‘Transplant’ Returns, ‘Sirens’ Song, Mourning on ‘Criminal Minds,’ Playing Ball With ‘Poker Face’

Transplant

Scripted shows are a rarity on network TV during the off-season, which is another reason to welcome back the solid hospital drama from Canada for one final season. Hamza Haq is an empathetic lead as Bashir “Bash” Hamed, a Syrian refugee who’s nearing the end of his residency at Toronto’s York Memorial and finds himself competing with his closest colleague, Mags (Laurence Leboeuf), for a prized fellowship spot. Season 4 opens with two episodes, the first showing an eventful Saturday morning shift from the perspectives of Bash, Mags (who gets an update about her heart condition that could affect her career), the newly promoted Dr. June Curtis (Ayisha Issa), emergency department head Dr. Devi (Rekha Sharma) and currently suspended Dr. Theo Hunter (Jim Watson), who’s treating patients remotely. In the second episode (9/8c), Bash reverts to his Syrian combat triage training when he happens across a sinkhole crisis. “Jumping in is what I know how to do,” he reminds us.

Sirens

If Barbie had a trashy sibling (say, Slutty Skipper), that’s the dynamic between estranged sisters Simone (House of the Dragon‘s Milly Alcock), the perky golden one, and hot-mess Devon (White Lotus alum Meghann Fahy). In a broadly satirical yet sinister five-part camp dramedy, reminiscent of beach-read guilty pleasures like last year’s The Perfect Couple, Devon vows to rescue the sister she helped raise in Buffalo from the cult-like clutches of Kiki (a sublime Julianne Moore), a silkily manipulative philanthropist to whom Simone is creepily devoted as a very personal assistant. (They sometimes share a bed and are seen swapping gum.) Arriving at Kiki’s sprawling seaside compound atop a New England cliff, where Labor Day gala preparations are underway, the brazen and disruptive Devon snarks at all of the obscene wealth while trying to wake up Simone, who she still sees as “a traumatized little girl who’s always trying to outrun her past.” Kevin Bacon co-stars as Kiki’s billionaire husband.

Criminal Minds: Evolution

Mayhem takes a backseat to mourning in an unusually poignant episode of the grisly crime drama. Series star Joe Mantegna directs the proceedings as the members of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) rally around a grieving JJ (A.J. Cook) after her husband Will’s (Josh Stewart) sudden death. Guest stars include the late Linda Lavin in one of her final performances, clashing with JJ as Will’s starchy mom. Even the subplot involving amnesiac serial killer Elias Voit (Zach Gilford) gets emotional, when the agents recruit Voit’s only known survivor to confront him, hoping to trigger his memory.

Poker Face

With baseball season in full swing, the delightful mystery-comedy heads to a minor-league ballpark, where a drifting Charlie (Natasha Lyonne) hopes to find community among these underdogs. Guest stars include Carol Kane as the team’s financially strapped owner — imagine Kane’s and Lyonne’s unique voices sharing scenes together! — Saturday Night Live‘s Ego Nwodim as a sportscaster and Simon Rex as the team’s fading star pitcher, who’s about to be eclipsed by a talented young recruit. Mayhem ensues.

Hacks

In the penultimate episode of the Emmy-winning comedy’s terrific fourth season, late-night host Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) faces a career and public-relations crisis when studio boss Bob Lipka (Tony Goldwyn) insists her show book a controversial movie star (Eric Balfour) as a guest. The fallout could be a game changer for everyone, including her outspoken head writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) and devoted manager Jimmy (Paul W. Downs), who’s got other problems as he scours the studio lot looking for a wayward Dance Mom (Julianne Nicholson).

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Farmer Wants a Wife (8/7c, Fox): In the two-hour Season 3 finale, the farmers and their potential mates finish up the family visits before announcing which of the ladies has harvested their hearts.
• 100 Foot Wave (9/8c, HBO): Top surfers head to Oahu for the first Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational competition in seven years. When the organizers pass on inviting legendary big-wave pro Garrett McNamara, it’s time for some soul-searching.
• Not Her First Rodeo (10/9c, Freeform): A docuseries set in the rough-and-tumble world of female professional bull riders profiles the five members of the Elite Lady Bull Riders, each hoping for one of those championship buckles. 

ON THE STREAM:

• Earnhardt (streaming on Prime Video): A four-part docuseries (with the second half premiering May 29) tracks the NASCAR family dynasty of racing legend Dale Earnhardt and his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• 100 Days to Indy (streaming on Fox Nation): The docuseries that charts the road to the Indianapolis 500 (now airing on Fox) has moved to streaming, with the three-episode season airing weekly.
• Tyler Perry’s She the People (streaming on Netflix): Terri J. Vaughn stars in a spirited comedy as the newly elected Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, contending with a sexist governor and her rowdy, politically incorrect family. The first season’s second half drops in August.
• Duster (9 pm/ET, streaming on Max): Patrick Warburton guest-stars in the breezy 1970s-set thriller as a hit man with an Elvis fixation, sending Jim Ellis (Josh Holloway) to Palm Springs on a caper involving the King’s blue suede shoes. Another ’70s icon, Adrienne Barbeau, factors into two memorable cameos.
• The Ainsley McGregor Mysteries: A Case for the Yarn Maker (streaming on Pure Flix): Candace Cameron Bure returns as the small-town Texas criminology expert in her second cozy-mystery movie, rallying her fireman boyfriend (Aaron Ashmore) and her Book Club amateur sleuths to help solve the murder of a wealthy yarn heiress.
• Chaos (streaming on Viaplay): From Denmark, a romantic dramedy focuses on Lise (Katrine Greis-Rosenthal), co-anchor of a struggling TV morning show, who needs to decide whether to stay in her stale storybook marriage to her co-anchor husband or start over with an alluring new guy traveling the coastline in his van.
• Wish You Were Queer (streaming on OUTtv): Gay comedians and besties Michael Henry and Tim Murray hit the road to sample queer culture in America’s heartland in a six-episode unscripted comedy.