Kevin’s Hart-Felt Star Talk, Summer Olympics and NFL Hall of Fame Game, ‘grown-ish’ Gets Serious, Streaming ‘Suicide Squad’

Series Premiere

We all know Kevin Hart likes to talk. But in his new venture for Peacock, for whom he’s recently been swapping comical Olympics observations with Snoop Dogg, Hart also likes to listen. In his punnily titled Hart to Heart talk show, which drops three episodes weekly, he enters into spontaneous unrehearsed conversation with famous friends and a few who are new acquaintances—like opening guest Miley Cyrus, who’s likably self-deprecating and irreverent as she walks the host through her eventful childhood as a Disney teen star and nascent rebel. In what looks like a lavish wine cellar, Hart and his guests kick back with vintage drinks—though longtime friend Don Cheadle sticks with water—as they engage in off-the-cuff banter.

The prime-time package at 8 pm/ET includes live coverage of the women’s final in beach volleyball, plus replays of track & field finals streamed earlier in the morning on Peacock. Skateboarding and women’s platform diving finals are also part of the mix. Other events seen live in prime time include spring canoeing on USA, women’s beach volleyball’s bronze match and rhythmic gymnastics on CNBC, wrestling finals on Olympic Channel (starting at 10 pm/ET) and the third round of women’s golf on Golf Channel (starts at 6:30 pm/ET). For a complete list of events and where and when to watch, go to nbcolympics.com.

8/7c

NBC might lose even more of its dwindling prime-time Olympics audience as fan-favorite pro football’s shortened preseason kicks off at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. The Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Dallas Cowboys, whose QB Dak Prescott, sidelined last season after a devastating ankle injury, will sit out the game as he nurses a recent arm/shoulder strain.

10/9c

Things get serious on campus as Zoey (Yara Shahidi) and her fellow students react to a police shooting of an unarmed Black man. Not everyone is on the same page about how best to cope, when Doug (Diggy Simmons) clashes with new Hawkins Hall freshman Kiela (Daniella Perkins) over whether his idea of using a party to raise awareness is an appropriate method.

Movie Premiere

Not to be confused with the much-maligned 2016 film, James Gunn’s stand-alone version of the DC Comics franchise employs some of the original’s stars—Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller—but reportedly has a more coherent take on the gang of anti-superheroes. New members include Idris Elba as Bloodsport, John Cena as Peacemaker and former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi as supervillain Gaius Grieves aka The Thinker. After Scarlett Johansson’s breach-of-contract lawsuit against Disney for streaming Black Widow on Disney+ at the same time it hit theaters, the days of simultaneously premiering big-budget comic-book movies in theaters and streaming may be numbered.

Carrie Preston, who won a 2013 guest actress Emmy as the crazy-like-a-fox lawyer Elsbeth Tascioni on The Good Wife, returns to the franchise behind the camera, directing the latest provocative episode of the first-rate spinoff. The integrity of unpredictable Judge Wackner’s (Mandy Patinkin) loosey-goosey courtroom comes under scrutiny when Marissa (Sarah Steele) is assigned to prosecute two very different “cancel culture” cases: one involving a vulgar Louis CK-style comedian and another involving a professor who used a supposedly triggering word in her classroom. Back at the firm, Diane (Christine Baranski) demands respect from Liz (Audra McDonald) as they work jointly on an explosive case involving the Chicago P.D.

Inside Thursday TV:

• Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union (9/8c, HBO): The conclusion of the three-night documentary profile follows its subject into his embattled White House years, where passing the Affordable Care Act and any other legislation became more difficult because of partisan opposition, and racial tensions escalated amid a wave of police brutality towards Blacks and the never-ending debate over gun control.
• Murder She Said (8/7c, Turner Classic Movies): There was never a Miss Marple quite like Margaret Rutherford’s, whose blustery and largely comic take on the iconic Agatha Christie crime-solving spinster delighted 1960s audiences even though it’s a far cry from how she appears in the books. All three of her Marple movies air in sequence—1961’s Murder, She Said followed by Murder at the Gallop (9:45/8:45c) and 1964’s Murder Most Foul (11:15 pm/10:15c)—as part of a daylong “Summer Under the Stars” tribute. Rutherford’s Oscar-winning performance in 1963’s Elizabeth Taylor–Richard Burton vehicle The V.I.P.s can be seen at 3 pm/2c.
• Departure (streaming on Peacock): A second season of the conspiratorial mystery series assigns Kendra Malley (The Good Wife’s Archie Panjabi) to investigate a new transportation disaster, involving an experimental high-speed train that derails in rural Michigan en route between Toronto and Chicago. The late Christopher Plummer and Jason O’Hara co-star.