What’s On: A Thrilling ‘Underground’ Finale, a Birth on ‘black-ish’ and New Twists in ‘Handmaid’s Tale’
Underground (10/9c, WGN America): The grueling second season of this gripping historical drama comes to an eventful close in a finale of emotional and violent fireworks. Now that the blinded Daniel (an excellent Bokeem Woodbine) has found his way to the safe house run by Georgia (Jasika Nicole)—though how safe it really is soon becomes an issue—the question becomes whether to run or fight for freedom. As usual, the cunning Cato (Alano Miller) has surprises in store for everyone as he finds new ways to seize power amid the tumult. With the sale of WGN America’s parent company Tribune Media to Sinclair, the fate of Underground is unclear. (It’s the last scripted show remaining in the WGNA roster, and such programming will no longer be a focus under new leadership.) Look for Sony to shop this show elsewhere. It’s too good to stop now.
black-ish (9:30/8:30c, ABC): Expect laughter mixed with tears as the third season ends with the Johnsons gathering to welcome the newest addition to their family, a celebration tempered by complications discovered in Bow’s (Tracee Ellis Ross) pregnancy, just as Dre (Anthony Anderson) prepares to throw her a baby shower.
The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu): This riveting adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian classic gains in power by the episode. The relationship between Offred (Elisabeth Moss), her “Master” the Commander (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) becomes even more fraught with emotional complexity when the mistress comes up with a risky new scheme to try to get the Handmaid pregnant. All of this triggers memories of how, in the time before Gilead, our heroine met and wooed her future husband, a relationship not without significant complications of its own. “Every love story’s a tragedy if you wait long enough,” the Commander tells Offred. If he only knew.
Fargo (10/9c, FX): It’s best to always expect the unexpected in this thrillingly original series. We can’t give away much about this typically offbeat episode, but from the opening voice-over, in which each major character is associated with an instrument from an orchestra playing a very familiar tune, there’s a fiendish playfulness as the rivalry between the Stussy brothers (Ewan McGregor as Emmit and Ray) continues to escalate in odd and darkly comical ways, while Gloria (Carrie Coon) finally begins making connections among all of this Stussy mess, with the help of Winnie Lopez (Olivia Sandoval, a quirkily perky female officer from St. Cloud. In the sinister bigger picture, because there always is one, Varga (the intensely creepy David Thewlis) makes more moves in “broadening our partnership” with a cowed, confused Emmit. Where this all is heading is anyone’s guess, but it’s probably not going to end well for anyone with the last name Stussy.
Inside Wednesday TV: It’s time for the loved ones to reunite on CBS’s Survivor (8/7c), which usually makes for an emotional episode, although strategy is also in play when one contestant gets valuable advice from their visitor. … NBC’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (9/8c) targets a so-called spiritual healer (Stuart Townsend) whose client accuses him of assaulting her while under hypnosis. … It’s even uglier on NBC’s Chicago P.D. (10/9c) when Intelligence seeks a group calling itself Perv Hunters who are posting live videos of accused pedophiles being tortured and burned.
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Only "The Goldbergs" for me this evening - everything else, meh!
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Have you watched Speechless at all? Seems like if you like Goldbergs you'd like it too.
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Is there a way to shut off the polls (or quizzes or whatever) that are appearing on every page? They slow my computer down a lot.
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Off topic: Timeless was sadly canceled about an hour or so ago. So many of my new favorites were axed: Frequency, Time After Time and this.
Hope Once Upon a Time and Marvel Agents of SHIELD survive. All of these shows are based on time or different realms.
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I told you last week I thought it would be. Good news for me is that iZombie was just renewed despite mediocre ratings.
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I'm happy for fans when their shows are renewed.
Sadly ABC canceled Tim Allen's Last Man Standing. Ratings wree solid for Friday. Hope Dr.Ken survives despite lower ratings. Inlike these oldschool comedies on Friday
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I'm really surprised about Last Man. I think everyone was predicting its renewal.
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ABC comedies for me and I'll cap off the night with Designated Survivor.
Last night's Marvel Agents of SHIELD was absolutely the best episode of ANY tv show I have ever watched. Not just in the sci-fi genre either. It was filled with drama and spectacular action sequences. ABC must renew this gem of a show. Season 4 is just fantastic. Can't wait for the season (series?) finale next week!!
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ABC for me too then Fargo when it repeats after 11:00.
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I just watched last night's episode of The Middle. Now, that's the way to do a musical number! The singing was great, the dancing was great, and they incorporated it seamlessly into the show.
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Agreed! My friend (loves Marvel and DC like no other , watches EVERY movie ) is a Flash fan and told me that the Flash musical episode was insultingly bad and an insult to fans. Its his third favorite show of the genre: First is AoS, 2. Gotham 3. Flash, 4. LoT , 5, Arrow, and 6 Supergirl. He dropped Legion , but said that would be the very worst. Also likes the Netflix Marvel shows but they are very limited so didn't include.
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That's what I replied to you yesterday...that I hated the musical episode of The Flash. I think we all gave up on Legion.
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Legion was renewed, so I guess not enough gave up on it. The ratings were pretty decent for cable, around half of what a typical show in the genre garners on broadcast. Lots of new Marvel and DC shows ordered for next season on various networks and platforms like ABC, CW , FOX , Freeform (ABC owned) and Netflix. I'm sure others, I just can't keep all of these new shows straight.
ABC's Marvel's INHUMANS will likely have the biggest budget (Disney owns Marvel and ABC, so big $$). The first two episodes will debut on IMAX (more $$$ and they are investing) as a movie and then ABC will air them along with the regular episodes. Should be good considering ABC spends quite a lot on their programing especially Marvel.
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I haven't seen anything that's convinced to to watch any of those new shows yet. I kind of prefer to stick with the old, classic characters like Batman and Spiderman although I do like Legends. We'll see when they start debuting in the fall.
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