What’s Streaming
BAGHDAD CENTRAL Stream on Hulu. An Iraqi inspector searches post-9/11 Baghdad for his missing daughter in this thriller series. Set around America’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, “Baghdad Central” stars Waleed Zuaiter as Muhsin Al-Khafaji, a former law enforcement operative whose mission requires him to form an uneasy partnership with U.S. forces. (“I’m never sure if they’re going to shoot me in the head,” he says early on.) The series, based on a novel by the scholar Elliott Colla, originally aired on the British network Channel 4 and was generally well-received. “It’s nice to see an Iraq war-set thriller that centers on Iraqi lives for a change,” Ellen E. Jones wrote in a review for The Guardian. “Nice because it’s the right thing for a socially conscious broadcaster to commission, but also just nice because it makes for some refreshingly original entertainment.”
THE INN AT LITTLE WASHINGTON: A DELICIOUS DOCUMENTARY (2020) Stream on PBS.org. Scallops with poached apple, hand assembled. Lobster Napoleon. Lamb carpaccio with “Caesar-salad ice cream.” These are some of the eye-catching dishes in this hourlong documentary, which follows the chef Patrick O’Connell and the employees of his Virginia restaurant, the Inn at Little Washington, on a quest for one of the top honors in the culinary world: a three-star rating in the Michelin Guide. On top of a bounty of lovingly filmed food, the documentary offers a history of the restaurant (in the Blue Ridge Mountains) and a look at O’Connell’s culinary philosophy. “It’s either art or garbage,” he says. “There’s nothing in between.”
BE OUR CHEF Stream on Disney Plus. Expect less perfectionism and more princess cameos in this new cooking-competition show, which pits families against each other in Disney-themed culinary challenges. A highlight of the first episode’s menu: Tomato soup served in a bread bowl shaped like Cinderella’s carriage.
THE ILIZA SHLESINGER SKETCH SHOW Stream on Netflix. After five stand-up specials for Netflix, the comedian Iliza Shlesinger turns to sketch comedy in this new streaming series. The first episode includes parodies of “Jackass” and “A Star Is Born,” plus a sketch in which a roomful of suited executives trade business gobbledygook while messily (and inexplicably) scarfing down nectarines.
What’s on TV
SEVEN SAMURAI (1956) 8 p.m. on TCM. Wednesday would have been the 100th birthday of Toshiro Mifune, the Japanese actor perhaps best known for his work with the filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. (Mifune died in 1997.) TCM is airing a handful of Mifune and Kurosawa’s collaborations over the course of the day. In addition to “Seven Samurai,” Kurosawa’s venerated drama with Mifune as a samurai of questionable legitimacy, consider Kurosawa’s film noir HIGH AND LOW (1963), airing at 5:30 p.m., in which Mifune plays a business executive drawn into a kidnapping scandal. For a late-night masterpiece, see RASHOMON (1951), airing at 11:45 p.m., with Mifune as a bandit.
Source: Television - nytimes.com
