Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward Are ‘The Last Movie Stars,’ ‘Old Man’ Season finale, Jan. 6 Hearings, New Horror Stories, ‘Showtrial’

Series Premiere

“They had love, they had family, they were ethical citizens,” gushes director Ethan Hawke about his iconic subjects, Oscar-winning movie stars Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, who made 16 films together during their 50-year marriage and partnership. In an immersive and exhaustive six-part documentary portrait, Hawke assembles famous friends to read excerpts from interviews for a never-published memoir, resulting in an oral history of this legendary couple. The Last Movie Stars doubles as a fascinating dissertation on acting and the actor’s life. George Clooney reads Newman’s words, Laura Linney reads Woodward’s. If you love movies, you’ll love The Last Movie Stars. (Read the full review.)

Season Finale

10/9c

The chase is on in the gripping finale of the acclaimed spy thriller, already renewed for a second season. But this time, former spy colleagues-turned-adversaries Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) and Harold Harper (John Lithgow) are forced to work together again, to search for their mutual daughter figure, the missing Angela/Emily (Alia Shawkat). As we’ve become accustomed to in this series, which slipped further into the John le Carré zone of moral ambiguity by the week, the sins and conflicts of the past inform the tension in the present. As Chase warns, “Sometimes there are things that you don’t get to know before the curtain comes down.” Thankfully, the final curtain is still a long way off.

8/7c

For the second time, the House Select Committee’s public hearings on the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack will dominate prime time. The expected focus of this session will be on the actions, or inactions, of the former president during the hours of the violent assault.

Season Premiere

From FX comes a second season of weekly stand-alone tales of terror from the unhinged American Horror Story crew. Not much is known about the eight episodes in this batch, although you can expect to see alums from the Horror franchise throughout (reportedly including Denis O’Hare and Gabourey Sidibe). In the first installment, we’re told, a job interview goes horribly wrong. Watch if you dare.

Series Premiere

Alert for fans of British crime drama: The company that produced such thrillers as Line of Duty, Bodyguard and Vigil delivers a fast-paced five-part legal potboiler (all episodes available for binge-watching) about the sordid murder of a college student that becomes a hot tabloid commodity when the case goes to trial. The primary defendant, the smug and entitled Talitha (Céline Buckens), makes it hard for anyone, including her solicitor Cleo (Tracy Ifeachor), to sympathize with, and the twists keep coming all the way to the verdict.

Also on the Stream:

• Rap Sh!t (streaming on HBO Max): Insecure’s Emmy-nominated Issa Rae returns as executive producer of another vivid portrayal of female friendship, this time set in Miami, where one-time friends Shawna (Aida Osman) and Mia (KaMillion) reunite to form a rap group and experience the highs and lows of the music business.
• Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (streaming on Netflix): In the fifth and final season of the animated spinoff, the young campers are ever closer to a rescue, but now that they’ve learned the intent of the evil Mantah Corp., they work together to save the dinosaurs before saving themselves.
• The Captain (9 pm/ET, ESPN and streaming on ESPN+) In the second chapter of the Derek Jeter hagiography, the baseball legend reflects on the first rush of fame after joining the Yankees, where he won Rookie of the Year and helped win the 1996 World Series.
• Moloch (streaming on Shudder): Folk horror goes Dutch in this film from the Netherlands about an ancient creature wreaking havoc from a peat bog in the North of the country. Also new to Shudder: This is GWAR, a documentary spotlighting the heavy metal band known for its emphasis on horror and raucous humor.
• State of Happiness (streaming on Topic): For fans of European dramas like Borgen, a second season of the Norwegian series described as a Scandinavian Mad Men follows its characters through the oil boom of the 1970s after the founding of the national oil company Statoil. Environmental and safety disasters prompt existential questions about the pursuit of profit vs. the health of the nation.

Inside Thursday TV:

• Top Gear (10/9c, BBC America and streaming on AMC+): The hosts pay homage to British inventor Sir Clive Sinclair by driving his ahead-of-its-time electric Sinclair C5 vehicle down an Olympic bobsled run. A salute to the greatest TV cop cars includes a screen-test drive of a high-performance hero car.
• 101 Places to Go Before You Die (10:30/9:30c, truTV): Adam Pally brings buddy Jon Gabrus along to visit his family in Miami, where they live it up on the water.
• Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal (midnight/11c, Adult Swim): The Emmy-winning animated series, which also will stream a day after premiere on HBO Max, picks up the mostly wordless story of caveman Spear and dinosaur Fang as they explore a brutal new prehistoric world in hopes of rescuing Mira from her captors.