‘Bachelorette’ Finale, How ’90s Tech Changed the World, ‘Futurama’ Spoofs Amazon, Prince Andrew’s Scandals

Matt Roush August 21, 2023, 7:00 am

The time has come for Bachelorette Charity Lawson to make her choice—or not—in a three-hour season finale. National Geographic’s Rewind the ’90s revisits the birth of the Internet and the impact of 24-hour TV news. Futurama satirizes a corporate behemoth with a fictional consumer service called “Momazon.” A&E’s Secrets of franchise explores the scandalous life of Britain’s disgraced Prince Andrew.

The Bachelorette

Season Finale

8/7c

Here’s three hours of your life you’ll never get back—if you devote them to watching Charity Lawson agonize over which of three men (Aaron B., Dotun and Joey) she’ll pick to be her Mr. Right, or at least Right Now. After narrowing the field to two, she introduces her remaining swains to her family, who help her make a decision in front of a live studio audience. The finale also introduces a new Bachelor and teases the next season of Bachelor in Paradise.

Rewind the 90s

9/8c

Few knew at the time, but when the World Wide Web was unleashed in the pivotal decade of the 1990s, technology was poised to change the globe, creating community—and division. The first of the docuseries’ two hours deals with the rise of the Internet, while the second is devoted to the creation of the 24-hour news cycle on cable and how it fed a tabloid industry obsessed with scandals and rivalries. Who’s up for a replay of the Tonya vs. Nancy ice-skating sideshow?

Futurama

The Internet also brought us Amazon, and it’s about time for the animated satire set in the 3000s to take on the mighty giant—here christened Momazon, an organization “where people pay a fortune for ‘free’ shipping—and also for TV shows, for some reason.” (Take that, Prime Video.) While the Planet Express team frets that this mega-corporation will soon drive them out of business, robot Bender thinks their ever-expanding fulfillment center on the moon feels more like home than the apartment where he’s a third wheel now that Leela has moved in with Fry. And watch out for Invasa, the AI personal assistant with a mind of its own.

Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell: Banished Peacock — Peacock

Secrets of Prince Andrew

Documentary Premiere

9/8c

The disgraced British prince is the subject of the latest Secrets of installment, with back-to-back episodes revealing how the once-charmed royal, a handsome war hero, spiraled into hedonism and a reputation-wrecking friendship with sex-trafficking mogul Jeffrey Epstein. The centerpiece of these episodes: Andrew’s disastrous 2019 interview with BBC NewsNight, which led to him being removed from his patronages and honorary military affiliations.

INSIDE MONDAY TV:

American Ninja Warrior (8/7c, NBC): The National Finals get underway in Vegas, with the remaining ninjas moving on to Stage 1.
Son of a Critch (8/7c, The CW): In a Halloween-themed episode of the nostalgic comedy, young Mark (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and his pal Ritche (Mark Rivera) get police protection after witnessing an ugly crime.
Leonard Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony (9/9c, PBS): Conductor Marin Alsop, a former Bernstein protégé, leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Chorus through the composer’s final symphony, which honors the sacred Jewish prayer for the dead. Jaye Ladymore reads the narrative segment.
Miracle Workers: End Times (10/9c, TBS): Saturday Night Live’s Kyle Mooney guests on the post-apocalyptic comedy in a Terminator-inspired parody as “the chosen one sent through time to lead the humans in the coming war against the machines.” Sid (Daniel Radcliffe) joins the movement in defiance of his junkyard boss (Steve Buscemi), while his pregnant wife Freya (Geraldine Viswanathan) blows off steam in one last hurrah with her war dogs of yore.