http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/arts/television/transparent-poldark-what-to-watch.html 2016-09-23 20:01:14 What You Should Watch This Weekend: ‘Transparent’ and ‘Poldark’ From the Watching team, expert TV and movie recommendations for the next few days. === Welcome to Watching, The New York Times’s what-to-watch guide. We comb through releases big and small to email readers twice a week with our timely recommendations. You can browse previous guides Dear Watchers, I fell down another internet hole recently: This weekend I’ll be eagerly waiting for everyone to watch See you Monday. “Poldark,” Sunday, 8 p.m., Watch if you like male shirtlessness. Season 2 of this import kicks off this weekend. It’ll make much more sense if you’ve seen Season 1, but you’ll still be able to pick up a lot of what’s happening in 18th-century Cornwall: Love and its complications, of course, for one Mr. Ross Poldark (Aidan Turner), man of many talents. You can read The New York Times recaps of Season 1 “Transparent,” Watch if you like ensemble casts, California, Reform Judaism The third season of Jill Soloway’s masterpiece is somehow even more tender, and even more actualized, than the first two. It picks up a few months after Season 2’s finale, and assumes a familiarity with those story lines — a little brush-up might help. Season 1 of “Transparent” is, very generally, about gender and one’s mind; Season 2 is much more about sex and one’s body; Season 3 is about desire, and how desire frequently links our bodies to our minds. (This, of course, ties in with the show’s most beloved motif: food.) At one point, near a broken patch of sidewalk a child places a sign that says, “caution: hole.” It’s a sign most of the characters could themselves wear: “Warning: I am an endless fount of want.” Each season of “Transparent” is 10 half-hour episodes, so this is still not a major time commitment. It does feel like a major emotional commitment, though — a worthy and rewarding one, but an investment. “The Larry Sanders Show,” now on Watch if you like influential comedies and shows within a show. This behind-the-scenes comedy from Garry Shandling, who died this March, is one the greats. If you’ve never watched it, rectify that. But if it’s simply been a while, “Bob’s Burgers,” In the do-we-need-this-reboot department, this weekend brings us Neither is good, but “ “Jane the Virgin,” Oct. 17, CW “Black Mirror,” Oct. 21, Netflix “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” Oct. 21, CW “The Fall,” Oct. 29, Netflix “The Affair,” Nov. 20, Showtime “Vikings,” Nov. 30, History “Mozart in the Jungle,” Dec. 9, Amazon “Call the Midwife,” Dec. 25 (Christmas special!), PBS “Nashville,” Jan. 5, CMT (its new home) “Homeland,” Jan. 17, Showtime “Switched at Birth,” Jan. 24, Freeform This Venezuelan film makes for an uneasy but absorbing watch. “From Afar” follows Armando (Alfredo Castro), an older gay man who picks up a street tough named Elder (Luis Silva) for company. The two quickly become entangled in a merciless relationship where each wants something from the other. For the lonely Armando, it’s companionship. For Elder, it’s Armando’s money. However dark “From Afar” gets (which is very), it’s beautiful to look at, and Castro and Silva’s performances are equally commanding.