1) “The Blacklist” series finale, 8 and 9 p.m., NBC. For a decade, this has given us richly tangled stories centered on an enigmatic character. Using the assumed name “Red” Redington, he’s a master criminal who tips an FBI task force; James Spader (shown here) has had two Golden Globe best-actor nominations, playing someone a half-step ahead of life. Now we may learn his identity and the secrets he’s holding. Read more…
TV networks are bracing for their scriptless season. New reminders come with:
— CBS hinting that “The Buddy Games” will debut this fall, joining a reality-show deluge.
— Fox setting its plans for Sunday animation. “Krapopolis” (shown here) – with ancient Greeks clumsily trying to create civilization – debuts with two episodes Sept. 24. The other shows – “The Simpsons,” “Bob’s Burgers” and “Family Guy” – start their season a week later. Read more…
1) ESPY awards, 8-11 p.m., ABC. It’s time to honor the best in sports. For top male athlete, baseball’s Aaron Judge faces football’s Patrick Mahomes, basketball’s Nikola Jokic and soccer’s Lionel Messi. For women, skiier Mikaela Shiffrin (shown here) has her third nomination, facing A’ja Wilson (basketball), Sophia Smith (soccer) and Iga Swiatek (tennis). There’s much more … but, reportedly, no host or script, due to the writers’ strike. Read more…
A tradition has sprawled across generations in the South. “We are a region of storytellers,” Harper Lee once said.
She told one classic story, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Her Alabama neighbor (and childhood friend) Truman Capote told many. They joined a trend ranging from authors (Faulkner, Welty, Hurston, Grisham) to the poems of Maya Angelou and the songs of Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson and emerging stars like Adia Victoria (shown here).
The South has offered a rich tapestry. And now a PBS series visits some of the modern-day people. “Southern Storytellers” airs at 9 p.m. on three Tuesdays, starting July 18
“Southerners tend to wear their souls and their hearts on their sleeves,” said Courtney Pledger, CEO of the Arkansas PBS stations producing the series. Read more…
1) Baseball All-Star Game, 8 p.m. ET, Fox. The American League arrives with an eight-game winning streak – and the overall home run leaders for this year (Shohei Ohtani, shown here) and last (Aaron Judge). The National League includes Luis Arraex, who has been hitting close to .400. Also in the National starting line-up are three Braves and three Dodgers; the American line-up has four Rangers and two Angels, including Mike Trout, in his 11th All-Star Game. Read more…
It might be difficult to pass a rule requiring David E. Kelley to write all TV mini-series.
That would raise constitutional questions. Also, the unions haven’t yet approved the cloning of writers.
Still, it sometimes seems like a good idea. The latest example involves the second season of Netflix’s “The Lincoln Lawyer” (shown here).
The first half of the 10-episode season has just arrived, with the second half coming Aug. 3. It’s still enjoyable – great characters, crisp settings – but no match for the previous season. Read more…
1) “Miracle Workers” season-openers, 10 and 10:30 p.m., TBS, rerunning at 11. This arrives in spurts – a 15-month delay after the second season, a 22-month one after the third. Still, it’s worth the wait – fresh, funny and weird. The first three seasons took Daniel Radcliffe and Geraldine Viswanathan to Heaven (literally), a medieval village and a wagon train. Now they’re post-apocalyptic warriors (shown here), settling into suburbia. The result is erratic, but sometimes hilarious.
Read more…
1) Game night opener, ABC. Here’s the final piece of ABC’s summer, which has no-rerun blocks from 8-11 p.m. Sundays and Mondays, 8-9:30 p.m. Wednesdays and 8-10 Thursdays. At 8 today, “Prank Panel” makes an overprotective dad think his daughter has the world’s worst boyfriend. At 9, “Celebrity Family Feud” has Gayle King, Sophia Bush Hughes and the “Yellowjackets” (shown here) cast. At 10, “$100,000 Pyramid” includes RuPaul and Loni Love. Read more…
The TV universe is littered with endangered species.
Variety shows? Daytime soap operas? Saturday-morning cartoons? All have become scarce.
But now there’s a broader category to worry about – scripted shows on basic-cable networks. Those have ranged from “Monk,” “Mad Men” and “Mr. Robot” to “Breaking Bad” and “Battlestar Galactica.” But lately, they’ve been wounded by streamers and cord-cutters.
“The basic-cable business is really struggling to compete,” John Landgraf, the FX chief, told the Television Critics Association earlier this year. “I think FX and AMC are kind of holding the fort.”
Still, summer is when cable channels have their best shot. TBS’ cleverly offbeat “Miracle Workers” (shown here with Geraldine Viswanathan) debuts at 10 p.m. Monday, July 10 … putting it against “Cruel Summer,” the surprisingly well-crafted teen drama on Freeform. Read more…
1) “Dawn,” 8 p.m. Lifetime, rerunning at 10. The grim tales of V.C. Andrews (the “Flowers in the Attic” author) are big on Lifetime. On consecutive Saturdays, four movies will tell of a sweet teen, encased in wealth and cruelty. Brec Bassinger (shown here with Jesse Metcalfe) is subtly excellent (as she was in “Stargirl”), but many characters are overwritten and/or overacted; Donna Mills is especially inept as a venomous matriarch. Read more…
