What’s On: ‘Longmire’ final bow, Jon Stewart’s ‘Night of Too Many Stars,’ ‘Idol’ auditions on ‘American Music Awards’
A critical checklist of notable weekend TV:
Longmire (Friday, Netflix): One last roundup, at least for now, for Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor) and his crew in the sixth and final season of the contemporary Western mystery drama based on the novels of Craig Johnson. Rescued from cancellation by A&E after its third season, the series has become a fan favorite—and thankfully, Netflix doesn’t care about demographics as long as people are watching. (See our interview with Taylor, who holds out hope for Longmire movies, which would be an excellent way to keep the stories flowing. Here’s hoping.)
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (Friday, 8/7c, The CW): Living up to its billing by confronting its title character’s mental illness with unflinching boldness, the musical/dark comedy almost dares you at times to keep watching. But even at her lowest, Rachel Bloom can still belt out a number—this time about a new diagnosis she and her loyal friends will have to cope with in the only way they know how: through song, twisted humor and compassion. Here’s to them all being able to sing happier tunes soon.
Night of Too Many Stars (Saturday, 8/7c, HBO): Recalling the glory days of all-star Comic Relief benefits, Jon Stewart hosts a night of comedy-heavy fund-raising for autism programs from Madison Square Garden. Among the impressive roster: fellow Daily Show grads Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, plus Chris Tock, Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman, Ben Stiller and more. Cut from the guest list for obvious reasons: Louis C.K.
2017 American Music Awards (Sunday, 8/7c, ABC): The American Idol reboot hype kicks into high gear during the annual awards fest, when audition videos of singers who just missed the cut by the new judges (Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, Luke Bryan) will air throughout the ceremony. (Viewers’ top pick will get a Golden Ticket to Hollywood.) Tracee Ellis Ross hosts, her mom Diana Ross performs and gets a lifetime achievement award, and headliners include P!nk, Kelly Clarkson, Demi Lovato and Christina Aguilera in a tribute to Whitney Houston and the 25th anniversary (WHAT??) of The Bodyguard.
The Problem With Apu (Sunday, 10/9c, truTV): The son of Indian immigrants, stand-up comedian Hari Kondabolu loves The Simpsons, but despises the stereotypical Apu, the ironically obsequious convenience-store owner voiced by the white Hank Azaria. This probing docu-comedy special explores Kondabulu’s feelings about the character and its pervasive influence on South Asian representation in popular culture. He talks to fellow South Asian actors and comedians who share his feelings—Designated Survivor’s Kal Penn can’t abide The Simpsons because of Apu—and grills comedian/Simpsons writer Dana Gould, which is as close as he gets to the source of his frustration. The hour also follows his earnest attempts to engage Azaria in a conversation about a character he considers the equivalent of minstrel-show humor. (Whoopi Goldberg, who owns a kitschy collection of what she calls negro-bilia, has to agree.)
Inside Weekend TV: Fox’s The Exorcist (Friday, 9/8c) has reached a terrifying crescendo, with Father Tomas (Alfonso Herrera) and Marcus (Ben Daniels) working their mystical magic on the demon that has terrorized the island for too long. … PBS’s Great Performances continues its run of highlights from last season on Broadway with Paula Vogel’s Tony-winning Indecent (9/8c, check local listings at pbs.org), a captivating play directed with flair by Rebecca Taichman, about a controversial Jewish play that led to a 1920s obscenity trial. … This month’s deluge of Netflix premieres includes the inevitable Marvel offering: the glum and violent The Punisher (Friday), starring The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal. … SundanceTV revisits the crimes immortalized in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood in the two-part docu-series Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders (Saturday and Sunday, 9/8c). … Alana Boden stars in Lifetime’s I Am Elizabeth Smart (Saturday, 8/7c) as the 14-year-old abductee subjected to months of abuse by her captors (Skeet Ulrich, Dierdre Lovejoy) before escaping. The real Elizabeth Smart narrates this harrowing history. … CBS’s NCIS: LA (Sunday, 9:30/8:30c; 9 PT) marks its 200th episode by bringing back John M. Jackson as Admiral Chegwidden and Pamela Reed as Deeks’ mother, Roberta. … The musical chairs continue on CBS’s Madam Secretary (Sunday, 10:30/9:30c, 10 PT), when Grey’s Anatomy’s Sara Ramirez joins the cast as political strategist Kat Sandoval. … TBS’s aggressively hip dark comedy Search Party (Sunday, 10/9c) is back for a second season, airing weekly with back-to-back episodes. Now that the self-absorbed millennials have found the missing-but-not-really Chantal (Clare McNulty), there’s the pesky issue of an accidental murder to cover up.
