Dolly and Her Doggies, the Rise of Lionel Messi, Apple’s ‘Constellation’ and ‘Criminal Record’ Finale, ‘Abbott’ Is Smokin’

Special

9/8c

Hot dog! This two-hour variety special has two guaranteed winners going for it: living legend Dolly Parton and canines in cute clothes. Parton, whose first hit (in 1959 at age 13) was “Puppy Love,” co-hosts with Jane Lynch as pooches of all varieties parade in a fashion show with looks from the Doggy Parton brand. The designs often mirror Dolly’s own outrageous sensibility, whether from the 1982 film version of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas or the white rhinestone-studded jumpsuit from her 2014 Glastonbury appearance. She’ll sing some of her biggest hits alongside Lainey Wilson, Carly Pearce, Chris Janson and KC (of KC and the Sunshine Band), with comedy and appearances by pet lovers including Iain Armitage, Drew Barrymore, Kristen Bell, Kristin Chenoweth, Neil Patrick Harris, Margaret Cho and sportscaster Jim Nantz.

Documentary Premiere

A four-part docuseries follows the explosive career of Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi on his path to scoring the ultimate win at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Messi opens up about the pressures and struggles of playing at this level, with teammates, competitors, coaches and commentators also getting in on the act.

Series Premiere

This intriguing sci-fi psychodrama (launching with three episodes) from Doctor Who and The War of the Worlds writer Peter Harness starts as a classic outer-space nail-biter, when astronaut Jo (the mesmerizing Noomi Rapace, Prometheus) is stranded on the International Space Station after what appears to be a cataclysmic collision. The real mystery, however, begins upon her return to Earth, where nothing feels quite the same, including her relationship with her husband (James D’Arcy) and beloved daughter Alice (Rosie and Davina Coleman). Could her hallucinatory dislocation have anything to do with the game-changing NASA experiment, overseen by Rocket Propulsion Lab science chief Henry Caldera (Breaking Bad’s Jonathan Banks), that she brought back with her?

Season Finale

A leaked recording helps expose a killer in the climactic chapter of the riveting British police drama, with Detective Sergeant June Lenker (Cush Jumbo) discovering the depths, and roots, of Detective Chief Inspector Daniel Hegarty’s (Peter Capaldi) deception. As he puts it: “Who knows what any of us are capable of on any given day?”

9/8c

The addictive Emmy-winning comedy confronts its teaching staff’s bad habits in a strong episode that begins when the fire department is called in after a student is discovered with a cigarette in the boys’ bathroom. (Check out the chemistry between Lisa Ann Walter’s newly unattached teacher Melissa and Mike O’Malley as the fire chief.) After the Abbott teachers discover the school district’s smoking policy leaves something to be desired, their frank talk about their own recreational pastimes inadvertently puts them on the spot about their own hypocrisy when it comes to just saying no. Bonus subplot: Janine (Quinta Brunson) can’t help herself from butting in with the spacey substitute who’s taken over her class.

10/9c

Alien-in-disguise Harry (Alan Tudyk) teams up with D’Arcy (Alice Wetterlund), breaking into the home of Deputy Joseph (Enver Gjokaj) in hopes of exposing the Gray alien hybrid. When things go sideways, as they nearly always do in this entertaining sci-fi comedy, Harry’s insecurities come to the surface: “I’m nothing but a big stupid human-shaped failure!” Elsewhere, Asta (Sara Tomko) goes on a date to distract Joseph, a caper destined to end with a showdown between the human-seeming aliens.

INSIDE WEDNESDAY TV:

• The Conners (8/7c, ABC): Bev (Estelle Parsons) asks Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) to spend the day together in Chicago during a lucid moment.
• Nature: Patrick and the Whale (8/7, PBS): Scientist Patrick Dykstra has dived with and studied whales for years, making a special connection with a sperm whale he names “Dolores,” whom he asks to take a camera into the ocean’s depths.
• The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion (8/7c, MTV): The final six contenders battle it out for more than $300,000 and bragging rights as the new Champion in the season finale.
• Wild Cards (8/7c, The CW): The crime caper gets meta when Max (Vanessa Morgan) and Ellis (Giacomo Gianniotti) go behind the scenes of a popular vampire TV show whose stars are being stalked. Twilight’s Ashley Greene guest stars.
• Chicago Med (8/7c, NBC): Kicking off a night of original Chicago episodes, Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) enlists Dr. Charles (Oliver Platt) to test her ex-husband’s memory.
• Nova: Hunt for the Oldest DNA (9/8c, PBS): A fascinating installment of the science series reveals how evolutionary biologist Eske Willerslev and his team deciphered the oldest DNA ever found, discovering genes of long-extinct creatures that once thrived in a warm, lush Arctic. Could this find from a lost world help us adapt to a changing planet?
• The Family Stallone (9:30/8:30c, MTV, streaming on Paramount+): With all 10 episodes of Season 2 available for streaming, MTV samples the first two new episodes of the reality show centered on Sylvester Stallone, wife Jennifer Flavin Stallone and daughters Sophia, Sistine and Scarlet. In the opener, they pack up and move east to Palm Beach, Florida.
• Feud: Capote vs. the Swans (10/9c, FX): In one of the series’ more controversial episodes, an ostracized Truman Capote (Tom Hollander) is rescued from suicidal thoughts in the immediate wake of his Esquire article’s publication when fellow author James Baldwin (Perry Mason’s Chris Chalk) visits to boost his spirits.
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch (streaming on Disney+): The animated spinoff’s third and final season launches with three episodes, as Clone Force 99 fights to survive the newly formed Empire.