The Real Liza on ‘Drag Race’ Finale, the Magic of ILM, Hot Times in ‘Sydney,’ a ‘Dope’ Dilemma

RuPaul’s Drag Race

A living legend visits the Drag Race stage for the Season 17 finale when EGOT winner Liza Minnelli receives the Giving Us Lifetime Achievement Award from host RuPaul. She’s been impersonated numerous times on the show (including by Drag Race alums Alexis Michelle, Scarlett Bobo, Hannah Conda, and La Voix), so having the genuine article appear to remind everyone that life is a cabaret, old chum couldn’t be more appropriate. In the finale, finalists Jewels Sparkles, Lexi Love, Sam Star, and Onya Nerve perform one last time to compete for the $200,000 grand prize.

Light & Magic

In a second season comprising three episodes, the docuseries that goes inside the imagination factory of George Lucas‘ Industrial Light & Magic picks up after the groundbreaking achievements of Jurassic Park to depict the excitement that ensued when Lucas announced he was finally ready to make more Star Wars films. The prequel trilogy may not have won over the critics — and the Jar Jar Binks backlash was particularly intense — but the digital technological breakthroughs are fascinating to behold. The episodes also cover the making of hits including Twister, The War of the Worlds and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

NCIS: Sydney

It’s the height of summer Down Under when the team weathers a heat wave while investigating the death of a U.S. Marine during a joint exercise between U.S. and Australian troops. Followed by Fire Country (9/8c), where one of Station 42’s first responders is in danger after the crew responds to a deceptively routine house fire; and S.W.A.T. (10/9c), with 20-Squad facing off against a biker club when a girl goes missing after a shooting at an L.A. nightclub.

Dope Thief

The jig is up as the terrific thriller reaches its intense penultimate episode, with partners in crime Ray (Brian Tyree Henry) and Manny (Wagner Moura) both in custody, with Ray still recuperating from his injuries in a hospital bed. While the best buds assess their bleak futures, the feds are hovering, hoping either will crack and make a deal, which would help lead authorities to the real drug traffickers Ray and Manny encountered while pretending to be DEA agents.

Your Friends & Neighbors

You can envy his cool collection of Hitchcock posters, but poor middle-aged rich guy Coop’s (Jon Hamm, perfectly cast) descent into unemployed suburban malaise, which includes breaking into neighbors’ homes to steal their expensive stuff, only deepens when he decides to attend a party thrown by Nick (Mark Tallman), the ex-NBA pro who stole his wife, Mel (Amanda Peet). Metaphors are plentiful, including a designer closet infested with carpet moths and a $30,000 high-tech toilet. Who’d want to keep up with these jerk Joneses?

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

• The Passion Play (3:45 pm/ET, Great American Family): In a Good Friday tradition, the ceremonial event from L.A.’s Shepherd Church is broadcast live. Followed by Forty-Seven Days With Jesus (4 pm/ET), starring The Chosen‘s Yoshi Barrigas and Catherine Lidstone in the story of a family finding hope through a cinematic retelling of Jesus’ final days on Earth.
• Grosse Pointe Garden Society (8/7c, NBC): The competition is fierce when the garden club prepares to take on rival Bloomfield Hills in the Southeastern Michigan Gardening Cup. But it’s the flash-forwards that provide the real suspense, as more details emerge about the fateful fight at the gala.
• Power Book III: Raising Kanan (8/7c, Starz): The drug war escalates when Unique (Joey Bada$$) and his gang take control of the corners in Queens.
• 20/20 (9/8c, ABC): Correspondent Matt Gutman conducts a phone interview from prison with Dorice “Dee Dee Moore,” who was convicted of murder in the 2009 death of Florida lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare.

 ON THE STREAM:

• Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror (streaming on Netflix): On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, a documentary revisits the devastating tragedy, the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North (streaming on Prime Video): Jacob Elordi stars in a five-part adaptation of Richard Flanigan’s novel as Australian doctor Dorrigo Evans, reflecting on a long-ago love affair and his ordeal as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp. Ciarán Hinds plays the older version of Dorrigo.
• Movies making their streaming debuts include Wolf Man (Peacock), starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner in a new twist on the classic horror trope; and Companion (Max, premiering Saturday on HBO), a sci-fi thriller starring The Boys‘ Jack Quaid as a guy who brings along a robot companion (Yellowjackets‘ Sophie Thatcher) to a weekend lake house retreat with friends.