Conversation16 Comments
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O
The Night of Too Many Stars is for a great cause! It used to air on Comedy Central and was always really funny! There is a typo in the write-up - Chris ROCK will be there, not Chris Tock.
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R
CBS for me, both Friday and Sunday nights. Not sure we need Sarah Ramirez joining the cast of Madam Secretary--between this show and Designated Survivor there have been a number of cast comings and goings. 😮
In the good news / bad news department... Skeet Ulrich back on TV. YAY! But he's playing a perverted kidnapper. BOOO! Well, I wasn't going to watch that Elizabeth Smart special anyway, so I'll just remember Skeet as he was in Jericho. *sigh* 😉
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C
Is he the one who plays that guy who looks like Jesus? I keep seeing commercials for that. No interest in watching it here either.
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R
Yes, apparently Skeet IS that long-haired, bearded guy. I had to google his name and the movie title to see, though, as I haven't seen any trailers for it. I haven't watched anything on Lifetime in probably a decade. (Except maybe one of those holiday movies, but I don't recall. 😉 )
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C
I don't watch much on Lifetime (although I did watch the finale of Project Runway), but I watch quite a bit on A&E and History, and they're all part of A&E Networks and show ads for each other's programs.
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R
Ooh, you're right about those networks being "sister channels" and advertised on one or the other. I watch the Leah Remini/Scientology thing on A&E (only thing I watch there), and I've seen ads about Elizabeth Smart, but A) I didn't pay attention to what channel it was on, since I tend to surf during commercials, so therefore B) I didn't know it was the same docu-drama or same channel, or whatever. After all, there were about ten different Princess Diana specials on different networks a few months ago, so I assumed (ha, yeah, I know!) there could be more than one Elizabeth Smart special.
In any case, they'll have to do without yours and my eyeballs on this one. 🙂
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C
I didn't watch all those Diana specials either. I knew how the story ended, so I didn't feel any need to watch all the gory details over and over again.
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C
Getting ready to fire up Netflix and view the final sixth season of "Longmire" today. LOVED reading all of the current novels, and have really enjoyed the majority of the Longmire TV series. Very puzzled over the fifth season, hopefully, the sixth season will help make sense over the fifth season. And it's also the season finale of "Poldark" on PBS this Sunday. Excellent TV series.
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C
I'm a couple of episodes behind on Poldark. I'm going to try to catch up this weekend. So far, this season has seemed rather depressing to me. Do you watch the Durrells and The Collection too? I'm caught up on the Durrells and several episodes behind on The Collection.
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C
I did watch the first two episodes of the Durrells, and it wasn't my cup of tea. I had absolutely no interest in The Collection at all. I'm totally NOT interested in the fashion industry at all. Now, my maternal grandmother would have loved it.
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C
I think the Durrells is amusing enough to keep watching. I'm not sure about The Collection. It's not very interesting to me either, but I thought I'd give it a try since it's PBS.
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G
Exciting weekend for me! ABC's Once Upon a Time airs a special 2-hour broadcast tonight. Now that Marvel's INHUMNAS aired its finale, ABC needed to fill another hour until Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D returns for season 5 in a couple of weeks.
CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (a bit depressing but still funny) and FOX's Exorcist (extremely scary this season) , I'll watch these later on via DVR.
On Sunday ABC's AMAs . Can't wait to see living legend Diana Ross perform live. Happy to see she still is active at her advanced age.
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C
I'm glad you're happy. You couldn't have named more shows I don't watch if you tried. LOL
Are you saying Diana Ross is old? Can she still sing like she used to? I haven't heard her in years.
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G
Diana is said to be over 70. My mom met her in the 60's at one of the Supreme shows in Brooklyn, She actually was invited in Diana's car (with other Supremes) and they were going to a post show party. But mom had a curfew and had to come home early. Mom says Diana was by far the sweetest of all the members. Flo was nasty. Mary was fine. Mom swears that Diana is older than she claims. Because when she met her Diana was quite a bit older than my mom.
Not sure if she still has that beautiful voice, but I hope she sings ok.
Her contemporaries , Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick are still performing too. I read these legends don't make a nickel from their hit recordings of the 60's. No residuals whatsoever. So they are forced to perform . Sad.
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G
Hahahaha! We do watch some of the same shows though. Designated Survivor , The Good Doctor, The Gifted (not sure I will stick with this one) spring to my mind. But , I'll stop here before its too long of a list. Lol
Have a good weekend!
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C
Wiki says Diana is 73, and that sounds about right. That would make her 20 when The Supremes had their first hit.
Aretha made a lot of money over her career and squandered/mismanaged it. She was constantly in the news here for owing back taxes and facing possible foreclosures on her homes. And Warwick was said to owe $10 million in back taxes at one time. True, they didn't earn much from their earliest hits, but they more than made up for it later.
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