‘Abbott’s Principled Stand, ‘Studio’ Goes Film Noir, ‘Good Cop’ Finale, Perils of Kidfluencing

Abbott Elementary

It’s hard to imagine this Emmy-winning comedy without one of its primary comic engines: unprincipled Principal Ava (Janelle James), who was fired several episodes ago when she took the fall after the school district learned Abbott had been taking unsanctioned donations from the neighboring golf course. It’s also kind of hard to believe that the teachers who’ve for so long suffered Ava’s wacky supervision seem not to remember what it was like to work under her mercurial reign. Even so, they rally to get her job back in Season 4’s penultimate episode, with Janine (Quinta Brunson), Jacob (Chris Perfetti), Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) and Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) appealing directly to a seemingly unsympathetic disciplinary board. “I’m vibrating with adrenaline. Is this what it feels like to play a team sport?” gushes the excitable Jacob.

The Studio

The show-biz satire spoofs a beloved genre when studio head Matt (Seth Rogen) plays film-noir detective, complete with voice-over narration, after a reel of precious film for director Olivia Wilde’s Chinatown homage (or possibly a rip-off) goes missing. The stakes are high, because Matt fought for the movie to be shot on expensive film instead of digital, yearning for his studio to be seen as filmmaker-friendly. His snooping only makes matters worse, especially once he settles on the film’s star, Zac Efron, as his prime suspect.

Good Cop/Bad Cop

One of the network’s better co-productions wraps its too-brief first season of only eight episodes with a new challenge for mismatched sibling detectives Lou (Leighton Meester) and Henry (Luke Cook). Their quirky burg of Eden Vale is rocked when shocking skeletons from numerous closets emerge upon the reveal of a killer from a decades-old murder.

Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing

“Things can get very muddy when kids are making an obscene amount of money,” warns one of the adult subjects of a docuseries depicting the more sinister nature of those cheery YouTube videos spotlighting child influencers. Bad Influence focuses on the success of YouTuber Piper Rockelle as its primary cautionary tale. Amassing 10 million followers and raking in between $300,00 and $500,000 a month at her peak, with her mother Tiffany Smith as her very controlling momager, Piper’s fame spilled over to her “Squad” of handpicked friends and co-stars. They allege incidents of abuse, cult-like manipulation and exploitation from Tiffany, whose mandate of “make it sexy” may have been aimed at the disproportionately wide audience of adult males who subscribe to these seemingly innocent videos.

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• The Conners (8/7c, ABC): As the sitcom’s final season reaches its midpoint, Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) is determined to rejoin the Lanford police force, disregarding her family’s understandable reservations, and Darlene (Sara Gilbert) is suspicious of her son Mark’s (Ames McNamara) furtive behavior.
• Wild Cards (8/7c, The CW): Things get unreal for Max (Vanessa Morgan) and Ellis (Giacomo Gianniotti) when they go undercover on a TV reality show to investigate the star’s murder.
• Survivor (8/7c, CBS): A pivotal tribal council decides who makes the jury. Followed by The Amazing Race (9:30/8:30c), where racers skydive over Dubai hoping to retrieve the Fast Forward and move straight to the Pit Stop.
• Celebrity Jeopardy! (9/8c, ABC): The second semifinal pits comedians Roy Wood Jr. and Robin Thede against Grey’s Anatomy’s Natalie Morales.
• Nova (9/8c, PBS): The science program takes the long view of history in “Revolutionary War Weapons,” using today’s tech to examine the military innovations, including the first military submarine, that helped win American independence 250 years ago.
• Good American Family (streaming on Hulu): The docudrama’s perspective shifts to Natalia (Imogen Faith Reid), who’s been moved into an apartment on her own by the Barnetts.
• Rebound: A Year of Triumph and Tragedy at Yeshiva University (streaming on Fox Nation): A documentary follows the New York City-based Orthodox Jewish university’s basketball team, the Maccabees, over the year following the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.