Dis-Harmony on ‘Severance,’ ‘Drive to Survive’ and ‘Raising Kanan’ Return, Plankton in the Spotlight

Severance

The buzzy and trippier-by-the-week sci-fi drama has kept one of its most enigmatic characters, Patricia Arquette’s former Lumon floor manager Harmony Kobel, in the shadows for several weeks. The woman who once posed as Mark Scott’s (Adam Scott) phony neighbor returns to her bleak roots in a haunting episode that sheds light on her connection with the mythology of Lumon founder Kier Eagan. While seeking an important link to her past in the presence of her forbidding sister (the great Jane Alexander), Harmony’s backstory raises as many questions as it answers, which is pretty much Severance’s modus operandi.

Formula 1: Drive to Survive

The influential docuseries that created a cottage industry of immersive behind-the-scenes sports exposés returns for a seventh season, with cameras given access to the action on and off the track during the race for 2024’s FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The 10-episode season profiles drivers and teams as allegiances shift and rivals jockey for position. In the seventh episode, “In the Heat of the Night,” five top racers film their perspectives of the Singapore Grand Prix in Formula 1: Drive to Survive.

Power Book III: Raising Kanan

The Power spinoff’s fourth season opens with its title character Kanan Thomas (MeKai Curtis) emerging from the shadow of his drug queenpin mother Raquel (Patina Miller). But there’s a hitch: Their nemesis Unique Mathis (Joey Bada$$) is still alive, and in the season premiere, we witness the recovery of South Jamaica’s biggest drug dealer from multiple angles as he plots revenge that will eventually lead to a bloody confrontation.

Plankton: The Movie

The villain of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise, Sheldon J. Plankton (voiced by Mr. Lawrence), takes center stage in his own movie, reminding us, “Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve always dreamed of taking over the world.” But he creates an even bigger monster when he annoys his computer wife Karen (Jill Talley) one time too many, and she pledges to show him how it’s done as she embarks on a mission to achieve world domination. Does SpongeBob have what it takes to save Bikini Bottom, and therefore the world?

Yellowjackets

A suspicious death of a Yellowjackets survivor in the 2020s sets “citizen detective” Misty (Christina Ricci) on a search for clues, but she soon has competition. Back in the woods in the 1990s, a persecuted Coach Scott (Steven Krueger) can only wonder “what they’re planning to do with me,” and the stranded girls of the soccer team are divided on how far to punish him. Maybe a trip to that hallucinatory cave will provide guidance. (The episode airs Sunday on Showtime’s linear channel.)

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

• NCIS: Sydney (8/7c, CBS): The death of a frozen petty officer sparks an investigation into an underground world of seafood and sex trafficking. Followed by Fire Country (9/8c), where a wellness check at a hoarder’s home escalates into an emergency when the house catches fire; and S.W.A.T. (10/9c), with 20-Squad chasing murderous robbers who stole a vault full of treasure from a sunken ship.
• RuPaul’s Drag Race (8/7c, MTV): Comedian Whitney Cummings is the guest judge when the queens stage a roast honoring three of the most outrageous divas in Drag Race herstory: Kandy Muse, Mistress Isabelle Brooks, and Plane Jane.
• Happy’s Place (8/7c, NBC): A search for a missing pen leads to Bobbie’s (Reba McEntire) discovery of a valuable bottle of whiskey hidden inside the bar.
• True Crime Watch: Convicted murderer Lori Vallow Daybell speaks with Keith Morrison on Dateline NBC (9/8c) in her first TV interview. On ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c), co-anchor David Muir reports on how cutting-edge DNA technology helped crack two cold cases from more than 30 years ago.
• The Graham Norton Show (11/10c, BBC America): Guests for the season finale of the cheeky talk show include Chris Pratt and British character actor Toby Jones. A compilation episode of the season’s most memorable moments airs next week.

ON THE STREAM:

• Chaos: The Manson Murders (streaming on Netflix): Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris revisits the infamous 1969 murders by Charles Manson’s cult, suggesting an untold mind-control conspiracy involving the CIA and LSD.
• Cops (6/5c, streaming on Fox Nation): The 37th season of the long-running ride-along docuseries opens with back-to-back episodes patrolling mayhem during spring break.
• Starve Acre (streaming on Shudder): Matt Smith (The Crown, House of the Dragon) stars in a chiller set in rural 1970s England, when an archaeologist digs into the folkloric past of his family home when his son begins acting strangely.
• Visionaries (streaming on The Roku Channel): Keanu Reeves and Gard Hollinger, co-founders of ARCH Motorcycle (described as a “mindset”), embark on a journey of creativity to meet visionaries in art and science.
• Heretic (streaming on Max): Hugh Grant is the malevolent host when two innocent missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) knock on the wrong door in a 2024 thriller making its streaming debut.