“Bent”
Wednesday 9pm, NBC
The premise of this new sitcom reminds me a bit of “Who’s the Boss?” and god knows TV has been the poorer for not having a Tony Micelli/Angela Bower dynamic on our screens for the past three decades. Amanda Peet (“Jack and Jill,” the abomination that was “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”) plays an uptight single-mom lawyer forced to downsize after her husband is thrown in the clink for insider trading. Her new home is a big fixer-upper, and so she hires a contractor (David Walton, a string of failed sitcoms) who is, predictably, a slacker surfer dude who wants her to chill out, and to maybe get in her pants. The interesting thing here is that the great Jeffrey Tambor (“The Larry Sanders Show,” “Arrested Development”) plays surfer dude’s father, and his character is giving me serious Mona vibes. We can always use more Mona vibes.
“Mad Men”
Sunday 9pm, AMC
After 17 long months, Don Draper and the rest of the Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce crew are back, bowing with a two-hour extravaganza. Series creator Matthew Weiner is notoriously tight lipped about spoilers, so very little is known about what’s in store for Season 5. At a recent press event he talked about how an underlying theme of the season is the characters dealing with the sense of rapidly changing times, which he said is similar for both the show’s 1960s setting and modern life (ain’t that the truth). We’ll have to see if that means that Don followed through with his sudden proposal to his secretary, if Lane followed daddy home to England, if the firm can bounce back from Don’s ballsy anti-tobacco ad, and if Betty and Henry can stop being boring. One thing you can count on even in turbulent times: Joan will continue to be awesome, and scorching hot.
“Leave it to Niecy”
Sunday 10pm, TLC
I adore Niecy Nash. She was hilarious on “Reno 911.” She was a delight as the host of “Clean House.” And she did pretty damned well on Season 10 of “Dancing with the Stars.” Her newest venture is a “docu-sitcom” chronicling her life with her family, including her new husband, her opinionated mother, her three kids, and her husband’s son from a previous relationship. The idea of a real-life sitcom is an inspired one, and Nash is naturally funny and charismatic enough to pull it off.