Celebrating Joni Mitchell, Girl ‘Power’ on Prime Video, Joking Around on The CW, Getting Personal on ‘Blue Bloods’

Joni Mitchell: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song

No one’s feeling “Blue” when the legendary singer-songwriter joins the ranks of Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Carole King, Billy Joel, Willie Nelson and the late Burt Bacharach–Hal David team among others who have received this prestigious tribute. In a hit-filled ceremony filmed earlier this month, the 79-year-old musician performs “Summertime” while an impressive lineup of admirers delivers their versions of Mitchell classics, many from her acclaimed Blue album: James Taylor with “California,” Herbie Hancock and Ledisi with “River,” Cyndi Lauper’s “Blue,” Graham Nash with “A Case of You” and Marcus Mumford with “Carey.” Other highlights include Annie Lennox performing “All Sides Now” and joining Lauper, Ledisi, Lucius, Brandi Carlile and Angélique Kidjo in “Big Yellow Taxi.”

The Power

Naomi Alderman’s provocative page-turner becomes a sprawling series that unfolds on a global scale, dramatizing the literal shock waves when teenage girls suddenly develop the ability to shoot electricity, sometimes as powerful as lightning bolts, from their hands. “Every revolution begins with a spark,” notes an introductory voice-over (which sounds like a promotional tagline), anticipating the tectonic shift in the world’s gender balance when women get the upper hand. It’s a slow build, but the cast is terrific, including Toni Collette as Seattle’s mayor and Moana’s Auli’i Cravalho as her daughter, Halle Bush as foster-care refugee Allie, whose inner voice suggests a life-changing destiny, and Ted Lasso’s Toheeb Jimoh as a Nigerian vlogger who’s among the first male observers to understand the implications of this strange and terrifying new gift.

The Great American Joke Off

The Daily Show’s Dulcé Sloan has an enviable belly laugh, and any fellow comedian who can effectively tickle her funny bone could win this wisecracking competition, arriving as a companion piece to Whose Line Is It Anyway? (9/8c), launching its 20th season with a greatest-hits compilation. In Joke Off, teams of comics improvise puns, gags and punchlines on the spot to impress Sloan, who’ll decide the winner. The opening-night roster includes Natasha Leggero, Alonzo Bodden, Fahim Anwar, Matthew Broussard, Ed Gamble and Moshe Kashe.

Blue Bloods

Fans of the long-running family police drama can relax, now that the network has reached a deal to continue the series into a 14th season. This week’s episode gets personal when married officers Jamie (Will Estes) and Eddie (Vanessa Ray) clash after he suspects that one of her close friends (Alysha Umphress) is using her restaurant as a drug front. Prosecutor Erin (Bridget Moynahan) works with her ex (Peter Hermann) after she’s accusing of causing a former co-worker’s suicide. And their commissioner father Frank (Tom Selleck) has a dicey decision to make when a female officer’s online profile includes naked photos.

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

• NCAA Women’s Basketball Final Four (7 pm/ET, ESPN): The tournament begins its final round from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, with two No. 1 seeds (unlike the men) still competing. First, No. 1 Virginia Tech plays No 3 LSU, followed by a game between No. 1 South Carolina and No. 2 Iowa. The final game is played Sunday afternoon on ABC.
• Lopez vs. Lopez (8/7c, NBC): The family throws a quinceañera for their chihuahua. Let’s hope Will Trent’s “bad bitch Betty” doesn’t hear about this.
• RuPaul’s Drag Race (8/7c, MTV): The last remaining queens help host RuPaul remix the classic “Blame It on the Edit,” with new verses and a space-themed video.
• True Crime Watch: Following the ESPN+ report titled LISTEN earlier this week, ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c) devotes two hours to the 2018 murder of University of Utah student athlete Lauren McCluskey, exploring the institutional failures that failed her when she asked campus and local authorities for protection from her ex-boyfriend. On Dateline NBC (9/8c), Josh Mankiewicz interviews the parents of Kristin Smart, a student at California Polytechnic State University who disappeared in 1996 and though never found was later declared murdered, with fellow student Paul Flores convicted and recently sentenced to 25 years to life. Her father Stan expresses frustration with campus police who initially blamed the victim for her behavior.
• Party Down (9/8c, Starz): The revived cult comedy ends its comeback third season with bartender Henry (Adam Scott) and his fellow cut-up caterers turning a high school play’s cast party into an all-nighter.
• Fire Country (9/8c, CBS): Bode (Max Thieriot) and the crew spring into action to defend fellow firefighter Jake (Jordan Calloway) when he’s suspected of being a serial arsonist.

ON THE STREAM: 

• Murder Mystery 2 (streaming on Netflix): Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston are back for a second round of international comedy crime-solving, this time involving the kidnapping of their friend the Maharajah (Adeel Akhtar) at his glam wedding, with hijinks leading to Paris and a memorable stunt atop the Eiffel Tower.
• Die Hart 2: Die Harter (streaming on Amazon Freevee): Kevin Hart continues his quest to become the ultimate action movie star in a comedic sequel where his unscripted antics invariably backfire.
• Tetris (streaming on Apple TV+): Taron Egerton (from the terrific Black Bird) returns to Apple for a fact-based international thriller, starring as video-game entrepreneur Henk Rogers, who’s so entranced by the new game Tetris that he pierces the Iron Curtain in 1988 to meet its Russian creator (Nikita Efremov) in hopes of introducing Tetris to the masses.
• Also on Apple: A new edition of the Emmy-winning Carpool Karaoke: The Series, with Succession’s Brian Cox and Schmigadoon!’s Alan Cumming riding, joking and singing along to the Bay City Rollers and The Crystals; the series finale of international spy thriller Liaison; and the next round of music competition My Kind of Country, with Jimmie Allen, Mickey Guyton and Orville Peck leading their chosen artists through challenging workshops.
• Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. (streaming on Disney+): The Hawaii-set gender-reversed Doogie reboot finds the teenage doctor (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) juggling her medical duties and a love triangle between bad-boy dirt biker Nico (Milo Manheim) and first love Walter (Alex Aiono), who’s returned from the World Surf Tour a changed man.
• Monumental: Ellie Goulding at Kew Gardens (streaming on Amazon Freevee): The British singer-songwriter and U.N. Environment Goodwill Ambassador, whose fifth studio album (Higher Than Heaven) releases next week, performs an intimate concert from the lush setting of Kew Gardens’ botanic Victorian glasshouse.