Mrs. Maisel’s Final Act, Jennifer Garner in ‘Last Thing He Told Me,’ Scorsese Presents David Johansen, ‘Black Lady Sketch Show’

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel returns for its final season, with the pioneering female stand-up comic on the brink of stardom. Jennifer Garner stars in the Apple TV+ thriller The Last Thing He Told Me. Martin Scorsese co-directs a showcase for punk pioneer David Johansen. HBO’s raucous A Black Lady Sketch Show is back for a fourth season of sassy shenanigans.

Alex Borstein and Rachel Brosnahan in 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Season 5
Courtesy of Prime Video/Philippe Antonello

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Season Premiere

“Boy oh boy, do I love the sound of laughs,” says trailblazing female comedian Mrs. Maisel (the electrifying Rachel Brosnahan), shown at the top of her profession in one of many flash-forwards. They reveal that after paying her dues for so many seasons, Midge finally makes it big. The Emmy-winning period comedy returns for its fifth and final year with three episodes (the remainder dropping weekly), most of it still set in the early 1960s, with Midge landing a steady job—though not the gig she most desires—on a Tonight Show-like talk show (Veep’s Reid Scott is the handsome but patronizing host), while she and her ferociously loyal manager Susie (the great Alex Borstein) impatiently wait for the break that will put this huge talent on the map. When it happens, you will marvel. (See the full review.)

Jennifer Garner in The Last Thing He Told Me
Apple TV+

The Last Thing He Told Me

Series Premiere

Jennifer Garner stars in a classic “had she but known” seven-part thriller as Hannah, whose charmed life as a woodworking artist living on a Sausalito houseboat with her dashing husband (Game of Thrones Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) collapses after he suddenly disappears amidst a financial scandal at his tech start-up. She’s left picking up the pieces with his resentful teenage daughter (Angourie Rice) as they embark on a suspenseful search for the truth.

David Johansen - 'Personality Crisis One Night Only'
Courtesy of Showtime

Personality Crisis: One Night Only

Special

Hard to define but easy to enjoy, glam punk-rock pioneer David Johansen in the subject of co-directors Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi’s admiring biographical/performance portrait of the former New York Dolls frontman. Johansen reflects candidly on his life and career in interviews interspersed with excerpts from his acclaimed Café Carlyle cabaret act, performing the songs of his swing-band alter ego Buster Poindexter.

Robin Thede in 'A Black Lady Sketch Show' Season 4
HBO

A Black Lady Sketch Show

Season Premiere

Robin Thede’s raucous and irreverent sketch-comedy showcase returns for a fourth season of bawdy shenanigans, including in the opener a girls’ trip-themed music video, a Senate debate on bachelorette weekends and, most hilarious, a replay of the day Jesus was born from the perspective of three outspoken though not-so-wise women (“Magi, please!”). Co-star Gabrielle Dennis reprises her mean-girl Mary Magdalene character and then goes meta as the fictional actress playing Mary, who’s profiled on the mock arts series Actors Behind the Lens Speaking Seriously. Obviously not meant to be taken seriously. Insecure’s Jay Ellis, Kel Mitchell and Omarion are among the guest stars.

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

  • The Bold and the Beautiful (CBS, check local listings): The long-running daytime soap airs its 9000th episode—but who’s counting?
  • RuPaul’s Drag Race (8/7c, MTV): Find out who sashays away with the $200,000 grand prize in the season finale. Followed by the broadcast premiere of the shocking pilot episode of Showtime’s Yellowjackets (9:30/8:30c), for those who’ve yet to experience this wild and surreal hybrid of survival thriller and psychodrama.
  • Blindspotting (9/8c and 9:30/8:30c, Starz): “Welcome back to the ordeal,” says Ashley Rose (the terrific Jasmine Cephas Jones) of Oakland, CA, who’s at the end of her rope raising son Sean (Atticus Woodward) when the second season catches up to them nine months after her jailhouse wedding to love-of-her-life Miles (Rafael Casal).
  • True Crime Watch: Dateline NBC (9/8c) reports on the nearly 20-year investigation into the 2004 death of Courtney Coco, who was found in an abandoned building in rural Texas with a name engraved inside her ring providing a crucial clue. On ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c), Deborah Roberts reports on the 2010 shooting death in Minnesota of Heidi Firkus, which went unsolved for 13 years until her husband Nick’s second wife, Rachel (interviewed for the program), found incriminating evidence in his sock drawer.
  • Whose Line Is It Anyway? (9/8c, The CW): Penn & Teller, hosts of Fool Us at 8/7c, are the guests for the latest round of improvisational comedy.
  • Never Again: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, A Tour with Wolf Blitzer (9/8c, CNN): The son of Holocaust survivors and grandson of four Holocaust victims, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer has an emotional connection to the renowned Washington, D.C., museum, which he tours with the museum’s director in a special intended to combat the rising tide of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
  • Next at the Kennedy Center (10/9c, PBS): The latest installment of the arts series features Ballet Hispánico’s Doña Peron, a provocative portrait of Eva “Evita” Perón with choreography by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa set to music by Peter Salem.

ON THE STREAM:

  • Jane (streaming on Apple TV+): An imaginative family series salutes the legendary primatologist Jane Goodall through the eyes of an admirer: 9-year-old environmentalist Jane Garcia (Ava Louise Murchison), who embarks on fantastical adventures to save the world’s endangered animals.
  • Rugrats (streaming on Paramount+): Little Tommy has a new brother in the second season of the animated reboot.
  • The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die (streaming on Netflix): The historical drama series concludes with a movie sequel in which Uhtred of Bebbanburg (Alexander Dreymon) attempts to unite Britain following the death of King Edward.
  • Cocaine Bear (streaming on Peacock): Director Elizabeth Banks’ over-the-top comedy-thriller about a drug-fueled bear terrorizing a Georgia forest makes its streaming debut not even two months after hitting theaters. Accompanied by Cocaine Bear: The True Story, an hourlong documentary about the stranger-than-fiction events that inspired the movie.