PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE • SUNDAY, MARCH 10, 2019 • WWW.POST-GAZETTE.COM

SUNDAY

“Now Apoc­a­lypse,” 9 p.m., Starz. 

View­ers un­fa­mil­iar with the oeu­vre of pro­vo­ca­teur film di­rec­tor Gregg Araki (“The Doom Gen­er­a­tion,” “Mys­te­ri­ous Skin,” “Ka­boom”) will likely be shocked and ap­palled by his foray into #PeakTV with this half-hour Starz sex com­edy, com­plete with graphic sex scenes (straight and gay cou­ples, three­somes, pos­si­ble rape by a rep­til­ian alien), per­sis­tent pot use and sar­cas­tic quips ga­lore.

In its first two ep­i­sodes the show is ri­dic­u­lous, but it’s also en­ter­tain­ing as heck in its out­ra­geous­ness. And, per­haps best of all, “Now Apoc­a­lypse” is never dull.

The se­ries fol­lows bi­sex­ual — but mostly into guys (he’s an “ever-os­cil­lat­ing four” on the Kin­sey scale) — Ulys­ses (Avan Jo­gia, “Tut,” “Twisted”) who is try­ing to fig­ure out his life. That in­cludes day-

dream­ing that his straight, buff, Zach Ef­fron-like room­mate Ford (Beau Mir­choff, “Awk­ward”) wants to make out with him.

Ford, a dim but sweet as­pir­ing screen­writer, gets his own sto­ry­lines in­volv­ing his ca­reer as­pi­ra­tions and his re­la­tion­ship with mono­tone, top se­cret clear­ance-hold­ing re­searcher Sever­ine (Rox­ane Mesquida, “Ka­boom”), who wants the cou­ple to have an open re­la­tion­ship.

Ulys­ses leans on best friend Carly (Kelli Berglund, “Lab Rats”), who makes money per­form­ing in the buff for guys on in­ter­net cam shows. Ulys­ses asks her for ad­vice when he starts dat­ing Ga­briel (Tyler Po­sey, “Teen Wolf”).

Ulys­ses, who’s con­stantly va­p­ing pot, also has vi­sions in­volv­ing a liz­ard crea­ture cop­u­lat­ing with a hu­man in an al­ley.

While the show’s con­tent is raw, the four leads are all lik­able and at least three of them are re­lat­able de­spite the em­pha­sis on raunch, kink and beau­ti­ful peo­ple body parts.

“Now Apoc­a­lypse” is bi­zarre and will cer­tainly be off-put­ting to many. For oth­ers, surely a smaller au­di­ence, there’s some tit­il­lat­ing fun to be had in this guilty plea­sure’s kinky weird­ness.

Starz
Starring in the sex comedy “Now Apocalypse” are, from left, Roxane Mesquida, Beau Mirchoff, Avan Jogia and Kelli Berglund.
Pick of the week
ROB OWEN

Post-Gazette TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week

SUNDAY

8 p.m. on STARZ

Amer­i­can Gods

The des­ti­nies of gods and men col­lide as Neil Gaiman’s sprawl­ing fan­tasy epic re­turns for sea­son two, which com­prises eight new ep­i­sodes. As Mr. World (Crispin Glover) hatches a scheme to avenge him­self on those who at­tacked him in sea­son one, Shadow Moon (Ricky Whit­tle) al­lies him­self with Mr. Wed­nes­day (Ian McShane) as the lat­ter tries to per­suade his fel­low Old Gods that war with the newer di­vin­i­ties is in­ev­i­ta­ble.

MONDAY

8 p.m. on WTAE

The Bach­e­lor

This is it — the be­gin­ning of the end — as Col­ton Under­wood steels him­self to make the tough­est de­ci­sion any “Bach­e­lor” can face. He pon­ders which of the re­main­ing fi­nal­ists to se­lect as his part­ner, and to whom he gives that all-im­por­tant last flower, as the show’s sea­son 23 wrap-up starts. 

TUESDAY

10 p.m. on HIST

Proj­ect Blue Book

The some­what fact-based docu-se­ries wraps up sea­son one with a fi­nale called “The Wash­ing­ton Merry-Go-Round,” in­spired by an in­ci­dent in July 1952. Res­i­dents of Wash­ing­ton, D.C., are thrown into an ut­ter panic by wide­spread re­ports of UFO ac­tiv­ity in the cap­i­tal city. 

WEDNESDAY

10 p.m. on A&E

Tiny House Na­tion

Host John Weis­barth and ren­o­va­tion ex­pert and tiny-home de­signer Zack Grif­fin re­turn with sea­son five, which fol­lows the pair across Amer­ica to show­case in­ge­niously con­structed small spaces and the peo­ple who live in them. Along the way, they also help like-minded fam­i­lies de­sign and con­struct their own dream mini-homes, each 500 square feet or less. 

THURSDAY

9:30 p.m. on BRAVO

Top Chef

In the 90-minute sea­son 16 “Finale,” the fi­nal three chefs must cre­ate the most un­for­get­ta­ble four-course meal of their lives, but as al­ways there’s one last, com­pletely di­a­bol­i­cal twist: Only two of them will get the chance to serve their full menu. Join­ing host and judge Padma Lakshmi, head judge Tom Colic­chio, Nilou Motamed and Graham El­liot at the ta­ble are such stel­lar cu­li­nary guests as Food & Wine ex­ec­u­tive Mela­nie Han­sche.

FRIDAY

9 p.m. on WPXI

The Black­list

Liz (Megan Boone) teams up with the Task Force to make a joint play they’re hop­ing will un­cover the truth about an in­ter­na­tional as­sas­si­na­tion in the new ep­i­sode “Bas­tien Moreau.” It’s all part of a des­per­ate last-ditch at­tempt to save Red’s (James Spader) life. 

SATURDAY

9 p.m. on HGTV

While You Were Out

Ananda Lewis hosts this re­boot of a “Trad­ing Spaces” spin­off that aired on TLC more than 15 years ago and will now air on both TLC and HGTV. De­sign­ers from both net­works par­tic­i­pate, each team de­sign­ing a room in two neigh­bor­ing houses while the oc­cu­pant is away for the week­end. 

TV highlights