Reality TV’s wilderness of mirrors can turn even the most spontaneous performer into a product. The highly derivative and slightly creepy new family reality showcase “Wayne Brady: The Family Remix” streams today on Hulu after debuting on Freeform last night.
Like many viewers, I first got to know, or at least see, Brady as the lightning-fast improvisational comic on “Whose Line is it Anyway,” a series that began running on ABC Family, the distant ancestor to Freeform, way back in 1998.
Charming, funny and quick, he has become a fixture of both prime time and daytime television, hosting “The Wayne Brady Show,” Fox’s “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” and CBS’s “Let’s Make a Deal.” That’s when he wasn’t appearing on Broadway in “Kinky Boots” and appearing on “How I Met Your Mother.”
Proof that all of that (over) exposure can turn a person into a personality arrives on “Family Remix,” where he and his blended family show their private side. Blended may not be a strong enough word here. They seem pureed.
We quickly learn that Brady keeps his ex-wife in his extended entourage as a business partner and goes so far as to offer amorous advice to her current lover. Brady’s daughter not only sees herself as a “nepo baby,” but wonders if she’s not a failure at that rarified station. Brady himself often lapses into the third person. And he has branded his inner circle “The Core Four.”
“Remix” is the umpteenth variation on “The Osbournes.” And while that showcase allowed for some genuinely odd character traits to emerge, the personalities here seem to be narrating their own life stories. They appear to be describing their roles as if they don’t trust the audience to observe that for themselves or come to their own conclusions.
No matter how many decades of reality TV unfold, viewers can still tell the difference between someone being Wayne Brady and someone playing Wayne Brady. Even if the makers of “Remix” can’t.
— Also streaming on Hulu, the 2023 drama “The American” is based on a true story, starring Talia Ryder as Joy Womack, the first American dancer to be admitted to the Bolshoi Dance Academy.
— Freevee streams the second season of “Troppo,” the Australian crime drama based on the detective novel “Crimson Lake” by Candice Fox.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— A chef’s murder puts fear on the menu on “Law & Order” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
— Stuck inside on “Big Brother” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-PG). Viewers who can’t get enough can binge on the 24/7 “Big Brother” channel streaming on Pluto.
— A runaway bride makes frightful accusations on “Law & Order: SVU” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
— The camp lobbies the governor to save the program on “Fire Country” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— A Middle Eastern heroin connection has military ties on “Law & Order: Organized Crime” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
Part of a month-long focus on the films of Eva Marie Saint, who turned 100 on July 4, TCM presents the 1970 satirical drama “Loving” (12:15 a.m. early Friday, TV-MA,). George Segal stars as Brooks, a freelance advertising artist/illustrator married to Selma (Saint) and lover to a demanding mistress, Grace (Janis Young). Decades before “Big Brother,” the film makes prescient use of closed-circuit TV cameras to capture the indiscretion at the heart of the story. Among the very few films to successfully evoke the boozy, bourgeois casual adultery depicted in the short stories of John Updike and John Cheever, and one of the rare films to capture the freedom and insecurities of creative freelancing. A game cast includes Roy Scheider and Sterling Hayden.
SERIES NOTES
Book smart and socially awkward on “Young Sheldon” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … A cruise ship entertainer performs on “Don’t Forget the Lyrics!” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … “Press Your Luck” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … Poltergeist gadgetry on “Ghosts” (8:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG) … “Lucky 13” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” (10 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Kevin Hart and Andrew Bird are booked on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Rob Lowe, Sutton Foster, Christian Pulisic and Reggie Conquest on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Lamorne Morris guest hosts Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers and Brigitte Calls Me Baby on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC).
Michael Cera, Daisy Edgar-Jones and James Bay visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts Pete Holmes, Maria Bamford and Vinny Thomas on “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
