‘Ghosts’ Go Solo, Conan Sees the World, ‘Discovery’ Jumps Through Time, ‘Elsbeth’ Serves Justice

8:30/7:30c

“None of you are alive. What kind of emergency could there be?” Famous last words as Sam (Rose McIver) and Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) leave the Woodstone spirits to their own devices while they leave for a ghost-free weekend getaway. (It’s also a convenient way to not have to keep hiding McIver’s pregnancy for an episode.) Sure enough, a shocking revelation has the ghosts wishing for a “living” human intervention—too bad ghosts don’t show up on FaceTime. As our resourceful unliving heroes scramble, a painful secret from the past sheds new light on one of their own. This is an episode Ghosts fans won’t want to miss.

Series Premiere

Reminiscent of his Conan Without Borders specials, the former late-night host Conan O’Brien is back on the road, jetting to countries where he’s made a connection with far-flung followers of his “Conan O’Brien Needs a Fan” podcast. The first stop on his four-episode travelogue is Norway, where “fueled by a bottomless hunger for recognition” (says a narrator), Conan has a blast freestyling with a mousy rapper he met online. He also joins a knitting circle, visits a village where Viking life is re-created and sets sail on the North Norwegian Sea with a fish farmer, among other escapades. The tone is mocking, but also self-mocking—one blunt citizen informs Conan he’s too old for his wardrobe—and just the sight of this ginger goofball is almost enough to pierce the stoic Norwegian reserve.

The best and most exciting episode to date in the sci-fi spinoff’s final season is also a payoff for longtime fans, when Captain Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her gruff new first officer Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) get trapped in a loop of temporal jumps, to the future and often the past. While they search for a way to disable the “time bug” that was inadvertently smuggled onto Discovery, Burnham confronts her character’s series-long arc from defiant and mutinous prisoner to respected ship captain. Just try getting the earlier versions of her shipmates to believe it.

10/9c

Carrie Preston is aces as amateur snoop Elsbeth Tascioni, serving up another winner in a tennis-themed episode. This week’s special guest star: Blair Underwood as a rising pro tennis star’s demanding father and coach, whose sabotage of a star player goes sideways when he drops dead on the court. Enter Elsbeth, who’s got a wacky outfit for any occasion, including tennis lessons, where she ruffles her prime suspect’s composure. A nosy ball girl complicates the investigation, but you’d be a fool to bet against Elsbeth winning this match.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Young Sheldon (8/7c, CBS): Naughty Meemaw (Annie Potts) has been put on house arrest after the raid on her backroom gambling parlor. Naturally, her genius grandson Sheldon (Iain Armitage) takes the opportunity to study up on the law as he prepares to be her advocate.
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (9/8c, NBC): Sandwiched between new episodes of Law & Order (8/7c) and Law & Order: Organized Crime (10/9c), the longest-running spinoff finds Carisi (Peter Scanavino) sweating out a verdict in Maddie Flynn’s (Allison Elaine) kidnapping case, while Benson (Mariska Hargitay) tries to help the Flynn family return to normalcy.
• Theresa Caputo: Beyond the Readings (9/8c, Lifetime): A companion series to the medium’s Raising Spirits features new and behind-the-scenes footage and follow-up interviews with participants from the series.
• True Crime Story: It Couldn’t Happen Here (10/9c, SundanceTV, streaming on AMC+ and Sundance Now): The small-town true-crime series, hosted by Hilarie Burton Morgan, opens its second season with the case of a teenage girl murdered in her car in Benton, Missouri.

ON THE STREAM:

• Orlando Bloom: To the Edge (streaming on Peacock): The adventurous Lord of the Rings movie star pushes his physical and spiritual limits in a three-part docuseries that shows him tackling the extreme sports of wingsuiting, free diving and rock climbing.
• Going Home with Tyler Cameron (streaming on Prime Video): Reality star Tyler Cameron (The Bachelorette) pursues his passion for home renovation in a reality docuseries that follows the growth of his construction and renovation company in his Jupiter, Florida hometown. With guest appearances by fellow Bachelor Nation alums, the show builds toward Tyler’s renovation of his late mother’s house.
• Sins of the Parents: The Crumbley Trials (streaming on Hulu): A timely documentary from ABC News Studios focuses on the landmark case in which James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of a teenage mass shooter in Michigan, were also held accountable for the murders, convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
• Dinner with the Parents (streaming on Amazon Freevee): A stellar cast of comedy veterans including The Unicorn’s Michaela Watkins, Veep’s Dan Bakkedahl and Taxi’s Carol Kane star in a slapstick sitcom about a weekly family dinner that regularly descends into chaos, mortifying adult brothers David (Henry Hall) and Gregg (Daniel Thresher).
• The Upshaws (streaming on Netflix): The family sitcom starring Mike Epps, Kim Fields and Wanda Sykes is back for a fifth round of six episodes.