We’ve been told that business success relies on three things: Location, location and location! Somebody forgot to remind the subjects of the documentary feature “The Most Remote Restaurant in the World” of this golden rule.
Streaming on Viaplay, the platform dedicated to Scandinavian films, series and documentaries, “Restaurant” follows a 28-year-old chef who recently received two Michelin stars as he plans to relocate his restaurant from the Faroe Islands to an even lonelier locale: Greenland.
To call these places isolated and sparsely populated is to state the obvious. They make the insular setting of the 2022 drama/comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” look like New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas.
Celebrated young chef Poul Andrias Ziska has a singular vision: to build and establish a fine dining experience in the village of Ilimanaq, Greenland, home to dozens of hardy souls. He also wants to defend his Michelin-star status by winning it for Greenland, a vast frozen expanse that is administered by the Danish government. If you watched “Borgen” on Netflix, you already knew that!
Ziska also wants to dazzle dinner guests with locally sourced dishes — something they’ll no doubt appreciate more after traveling hours and days to get to Ilimanaq.
Over its 80 minutes, the film shows how building a fine dining experience in the Arctic can be fraught with complications. As it begins, Ziska’s distracted from the artistry of plating one of his signature dishes by a flood that threatens to swamp the kitchen.
A must for fans of fine dining and exotic travel, “Restaurant” is presented in Danish with English subtitles.
— “Frontline” (10 p.m., PBS, check local listings) presents “McConnell, the GOP & the Court,” a late-career assessment of Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the minority leader of the Senate. In his years as majority leader, he was a master of getting conservative-leaning judges on the Supreme Court and denying the chance for President Obama to put his choice, Justice Merrick Garland, on the court in 2016.
“Frontline” looks at McConnell as many have expressed concerns about recent health issues. Twice in recent months, he has appeared to freeze, unable to finish sentences. This happened just as many in both parties voiced discontent with a Washington gerontocracy symbolized by the struggle to replace the (now deceased) Sen. Dianne Feinstein and calls to octogenarian figures including McConnell, Sen. Chuck Grassley and President Joe Biden to move aside for younger leadership.
It also explores McConnell’s place in the Republican Party. He seems estranged from followers of former President Trump, who continue to champion the MAGA cause despite Trump’s legal struggles, two impeachments, 91 indictments and rambling violent outbursts about executing his foes and “terminating” the Constitution.
While neither man speaks well of the other, McConnell was instrumental in getting three Trump appointees on the Supreme Court, cementing a conservative majority for years to come.
“Frontline” also wonders out loud about the court’s direction as several justices face questions about ethical lapses, most notably Clarence Thomas’s habit of accepting lavish vacations, gifts and forgiven loans, actions that some suggest are tantamount to accepting bribes from those benefiting from his decisions.
— Just in case you don’t know what day it is, you have at least three prime time chances to watch “Halloween.” Catch the 1978 original (8 p.m., AMC, TV-14), or a remake (7:30 p.m., FX) from 2018 or a version (6:45 p.m., Syfy, TV-14) from 2007.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— The Diamondbacks and Rangers meet in game four of the MLB World Series (8 p.m., Fox).
— A fetching real estate agent becomes a hockey player’s landlord in the holiday romance “Checkin’ it Twice” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— Murder in Yosemite on “FBI: True” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
— “Native America” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) explores how Indigenous athletes channel their culture’s warrior traditions.
A murdered doctor’s corpse shows signs of ritualized abuse on “FBI” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— An undocumented woman vanishes on “Found” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
TCM dials up horror with two phone-related shockers, “Sorry, Wrong Number” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-PG) from 1948, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster, and the 1979 film “When a Stranger Calls” (10 p.m., TV-MA), starring Charles Durning and Carol Kane.
SERIES NOTES
“Big Brother” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … “Dancing With the Stars” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … “Press Your Luck” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Alex Cooper and Depeche Mode on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Meg Ryan and Sarah Cooper visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC).
