‘Line of Duty’ Finale, ‘America’s Top Dog,’ More ‘Good Bones,’ TMZ on UFOs
The thrilling police drama Line of Duty ends its sixth season with a major revelation. Canines and their handlers rise to the challenge on a second season of America’s Top Dog—and the prize has nothing to do with Good Bones, the name of HGTV’s hit mother-daughter renovation show, back for a sixth season. TMZ takes a skeptical look at the recent government report on UFOs—or as the feds call them, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs).
Line of Duty
Season Finale
Who is “the Fourth Man” who has been bedeviling AC-12 for six seasons of this exceptional British police drama? The answer is forthcoming (and didn’t entirely satisfy U.K. audiences when it aired there in May) in the season finale, wherein the compromised DCI Joanne Davidson (Kelly Macdonald) is endangered as she comes clean about her past actions. Quite a few more shoes drop before it’s all over, leaving the embattled anticorruption unit in an existential limbo. Who will expose dirty cops if they can’t?
America’s Top Dog
Season Premiere
We’re barely into the dog days of summer, but that hasn’t stopped this engaging competition of skilled canines and their trusty handlers from returning for a second season with back-to-back episodes. Sports broadcaster Curt Menefee is joined by comedian David Koechner to call the action, with the help of sideline reporter Rachel Bonetta, as teams of dogs and humans—in categories including working dogs, police K9s and “underdogs” (always my favorite)—compete on a tricky obstacle course challenging them on speed, agility and teamwork. Winners get $10,000, plus an extra $5,000 to give to an animal charity. That’s a lot of kibble.
Good Bones
Season Premiere
Back home again in Indiana, mother-daughter renovators Mina Starsiak Hawk and Karen E Laine take on rundown properties in Indianapolis, strip them to their “good bones” and transform them into desirable homes. Their first project in the sixth season is a formerly charming old Victorian infested with insects that may need as much fumigation as renovation.
TMZ Investigates: UFOs: The Pentagon Proof
Special
The government report released last week about UFOs—or in official parlance, UAPs (for “unidentified aerial phenomena”)—was inconclusive at best. All of which leaves the snoops at TMZ unsatisfied, so they embark on their own investigation, revealing a cover-up that would do The X-Files proud, suggesting that pilots, scientists and Pentagon officials were among those facing retaliation if they looked too hard for the truth—which apparently is still out there.
Inside Tuesday TV:
- The Legend of the Underground (9/8c, HBO): A stark and of-the-moment documentary explores human-rights struggles within Nigeria, where non-conforming youth use social media, underground radio and other resources to express themselves. They’re revolting against a government that has cracked down on anyone defying what is seen as cultural and societal norms after passing a 2013 anti-LGBTQ law prohibiting same-sex marriage.
- Frontline (10/9c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org): Another alarming documentary looks abroad in producer/director Evan Williams’ report on Germany’s Neo-Nazis & The Far Right, examining the rise in violence and hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, immigrants and left-leaning politicians.
- David Makes Man (9/8c, OWN): After being introduced to his adult version in last week’s second-season opener, we reconnect with teenage David (Akili McDowell) as he takes us through more of his coming-of-age moments at a new school.
- Capitol One College Bowl (10/9c, NBC): In the second episode of qualifiers, host Peyton Manning cheers on his alma mater University of Tennessee as its brainy team takes on Mississippi. Another match-up pits Morehouse College against Columbia University.
- Vicious Fun (streaming on Shudder): Winner of two awards at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film, this thriller stars Evan Marsh as a horror-film critic who becomes trapped in a nightmare scenario when he finds himself among a self-help group for serial killers. If they find out he doesn’t belong, he could be their next victim.
