Here’s what’s going on in the television world on Wednesday, February 3rd. All times are from the east.
Best choice
Firefly Lane (Netflix, 3:01, first full season): “Reductively, Firefly Lane it’s a ‘mother show’. The kind of overly gentle and supremely boring melodrama that doesn’t get a lot of critical attention, but has long thrived in places like the Hallmark Channel. Netflix has slowly been building its own small empire in the genre, including highly watched series, but little discussed, as Magnolias Sweets and Virgin river. Like those programs, Firefly Lane is based on a successful female fiction novel and borrows its aesthetic from an original Lifetime film. It’s the kind of cheap looking series, written and staged in an irregular way that is easy to drag around – especially given the frequency with which it oscillates between the boring and the disconcerting. But, behind the bad 80’s cosplay and screenplay dialogues, Firefly Lane offers an exploration of the inner life of women that still seems relatively rare on the TV scene. ” Read the rest of Caroline Siede’s pre-broadcast review.
Regular coverage
Riverdale (CW, 8 pm)
Wild card
New Wild of Europe, “The Missing Lynx” (PBS, 10 pm, series premiere): We regret to inform you that “The Missing Lynx” is not a missed episode of Lodge 49, rest in peace. But if you like nature documentaries – and those who don’t like us, animals and mountains they’re cool as hell – still worth a look. This six-episode series tells “the inspiring story of a continent’s wild renaissance”, focusing on conservation and restoration efforts that are allowing vulnerable or damaged ecosystems to thrive. Therefore, lynx. Look, beautiful cats!