‘Fargo’ Finale, ‘After Midnight’ on CBS, Hulu’s ‘Death and Other Details,’ Remembering June Carter Cash
The brilliant fifth season of Fargo ends with a showdown and more than a few reckonings. Comedian Taylor Tomlinson is the rare female late-night host, joining the CBS lineup with the panel show After Midnight. Mandy Patinkin is “the world’s greatest detective” in Death and Other Details, a light mystery set aboard a luxurious yacht. A music documentary profiles June Carter Cash, celebrating a life and career often overshadowed by her husband.
Fargo
Season Finale
The payoffs come in all sorts in the Season 5 finale of Noah Hawley’s brilliant crime anthology: a few are almost biblically tragic, some darkly comic and at least one is transcendent. The action picks up during the siege of evil Sheriff Roy Tillman’s (Jon Hamm) ranch, with his kidnapped first wife Dot/Nadine (Juno Temple) desperately seeking her freedom amid the chaos and bloodshed. Saying more would spoil the fun, but don’t be surprised if you get a hankering for drop biscuits when it’s all over.
After Midnight
Series Premiere
The late-night comedy show once known as @midnight on Comedy Central has been revived, rebranded and will now take over the slot once occupied by The Late Late Show with James Corden. Comedian Taylor Tomlinson joins the too-small sorority of female late-night hosts, moderating a panel of fellow comics and assorted celebrities in a quirky game-show format built around Internet memes and current news headlines.
Death and Other Details
Series Premiere
The greatest mystery in this stylish but oddly colorless whodunit is trying to place the origin of hammy Mandy Patinkin’s wandering accent as Rufus Cotesworth, a would-be Poirot who declares himself “the world’s greatest detective.” Someone who disagrees with that assessment is Imogene Scott (Violett Beane), who as a child 18 years earlier never forgave Rufus for giving up on solving her mother’s murder. Imogene became something of a ward to the filthy rich Collier family, whose luxury yacht is the setting for a classic closed-room murder mystery. The victim isn’t who he appeared to be, and that’s just one of the layers of deception Rufus will need to unravel—with the reluctant help of his unwilling new sidekick: Imogene. Premieres with two episodes.
June
Documentary Premiere
“If you’re married to Johnny Cash, you gotta be tough,” says Willie Nelson, one of many admirers of June Carter Cash (1929-2003), who emerges into the spotlight in a documentary that provides a full picture of the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter—she co-wrote the hit Ring of Fire—and actress who was born into country-music royalty as part of the Carter Family. Among those singing her praises: Reese Witherspoon, who won an Oscar playing June in 2005’s Walk the Line, Larry Gatlin, Kasey Musgraves and the legendary Dolly Parton, who quips, “If you only know June Carter Cash, you’re missing a whole lotta things.”
NCIS: Sydney
Claustrophobics be forewarned. Members of the team find themselves trapped in an underground bunker with limited oxygen when they go to investigate the death of a U.S. Navy researcher found dead in the chamber during a fancy tech launch. This being NCIS, we expect them to eventually come up for air, but who doesn’t enjoy some ticking-clock suspense?
INSIDE TUESDAY TV:
- Finding Your Roots (8/7c, PBS): Acclaimed actors LeVar Burton (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation) and Wes Studi (Dances with Wolves), who each grew up without a father, gain insight into their family ancestry and their connection to history.
- Celebrity Jeopardy! (8/7c, ABC): Comic personalities get serious in the semifinal round, with contestants Rachel Dratch, Mo Rocca and Heather McMahan working their buzzers.
- Only Murders in the Building (9/8c, ABC): The first of three episodes from Season 1 is an innovative departure, told from the silent perspective of Teddy’s (Nathan Lane) deaf son, Theo (James Caverly).
- Life Below Zero: Next Generation (9/8c, National Geographic): While much of the country deals with a winter deep freeze, the docuseries returns with the Alaskans preparing for a spring thaw.
- Found (10/9c, NBC): Cliffhanger alert! The trailer for the Season 1 finale teases the biggest missing-persons mystery of all: the apparent disappearance of Gabi’s (Shanola Hampton) abductor Sir (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) from her basement, where she’s kept him captive all season.
- Percy Jackson and the Olympians (streaming on Disney+): Team Percy encounters Hermes (Lin-Manuel Miranda) while visiting a Vegas casino that doesn’t seem to want them to leave. Time being of the essence but passing differently here.
- The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula (streaming on Shudder and AMC+): The brothers crown the world’s next Drag Supermonster in the season finale. (Wouldn’t it be fun to see them do a runway crossover with RuPaul’s Drag Race?)
