru Jack LaLanne here. A film whose credits include “Bobby Moynihan as Chef Boyardee” deserves at least passing attention.
Not content to launch this platter of very empty comedy calories, Seinfeld chose this week to carp, in a New Yorker interview, that the “extreme left” and “PC crap” have killed comedy. That seems both ungenerous and untrue.
Plenty of comedies, from “Schitt’s Creek” to “Ted Lasso” and “Girls5Eva” have emerged in recent years. In making such comments, Seinfeld puts himself in the role of an old guy complaining about a changing landscape, much the way older comedians did when Dean Martin roasts, Bob Hope Vietnam specials and “The Mothers-in-Law” gave way to “All in the Family” and “Saturday Night Live.” Comedy changes as generational sensibilities shift, and always has.
Seinfeld is correct to decry PC puritans who try to tell us what can’t be “funny” anymore. But declaring comedy “dead” just makes him sound bitter. And that’s a little sad.
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— The Tampa Bay Rays host the New York Mets in MLB action (7 p.m., Fox).
— First-round play in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs (8 p.m., ABC).
— While sheltering her sister-in-law from a dangerous cult, a woman fears that her daughter may be their next target in the 2024 shocker “A Deadly Threat to My Family” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).
— While connecting her grandfather to a long-lost love, a fetching meddler gets some unexpected help in the 2023 romance “A Lifelong Love” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— Crocodiles take on zebras and wildebeests on “Predator v Prey” (8 p.m., BBC America, TV-PG).
— Dua Lipa hosts and performs on “Saturday Night Live” (11:30 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS).
— Sister Monica makes waves on the season finale of “Call the Midwife” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
— A close call for a good friend on “A Gentleman in Moscow” (8 p.m., Showtime, TV-14).
— Gray makes a bet on revenge on the season finale of “Parish” (9 p.m., AMC, TV-MA).
— The improvisation never ends on “The Sympathizer” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).
— “The Mega-Brands That Built America” (9 p.m., History, TV-PG) recalls the brief but dominant presence of Blockbuster Video and the Netflix red envelope service that caused its extinction.
— Jake and Max consult a familiar figure on “Guilt” on “Masterpiece” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
— “How Disney Built America” (10 p.m., History, TV-PG) recalls the long-shot bet that audiences would show up for a full-length animated musical, a roll of the dice that resulted in “Snow White.”
— New witnesses speak on “The Jinx Part Two: The Lives and Deaths of Robert Durst” (10 p.m., Sunday, HBO, TV-MA).
CULT CHOICE
As part of TCM’s Saturday night double feature festival, director Spike Lee presents two films from master directors depicting the mass media at its very worst. Elia Kazan’s 1957 drama “A Face in the Crowd” (8 p.m., TV-PG) stars Andy Griffith as a guitar-playing entertainer with dreams of becoming an American dictator. In Billy Wilder’s 1951 satire “Ace in the Hole” (10:15 p.m., TV-14), a press agent (Kirk Douglas) milks a mine rescue for sob-story headlines, with deadly consequences.
SATURDAY SERIES
A Portuguese mystery on “FBI: International” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … “The Wall” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … A bomber targets the NYPD on “FBI: Most Wanted” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … “Weakest Link” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … “48 Hours” (10 p.m., CBS) … A vintage helping of “Saturday Night Live” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
SUNDAY SERIES
An ambush may be linked to family secrets on “The Equalizer” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … Heir to a windfall, Marge indulges herself to spite Homer on “The Simpsons” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … Amnesia strikes Deliria on “Krapopolis” (8:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
A student vanishes after a fraternity party on “Tracker” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … Mystery dates on “The Great North” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … Marvin’s fountain of youth on “Grimsburg” (9:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … A car dealership becomes a crime scene on “CSI: Vegas” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … “Dateline” (10 p.m., NBC, r) … “Jeopardy! Masters” (10 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
