As “the news” gets more troubling and life seems more contentious, even comedy can seem like tap-dancing on the third rail. “Ramy Youssef: More Feelings” (10 p.m. Saturday, HBO, TV-MA) offers reflections from the comedian and actor, the star of the Hulu comedy series “Ramy” and recently seen in the Oscar-winning 2023 fantasy “Poor Things,” as well as FX’s “The Bear.”
Youssef, a New York-born Egyptian-American whose grandfather was a U.N. translator, has long been put in the awkward spot of explaining, when not defending, Muslim culture to an American audience that seems suspicious, if not hostile, to most things Islamic. He makes the most of his soft-spoken delivery and cerebral nature, contrasting his performance to those of Muslim spokespeople showcased on CNN and elsewhere.
His standup special, a follow up to his 2019 “Feelings” effort, arrives against the background of the Gaza-Israel tragedy, a conflict that has divided the entertainment community as it has society at large. True to his calling to mine humor even from the most difficult subjects, he manages to make a joke about Hamas early in the proceedings.
— Speaking of entertainment blending with, or rather bleeding into, tragic reality, “The Regime” (9 p.m., Sunday, HBO, TV-MA) continues after a major shift in plot. Herbert Zubak, the earthy corporal and man of the people who inspired wobbly Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet) to cut ties with the West, has been imprisoned.
Elena finds herself in increasingly desperate straits as the economy teeters on collapse. Her appeals to the populace and her declarations of authoritarian “love” appear all the more shrill and delusional. Not to give too much away, but this episode brings the appearance of Edward Keplinger (Hugh Grant), the main opposition leader, a former chancellor and longtime public bogeyman demonized by Elana’s ministry of propaganda.
While there is no faulting the performances here, particularly Winslet’s, many viewers and critics have wondered just exactly what “The Regime” is saying or satirizing.
At a time when so many period pieces have turned history and literature into consequence-free multicultural fairy tales like “Bridgerton” and Apple’s recent “Buccaneers” adaptation, “The Regime” asks viewers to spend time in a hellscape of a decaying central European dictatorship. Why? It’s a peculiar world where Americans are resented but countries like Russia are never mentioned, despite the fact that Elena’s form of personalized populism hews close to that of Vladimir Putin or Hungary’s Viktor Orban. What exactly is the point of this elaborate satire?
For those keeping score, Sundays have become quite the night for Andrea Riseborough. The English actress appears in “The Regime” as Agnes, the palace manager whose ailing child has been all but adopted by Elena. She’s also a title character in the new PBS “Masterpiece” series “Alice & Jack.”
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Second-round play of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (7:30 p.m., CBS).
— Catch the men’s free skate at the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships (8 p.m., NBC), live from the Bell Centre in Montreal.
— The New York Rangers host the Florida Panthers in NHL hockey (8 p.m., ABC).
— Popular girls invite an outcast to a party as a prank, only to feel her mother’s wrath in the 2024 shocker “Surviving the Sleepover” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-PG).
— A female mechanic enters a car show and learns that her ex is her main competitor in the 2023 romance “Shifting Gears” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— Ayo Edebiri hosts “Saturday Night Live” (11:30 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14), featuring musical guest Jennifer Lopez.
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament second-round games (6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., TNT; 7 p.m., TBS; and 7:30 p.m., TruTV).
— Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): free speech, deliberate disinformation and censorship; Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador; mining the seabed.
— An expectant mother’s home is engulfed in mold on “Call the Midwife” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
— The 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament enters its second round (8 p.m., ESPN).
— A young woman’s drama bug fulfills her mother’s worst fears in the 2024 shocker “My Acting Coach Nightmare” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).
— The show’s cast remains in the dark about their longtime star’s (Helena Bonham Carter) fate on “Nolly” on “Masterpiece” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
— Rick and Michonne face a perilous journey on “The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live” (9 p.m., AMC, TV-MA).
— Happily married to another woman, Jack gets a life-changing call from Alice on “Alice & Jack on Masterpiece” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
— A mother frets after her 24-year-old son falls into the clutches of a 47-year-old widow on “Signs of a Psychopath” (10 p.m., ID, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
An American agent (Cary Grant) enlists the daughter of a war criminal (Ingrid Bergman) to seduce an exiled former Nazi (Claude Rains) in director Alfred Hitchcock’s 1946 thriller “Notorious” (9:30 p.m. Sunday, TCM, TV-PG). Considered one of Hitchcock’s finest films, it reflects cinema’s post-World War II departure from romantic sentimentality. Its themes of seduction, espionage, sexual entrapment (and Cary Grant) would resurface in Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller “North by Northwest.” In some ways, “Notorious” also anticipates the bedroom spycraft practiced two decades later by Sean Connery as James Bond.
SATURDAY SERIES
“Master Chef” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) … “The Masked Singer” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) … “48 Hours” (10 p.m., CBS) … A vintage helping of “Saturday Night Live” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
SUNDAY SERIES
Coulter joins forces with an old foe on “Tracker”(8 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … Blind auditions continue on “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … Marge and Milhouse’s mother tangle on “The Simpsons” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … The pantheon has a vacancy on “Krapopolis” (8:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
A furtive factory becomes a graveyard on “CSI: Vegas” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … The family follows Ham to New York on “The Great North” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … Horror stalks a local summer camp on “Grimsburg” (9:30 p.m., Fox, TV-14) … McCall’s old colleague becomes a danger to the team on “The Equalizer” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … “Dateline” (10 p.m., NBC, r) … “What Would You Do?” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
