‘Blue Bloods’ Hits 250, Samuel L. Jackson Is Ptolemy Grey, Farewell to ‘Mrs. Maisel,’ Ryan Reynolds in ‘Adam Project,’ Disney Turns ‘Red,’ Diane Sawyer on Heaven’s Gate
Blue Bloods achieves a rare prime-time milestone with its 250th episode. Samuel L. Jackson stars in Apple’s The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey as a man with dementia who regains his memories. Prime Video’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel wraps Season 4 with two eventful episodes. Streaming movie premieres include Netflix’s time-travel fantasy The Adam Project, starring Ryan Reynolds, and Pixar’s Turning Red on Disney+. 20/20’s Diane Sawyer revisits the 1997 mass suicide of Heaven’s Gate cult members.
Blue Bloods
The Reagan family dinner carries a bit more symbolic weight this week, when the enduring dynastic police drama marks its milestone 250th episode. It’s not a happy time for Commissioner Frank (Tom Selleck) and his staff, guilt-ridden when a detective they worked with at 1PP is shot after Frank transferred her out of the team. Daughter Erin (Bridget Moynahan) has her own issues, suspecting an ulterior motive when Anthony (Steven Schirripa) is promoted to DA Special Investigative Unit supervisor. Sounds like there will be a lot to discuss as the Reagans break bread at Sunday dinner.
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
Series Premiere
Samuel L. Jackson is mesmerizing as the title character in Walter Mosley’s six-part adaptation of his 2010 novel. Ptolemy is first seen as an old man living in a fearful haze of dementia, surrounded by filth and ghosts of a turbulent past. An experimental drug restores his memories, bringing back Ptolemy’s swagger and a desire to make a difference by solving the murder of his great-nephew. Dominique Fishback provides emotional support as the caregiver who comes to admire the new/old Ptolemy, although they both know this reprieve of lucidity will be short-lived. (See the full review.)
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Season Finale
The fourth season of the frenetic Emmy-winning period comedy closes with two jam-packed episodes that take pioneering stand-up comic Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) all the way to Carnegie Hall. Not as a headliner—yet—but give it time. Along the way, there will be a family emergency, an unexpected twist when magician Alfie (Gideon Glick) takes the stage, a gig with political implications, a tryst or two and a climactic wake-up call that leaves us hopeful for Midge’s prospects in the fifth and final season.
The Adam Project
Movie Premiere
Directed by Shawn Levy (Free Guy) and starring Ryan Reynolds in an emotional time-travel fantasy adventure in which a pilot flies back to his past, teaming with his younger self (Walker Scobell) and reuniting with his late father (Mark Ruffalo) to save the future. Look out also for the premiere of Pixar’s animated Turning Red (streaming on Disney+). It is a whimsical parable of puberty in which 13-year-old Mei (Rosalie Chang) turns into a giant red panda whenever her adolescent anxiety overwhelms her, which is often. Billie Eilish and FINNEAS wrote three songs for the score.
20/20
Special
Diane Sawyer returns to the newsmagazine with a follow-up nearly a quarter-century after her exclusive interview with Rio DiAngelo, a member of the Heaven’s Gate cult who left before the 1997 mass suicide that claimed 39 lives. Sawyer interviews DiAngelo again in a two-hour special The Cult Next Door that includes never-seen tapes and audio recordings of cult leader Marshall Applewhite and his followers, who believed a UFO would carry them to a higher plane of existence. Two survivors of the cult also share their story for the first time. More true crime on Dateline NBC (9/8c, NBC): Reporter Andrea Canning reports on the mystery surrounding Sarm Heslop, a British woman who disappeared from her boyfriend’s luxury yacht in the U.S. Virgin Islands in March 2021.
Inside Friday TV:
- Raven’s Home (8/7c, Disney Channel): The family sitcom’s fifth season opens with Raven (Raven-Symoné) moving back home to San Francisco with son Booker (Isaac Ryan Brown) to care for her dad, Victor (Rondell Sheridan), after a health scare. Booker now has to adjust to being the new kid at Raven’s high-school alma mater, where he tries to keep his visions a secret.
- Charmed (8/7c, The CW): The Season 4 premiere finds Mel (Melonie Diaz) and Maggie (Sarah Jeffery) still in mourning over the loss of their magical sister Macy—but could an unsuspecting mechanic/artist (Lucy Barrett) from Philadelphia be the one to help them maintain the Power of Three?
- RuPaul’s Drag Race (8/7c, VH1): Disney star Dove Cameron joins the fun, playing along with the queens in a round of the ever-popular Snatch Game where the drag-testants impersonate celebrities.
- The Ghost Town Terror (10/9c, Travel Channel, also streaming on discovery+): A six-part paranormal series brings investigators to Montana’s 52-acre Gunslinger Gulch guest ranch and literal ghost town, allegedly besieged by dark supernatural forces that spook more than the horses.
- Upload (streaming on Prime Video): In Season 2 of the fanciful comedy set largely in a virtual afterlife, Nathan (Robbie Amell) wakens from his frozen state with ex-girlfriend Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) having uploaded herself to be by his side. Unfortunately, he only has eyes for his “angel” handler Nora (Andy Allo), who has gone off the grid with the anti-tech “Ludds.”
- Also on the stream: six new episodes of The Snoopy Show (Apple TV+); Broadway On Demand’s documentary Ensemble, in which the theater community reflects on what they do for love a year into the pandemic shutdown; and on Netflix, a fourth season of Formula 1: Drive to Survive, and Life After Death with Tyler Henry, a nine-episode visit with the celebrity medium.
