‘Come from Away’ and 9/11 Programming, Lucifer’s Final Act, Don’t Mess with ‘Kate,’ ‘Comedy on Earth’

Special

Finding hope amid the tragedy of 9/11 is no small feat, but this rousing Tony-winning musical, filmed in May with many of its original cast at Broadway’s Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre before an audience of 9/11 survivors and frontline workers, is truly uplifting. It’s the story of 7,000 airline passengers stranded in the remote town of Gander in Newfoundland when all flights were grounded after the attacks. In ever-shifting multiple roles, cast members play the dislocated strangers and the townspeople who open their homes and hearts as they all try to make sense of the calamity. The staging, music and performances are all terrific.

Season Premiere

Rescued several years ago from premature cancellation, the devilishly entertaining supernatural procedural offers up its sixth and final season of celestial shenanigans, all complicated by Lucifer’s (Tom Ellis) new status as God. (His angelic brother Amenadiel, played by DB Woodside, has joined the LAPD.) Expect many surprises as each of the characters in Lucifer’s orbit gets a farewell episode or arc.

Movie Premiere

Genre queen Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who has brightened many a dark adventure, takes center stage in the title role of an assassin on one final mission: to take down the killers who’ve poisoned her before her last 24 hours are up. Along the way, she may find some redemption as she bonds with the daughter of one of her many victims.

Movie Premiere

Premiering in theaters and on streaming simultaneously, director James Wan’s (The Conjuring) latest is a psychological thriller starring Annabelle Wallis as a woman whose grisly visions may not be the waking nightmares she believes them to be, but actual real-life horrors.

Special

11/10c

The best comics can find humor in the darkest of circumstances. With that in mind, the Broad City star curates a showcase of stand-up comedy sets dealing with the “dark times” of 2020-21 in New York City during the pandemic.

More 9/11 programming:

• 9/11: The Legacy (7/6c, History Channel): A poignant documentary revisits some of the children, now young adults, who lost parents that day, reflecting on the course of their lives over the last two decades. Followed by the two-hour special Rise and Fall: The World Trade Center (8/7c), which lays out a chronological history of the iconic towers from conception and construction through their terrible destruction.
• The CIA: Race Against Time—The True Story of the CIA and 9/11 (8/7c, CBS): A two-hour CBS News special features interviews with top officials and agents within the CIA telling of their failed efforts to warn the U.S. about the looming threat of a terrorist attack. This failure would eventually lead to success in their years-long hunt to find and then take down Osama bin Laden.
• 20/20 (9/8c, ABC): A two-hour special edition of the newsmagazine opens with anchor David Muir’s interviews with survivors and family members looking back and honoring those they lost. In the second hour, Diane Sawyer revisits her reporting over the years on mothers who were pregnant when their husbands died in the attacks, having followed these women and their children over 20 years. Nearly 40 families come together to attest to their resilience and memories.
• Detainee 001 (9/8c, Showtime): Emmy-winning director Greg Barker’s documentary follows the disturbing journey of so-called “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh, captured and convicted as an enemy combatant when discovered on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2001. Preceded at 8/7c by Return of the Taliban: A VICE Special Report, with reporting from the ground in Afghanistan and surrounding areas about the militant group that seized control of the country after the U.S. military withdrawal.
• Dateline NBC (10/9c, NBC): Lester Holt interviews family members of the passengers and crew of hijacked Flight 93, forced down in a Pennsylvania field.

Inside Friday TV:

• Ted Lasso (streaming on Apple TV+): In a very busy episode, Ted (Jason Sudeikis) and Dr. Sharon (Sarah Niles) get to know each other better while the crucial semi-final match looms. But rom-com fans will take special delight in the delicious awkwardness of Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) and Sam (Toheeb Jimoh) following through on their anonymous dating-site texting with a blind date.
• Mr. Corman (streaming on Apple TV+): So Josh Corman’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) life hasn’t turned out exactly as he’d hoped. For the next half-hour, he’ll live a series of alt-realities in a surreal Twilight Zone of what-ifs.
• star-crossed the film (streaming on Paramount+): Kacey Musgraves’ new album, conceived as a modern-day tragedy in three acts, becomes a lavish 50-minute movie filmed over 10 days in Los Angeles with cameos including Schitt’s Creek’s Eugene Levy and You’s Victoria Pedretti.
• Pretty Hard Cases (streaming on IMDb TV): A 10-episode female buddy-cop action dramedy stars Baroness von Sketch Show standout Meredith MacNeill and Orange Is the New Black’s Adrienne C. Moore as mismatched detectives who join forces to take down a Toronto street gang. If they don’t kill each other first.
• The Voyeurs (streaming on Amazon Prime Video): Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney, who made us love to hate her in The White Lotus, stars with Genera+ion’s Justice Smith in an erotic thriller as a young couple in downtown Montreal who become way too obsessed with the sexy neighbors across the street whom they can’t help but spy on from their window.
• LuLaRich (streaming on Amazon Prime Video): LuLaRoe was once seen as a multibillion-dollar business enticing women to work from their homes selling clothing. But this house of leggings collapsed, and the brand is now plagued with lawsuits and accusations of a pyramid scheme. This four-part docuseries tells the riches-to-rags story.
• Metal Shop Masters (streaming on Netflix): Before it’s over, there will have been a competition series for every skill. Now it’s welding’s turn, as seven of America’s top welders race the clock and pour their sweat and talent into epic builds, from outrageous grills to future-shock vehicles, each judged on form and function.
• The Smurfs (7:30/7:30c, Nickleodeon): Those little blue anything-but-meanies are back to charm a new generation in their return to TV after almost 40 years. In the opener, everyone in Smurf Village wans to learn “Smurf-Fu” after Smurfette saves Brainy from a giant snake.