Colman Domingo Is ‘Rustin,’ ‘Monarch’ Monster Mania, Tyler Perry’s Story, a Movie to ‘Destroy’

Movie Premiere

Fear the Walking Dead’s Colman Domingo, an Emmy winner (as guest actor on Euphoria) and Tony nominee, could add an Oscar accolade to his resumé for his outstanding performance as civil-rights pioneer Bayard Rustin, an architect of the historic March on Washington in 1963. That event is the focus of director George C. Wolfe’s historical drama, enlivened by Domingo’s fiery, funny and passionate charisma as a confidante and friend to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Aml Ameen) whose homosexuality created barriers to Rustin getting the renown he deserved. This film, co-starring Chris Rock as skeptical NAACP chief Roy Wilkins and Glynn Turman as union leader and Rustin fan A. Philip Randolph, could help reverse that injustice.

Series Premiere

Godzilla takes a back seat to Monarch, the shadowy X-Files-like organization that tracks the radiation-feeding MUTOs (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms), in a sporadically thrilling addition to the MonsterVerse. In a sweet casting stunt, Kurt Russell and son Wyatt play older and younger versions of the same character: Army officer Lee Shaw, initially assigned to shadow Monarch’s expeditions in the 1950s. The contemporary story unfolds in the wake of Godzilla’s 2014 attack on San Francisco, when survivor Cate (Anna Sawai) travels to Tokyo to explore her secret family connection to Monarch, where she connects with a half-sibling (Ren Watabe) and begins a global quest for answers with the inevitable hacker (Kiersey Clemons) on board. Kurt Russell brings so much vigor and wit to his portrayal of the elder Shaw, it’s a shame he’s saddled having to shepherd these mopey Scooby Gang wannabes. Most episodes become a waiting game for the next amazing monster, five minutes of awe after 40-odd minutes of yawn. (See the full review.)

Documentary Premiere

How Tyler Perry went from Madea to mogul is the inspirational arc of this biographical portrait, named after his mother, Willie Maxine Perry, who inspired Tyler’s most famous (and for some infamous) character. The film charts Perry’s rise from a traumatic childhood with an abusive father to making it big with 2005’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman (introducing his breakout character of Madea) through his more recent successes as a studio head and filmmaker.

Movie Premiere

They score most weeks as the hapless Saturday Night Live writers known as Please Don’t Destroy (real names: Martin Herlihy, John Higgins and Ben Marshall) in hilarious digital shorts. Do they have what it takes to carry a feature-length comedy movie? From what I’ve seen, it looks entirely possible. The trio plays their usual doltish and emotionally immature selves, embarking on a quest to find a hidden treasure worth up to $100 million presumably buried in a nearby forest. Along the way, they encounter hostile park rangers (Meg Stalter and X Mayo), a creepy cult leader (SNL’s Bowen Yang), a hawk with attitude and other creatures of the wild in a series of slapstick adventures. Bonus: Conan O’Brien appears as the father of Ben, at one point described as looking “like a colonial ghost.”

Mars base Happy Valley isn’t such a happy experience for those working the lower decks—as new arrival Miles (Toby Kebbell) discovers when Season 4 of the terrific sci-fi drama continues. Returning commander Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall) has quite the task getting the base back up to speed, while back on Earth, Aleida (Coral Peña) and Kelly (Cynthy Wu) drown their sorrows over their own conflicted feelings about the new direction at NASA.

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

• The Last Cowboy (8/7c, CMT): Taylor Sheridan’s horse-reining competition returns for another “Run for a Million” season, this time with more women in the mix.
• The Yule Log: In Hallmark Channel’s Navigating Christmas (8/7c), a divorcee (Chelsea Hobbs) and her son spend the holidays operating a lighthouse on a remote island. Enter the brusque but buff owner (Stephen Huszar). Streaming offerings include Dashing Through the Snow on Disney+, a comedy starring Lil Rel Howery as red-suited “Nick,” who restores the Christmas spirit to a disillusioned dad (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges); Amazon Freevee’s EXmas, a romcom starring Robbie Amell and Leighton Meester as ex-fiancés who clash when she’s invited to spend the holidays with his family; and The Roku Channel’s The Holiday Shift, a five-episode rom-com about relationships among mall employees during the holiday rush.
• True Crime Watch: Dateline NBC (9/8c) presents The Murdaugh Murders: Inside the Investigation, featuring Craig Melvin’s interviews with lead investigators in the Alex Murdaugh murder case. On ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c), John Quiñones reports on serial murders in Texas and the border patrol supervisor who ultimately confessed to the crimes.
• Making Shakespeare: The First Folio (9/8c, PBS): A Great Performances documentary celebrates the 400^th anniversary of the first publication of the Bard’s plays, which otherwise might have been lost.
• Creepshow (10/9c, AMC): The horror anthology’s season finale nods to the original movie’s director, George A. Romero, when a bookstore owner finds unpublished comics by the master, though not without consequences.

ON THE STREAM:

• Biosphere (streaming on AMC+): Mark Duplass and Sterling K. Brown star in the darkly comedic allegory of best buds who’ve survived an apocalypse within a custom biosphere and may be the last two men on Earth. If they live that long.
• The Secret Life of Dancing Dogs (streaming on Hulu): Ready for Dancing with the Dogs? A six-part docuseries from ABC News Studios goes inside the competitive world of dog dancing, where canines execute choreographed dance routines with their human partners.
• Shohei Ohtani: Beyond the Dream (streaming on ESPN+): A documentary profiles the all-star designated hitter from Japan, nicknamed “Shotime.”
• Twin Love (streaming on Prime Video): Brie and Nikki Garcia host a “social dating experiment” in which 10 sets of identical twins are split up and placed in separate homes to seek romance. Will their similarities extend to their new mates?
• Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (streaming on Netflix): The cast of 2010’s live-action Scott Pilgrim vs. the World provides the voices for an anime spinoff in which slacker bass player Scott (Michael Cera) pursues dream girl Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) but has to battle her seven evil exes before he can date her.
• Lessons in Chemistry (streaming on Apple TV+): The penultimate episode of the entertaining period drama provides the poignant and Dickensian backstory to the life of brilliant chemist Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman), a family mystery that becomes a love story when he meets Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson).