What’s Worth Watching: ‘Ripper Street’, ‘Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle’, ‘Hollywood Game Night’ and more for Thursday, July 28
Ripper Street (10/9c, BBC America): A fourth season of the evocative Victorian-era crime drama opens with Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) having washed his hands of Whitechapel, while his former partner Inspector Bennet Drake (Game of Thrones‘ Jerome Flynn) has been promoted to try to keep the peace amid an anti-Muslim uprising—how timely. But Reid is lured back to service to try to keep an old friend from hanging, while Capt. Jackson (Adam Rothenberg) is similarly attempting to rescue his wife Long Susan Hart (MyAnna Buring) from the executioner. The first episode takes its time setting up what appears to be a season-long arc.
Hollywood Game Night (9/8c, NBC): In a summer of game-show mania, the Emmy-winning parlor game returns with an all-female edition, as host Jane Lynch welcomes teams featuring Natalie Morales, Julia Stiles, Bellamy Young (Mellie!), Meredith Vieira, Raven-Symone and Hannah Davis.
Jeff Ross Presents Roast Battle (10/9c, Comedy Central): Filmed live from Montreal’s Just for Laughs festival, this showdown of no-holds-barred insult comedy airs over four nights, hosted by Roastmaster Ross, who’s assembled an all-star panel of judges including Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Hart, Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, David Spade and Anthony Jeselnik. Sunday’s finale airs live same-day, and there’s little doubt the censors will be working overtime on this one.
Greatest Hits (9/8c, ABC): Or you could travel back to the first years of the new millennium, as this musical tribute series pays homage to the chart-toppers of 2000-2005. Highlights include Fifth Harmony performing a Destiny’s Child medley, and co-host Kelsea Ballerini taking on Shania Twain, Britney Spears and Maroon 5 in another medley.
