Over-the-top and effervescent, the reality-show mashup ‘Living for the Dead’ is too silly to take seriously. But the new series, streaming on Hulu, is also a sign of how few truly original ideas have emerged in the quarter- century of the reality-TV era.
‘Living’ is both defined and constrained by its pitch. What if we took the concept of ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’ and grafted it onto ‘Ghost Hunters’?
Produced by the team behind ‘Queer Eye’ and narrated by Kristen Stewart (‘Twilight’), ‘Living’ sends a team of five wisecracking, fashion-forward paranormalists to locations all over America that have been described as haunted.
True to the series, these places — old hotels, clubs and theaters — tend to exude a bit of faded glory. Flamboyantly obvious, a little ‘Living’ goes a long way.
— ‘Nature’ (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) invites viewers to spend an hour with a platypus. When it begins, wildlife photographer Peter Walsh had recently discovered that the searing pain in his head had been caused by lesions on his brain, a condition not likely to improve. Faced with an uncertain future, he took solace in exploring the surprisingly lush waterways located in the heart of Hobart, the largest city in Tasmania, an island south of Australia.
From certain angles, Walsh appears to have entered a rain forest or national park. But other shots reveal graffiti and places where the waterway runs by old factories. There are spots in the river clotted with plastic and garbage, while others are festooned with glorious wildflowers. It’s remarkable how the natural world survives and endures amid mankind’s destructive indifference.
But Walsh did not expect to encounter a platypus. That creature, unique to the Australian continent, combines biological qualities with a freakish audacity. A freshwater mammal, it can swim and frolic like a river otter. Yet it has a long fleshy beak, not unlike a duck. It also lays eggs, like a bird or a reptile. It is truly one of nature’s oddities.
One day while exploring the river and perhaps musing on his poor health, Walsh was surprised by the persistent attention of a female platypus, who seemed to want to make her presence known or perhaps bond with her human observer.
Walsh named her Zoom, spent a full year documenting her activities and began a campaign to clean up the river so that Zoom and her fellows could survive and breed in downtown Hobart. Walsh felt it was time to give back to his little friend, knowing how much she had already helped him in his time of despair.
I’m a bit of a sucker for tales like this, about an individual who befriends a critter and finds his or her life enriched. One of my all-time favorite broadcasts of ‘Nature’ is ‘My Life as a Turkey’ from 2011, about a writer who bonds with a baby bird and spends a year in the wild with his fowl “family.” It can be streamed at PBS.org.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— All’s well that ends well in Roswell on ‘Quantum Leap’ (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
— A famous chef vanishes on ‘Magnum P.I.’(9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— New clues about Earth’s earliest life forms on ‘NOVA’ (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).
— Cushioned and a bit stifled by a financial windfall, a middle-aged layabout (Hugh Grant) befriends the awkward son of an acquaintance, helping both in the subtle art of growing up in the 2002 comedy ‘About a Boy’ (9 p.m., Starz Encore). Adapted from a novel by Nick Hornby (‘High Fidelity’).
— Patients share curious symptoms on ‘Chicago Fire’ (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
— Triceratops fossils inspire research on ‘Secrets of the Dead’ (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).
CULT CHOICE
An older woman (Joan Crawford) takes a younger lover (Cliff Robertson) who suffers from mental illness in the 1956 drama ‘Autumn Leaves’ (6 p.m., TCM, TV-PG), directed by Robert Aldrich (‘Whatever Happened to Baby Jane’).
SERIES NOTES
‘Survivor’ (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … ‘The Masked Singer’ (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!’ (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
David Spade hosts ‘Snake Oil’ (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … ‘Celebrity Wheel of Fortune’ (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … Crowded streets in Vietnam on ‘The Amazing Race’ (9:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … ‘The $100,000 Pyramid’ (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Talking Heads and Daniel Caesar are booked on ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ (11:35 p.m., CBS) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Ronnie Wood, Issa Rae and David Kushner on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Nathan Lane, Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC).
