Jean Smart Returns for ‘Hacks’ Final Season, Elizabeth Banks Is a ‘Miniature Wife,’ Dan Levy’s ‘Big Mistakes,’ ‘Hunting Party’ Pays the Piper

Hacks

Never doubt that Deborah Vance will get the last laugh. That’s the lesson from the fifth and final season of the Emmy-winning showbiz comedy, which has won Jean Smart an Emmy for each of its previous years as Deborah, the unsinkable stand-up comedy legend. Once again, she’s an underdog battling a cruel system — and a vindictive studio boss (Tony Goldwyn) who abruptly canceled her late-night TV show and silenced her with a punitive non-compete clause. For Deborah, being deprived of a spotlight and a platform is like being starved of oxygen. But as her Gen Z collaborator Ava (Hannah Einbinder) reminds her, “You do your best work when you’re backed up against the wall.” Smeared in the press, Deborah decides it’s time to change the narrative. “I need a legacy-defining win!” she declares. And away we go. (Read the full review.)

The Miniature Wife

From the land of the high concept comes a 10-part sci-fi dramedy that puts a fractured marriage to the ultimate test. Elizabeth Banks is Lindy, a one-hit-wonder writer and professor whose husband, Les (Succession‘s Matthew Macfadyen), a narcissistic scientist, has neglected their relationship while perfecting a miniaturizing device that he sees as “my last chance at greatness.” During a marital spat, Lindy is accidentally sprayed by his invention and shrunk to 6 inches, a metaphor for the imbalance in their union. “Oh God, I’ve created a tiny monster,” Les moans. But who’s the real monster here?

Big Mistakes

Dan Levy moves from one dysfunctional family (the Roses of Schitt’s Creek) to another in a manic dark farce he co-created with I Love L.A.‘s Rachel Sennott. Levy plays Nicky, a mostly out and supposedly “non-practicing” gay pastor who gets embroiled in dangerous underworld hijinks with his hapless sister Morgan (Taylor Ortega) when a stolen necklace gets buried with their grandmother and the siblings are blackmailed over eight frantic episodes into a slapstick spiral of crime. Laurie Metcalf is, as usual, a scream as their hypercritical mother.

The Hunting Party

One of the pleasures of this weekly chase thriller is discovering which familiar TV face is the new target of the task force assigned to recapture psychotic killers who escaped the secret government prison of The Pit. This week, it’s Piper Perabo from Covert Affairs, the spy drama from a decade ago, and more recently, Yellowstone, tackling the role of Colette Akins, a woman guided by a voice from beyond the grave, belonging to her dead father, a mortician. She returns to her hometown community to replenish the morgue with new bodies, while FBI profiler Bex (Melissa Roxburgh) and the team try to find a connection between her victims.

The Pitt

We know these Pittsburgh-based doctors can’t work an entire 24-hour shift, but it’s still going to be difficult to leave their overwhelmed workplace when the Emmy-winning medical drama signs off after next week’s Season 2 finale. Series star Noah Wyle, who plays the stressed-out ER leader Dr. Robby, wrote the penultimate episode, which once again finds Robby questioning his future while charge nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa) looks on with concern. Another doctor gets a win just when they need it most, while the rest of the day staff is getting punchy as they digitize the charts from the hours spent earlier in the day without computer support. Time flies when you’re saving lives.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• The Masters: First Round (3 pm/ET, ESPN): The legendary golf tournament gets underway in Augusta, Georgia. Early coverage can be streamed starting at 8:30 am/ET on Paramount+ and starting at 1 pm/ET on Prime Video.
• Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage (8/7c, CBS): Has Meemaw (Annie Potts) learned nothing about operating shady businesses? She’s at it again, this time with granddaughter-in-law Mandy (Emily Osment), hatching a scheme after little CeeCee loses her favorite stuffed monkey.
• Law & Order (8/7c, NBC): The fate of a priceless artifact is at stake in the investigation and prosecution after a museum security guard is murdered. Followed by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (9/8c), where Benson (Mariska Hargitay) is surprised to find Velasco (Octavio Pisano) working undercover during a sex trafficking bust.
• Ghosts (8:30/7:30c, CBS): Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) intervenes when Trevor (Asher Grodman) raises HR flags with an inappropriate gift to a co-worker. In death as in life …
• Animal Control (9/8c, Fox): Frank (Joel McHale) and Daisy (Kyla Pratt) gamble for high stakes after losing $5,000 in union funds. Followed by Going Dutch (9:30/8:30c), where the Colonel (Denis Leary) is put on bed rest, which is where Major Shah (Danny Pudi) would rather be than in a field containing land mines.
• Matlock (9/8c, CBS): Yara Martinez (Bull) guests as a new client who’s suing to gain control of an AI software company she developed with her late sister. Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) has it covered, but first she needs to mend fences at work with Sarah (Leah Lewis). On the home front, Matty (Kathy Bates) takes a call from Joey (Niko Nicotera), her grandson’s father.
• Studio C (9:30 pm/ET, BYUtv): Rainn Wilson (The Office) guests on the sketch comedy’s Season 22 premiere.
• Elsbeth (10/9c, CBS): Beanie Feldstein is this week’s prime suspect, Rachel, a perpetual bridesmaid who Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) suspects is responsible for the bludgeoning death of a bride.

 ON THE STREAM:

• Taskmaster (5 pm/ET, streaming on YouTube): Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley) and Veep creator Armando Iannucci join a panel alongside Brits Amy Gledhill, Joanna Page, and Joel Dommett, all hoping to impress Taskmaster Greg Davies and his assistant Alex Horne in the 22nd season of the celebrated comedic game show.
• Hope Valley: 1874 (streaming on Hallmark+): Rebecca (Bethany Joy Lenz) goes into Dr. Quinn mode when ranch foreman Nash (Brad Abramenko) breaks his leg.
• Original Gangsters With Sean Bean (streaming on Sundance Now): The Game of Thrones star hosts a docuseries exploring the exploits of history’s most notorious criminals.
• Dangerous Truth (streaming on Viaplay): A six-part political thriller from Germany revisits conspiracies involving an intelligence campaign of mass deception that led to the 2003 Iraq War.