Samantha Calls Into ‘Just Like That’ Finale, Getting Roasted ‘in the Shadows,’ Arctic ‘Explorer,’ Miley’s ‘Backyard Sessions’

Season Finale

Like other summer trends that require a change of wardrobe come fall, we’ll all have to find something new to hate-watch come Labor Day. Of special interest as Season 2 of the ill-conceived Sex and the City spinoff closes shop is the much-touted reappearance of Kim Cattrall as the sorely missed Samantha Jones, who reportedly filmed her phone conversation with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) by herself. Hey, we’ll take table scraps at this point. The season finale, not available for preview, may also reveal if the recent storm clouds over Carrie’s reignited romance with Aidan (John Corbett) are a deal-breaker. The series was recently renewed for a third season. Try to contain your excitement.

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How to cheer up a despondent vampire like Laszlo (Matt Berry)? In a protracted funk after failing to find a scientific cure for half/human half/vamp Guillermo’s (Harvey Guillén) sluggish transition, Laszlo becomes the unresponsive recipient of a comical roast organized by toastmaster Nandor (Kayvan Novak) and his loyal mate Nadja (Natasia Demetriou). (Her “You might just be a Laszlo Cravensworth” riffs are particularly choice.) But the jokefest takes a more serious and literal turn when unsavory truths about the Staten Island vamps are inadvertently revealed to the visiting Baron (Doug Jones), and soon no one’s laughing. Especially Guillermo.

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If you were among those chilled by AMC’s The Terror (and/or the Dan Simmons novel that inspired the first season), you won’t want to miss this adventurous installment of National Geographic’s Explorer series. Mark Synnott lives up to his billing as an official Explorer when he recruits a team, including Nat Geo photographer/filmmaker Renan Ozturk, to retrace the ill-fated 1845 expedition of Sir John Franklin (fictionalized in The Terror). With a crew of 129 in two ships (the HMS Terror and Erebus), they became trapped in the Arctic ice while attempting to circumnavigate the Northwest Passage. None survived or, until recently, were ever found.) Synnott’s mission, aboard the 47-foot Polar Sun sailboat, is to sail the same route with the goal of finding answers in the Franklin group’s long-lost tomb.

Special

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First shown on Disney+ in March, this concert special has been “re-imagined” for broadcast TV, featuring a new interview with Miley Cyrus reflecting on her life and career. The music, from her recent Endless Summer Vacation album, is performed in an intimate outdoor setting, with scenes inside Frank Sinatra’s former L.A. mansion, where Cyrus filmed the music video for her hit single Flowers. (A new song and video, “Used to Be Young,” will be released Friday.)

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Mountain Men (8/7c, History): The 12^th season of the off-the-grid reality series continues to film the exploits of 80-year-old trapper Tom Oar while introducing newcomers to the wilds of North America—including Ray Livingston, a survivalist settling into the mountains of Northeast Washington state and Aron and Jennifer Toland, a Canadian couple who’ve found a remote home on a British Columbian lake.
• TMZ Investigates: Britney Spears: Divorce & Despair (8/7c, Fox): Free Britney from ugly tabloid scrutiny—including this report about her impending divorce to Sam Ashgari in the wake of her battle over conservatorship.
• Toya & Reginae (9/8c, WE tv): Atlanta-based social media and reality-TV star Toya Johnson-Rushing shares the spotlight with daughter Reginae Carter in their latest let-the-cameras-in venture.
• Tyler Perry’s Zatima (streaming on BET+): The Sistas spinoff returns with new episodes, following the latest ups and down in the relationship of Zac (Devale Ellis) and Fatima (Crystal Renee Hayslett). Also new to BET+: the four-part dramedy Caught Up, starring Jasmin Brown as Jazzy, a Caribbean woman who finds her dream man—only to learn he’s engaged to another.
• The Hustle of @617MikeBiv (streaming on ALLBLK): A documentary profiles Michael L. Bivins, a founding member of New Edition and Bell Biv DeVoe.