What’s On: ‘Girlfriends’ on Acorn, HBO’s Avett Brothers documentary, ‘Brave’ finale
A selective critical checklist of notable Monday TV:
Girlfriends (streaming on Acorn TV): The Golden Girls had it easy compared to the triumvirate of female buddies of a certain age in this darkly comic new British melodrama from prolific producer Kay Mellor. The cast is exceptional, even when the plotting goes off the rails. Downton Abbey’s marvelous Phyllis Logan (formerly Mrs. Hughes) is the initial focal point as frazzled and newly widowed Linda, whose husband goes missing on an anniversary cruise, and she’s in for rough times as she realizes the extent of her precarious situation. Her best friends are no picnic, either: Mousy Gail (poignant Zoë Wanamaker) is trying to salvage a marriage on the brink of divorce while dealing with an aging mum and a dissolute son who’s an ex-con/single-father; and the ridiculous Sue (Miranda Richardson, camping it up) is a vain mess of a bridal-mag editor whose life is upended on a significant birthday whose number she refuses to speak aloud. This will be catnip for those who’ve been pining for the next Desperate Housewives or, more appropriately, the original British Mistresses (this being the next generation).
May It Last: A Portrait of the Avett Brothers (8/7c, HBO): Judd Apatow co-directs with Michael Bonfiglio an affectionate, compassionate documentary portrait of the popular North Carolina folk band fronted by brothers Scott and Seth Avett. With bass player Bob Crawford, the brothers open up about their partnership and lives as they collaborate on the 2016 album True Sadness.
The Brave (10/9c, NBC): Bringing back happier memories of Men in Trees, the romantic comedy on which Anne Heche and James Tupper famously met, there’s no love lost when the acting couple reunites in the season finale. Deputy Director Patricia Campbell (Heche) has left the control room to join the team in the field in Turkey, where rogue op Alex Hoffman (Tupper) is being held. Her goal is to crack his tough shell long enough to get the intel necessary to track down the kidnapped teenage computer whiz who (shades of War Games) has figured out how to hack nuclear subs. However the mission turns out, The Brave will be in limbo for a while, waiting to hear about renewal. The prospects are even grimmer for The CW’s under-the-radar military drama Valor (9/8c), which also wraps its first season.
Inside Monday TV: TNT’s The Alienist (9/8c) walks on the very dark side of turn-of-last-century Old New York in the second episode, as the ambitious Sara Howard (Dakota Fanning) takes matters into her own hands to explore hidden police files, and illustrator John Moore (Luke Evans) goes undercover into dens of inequity at his peril. … You’d think they’d develop a thicker skin working around fried dough, but on CBS’s Superior Donuts (9/8c), Franco (Jermaine Fowler) is rattled when he gets a bad grade for his initial art-school project, and Arthur (Judd Hirsch) is even more roiled when he discovers someone gave the coffee he serves a negative review online. Wait, Arthur is aware of the Internet? … Warren Christie (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce) begins a guest arc on Fox’s The Resident (9/8c) as an Army surgeon buddy of Conrad’s (Matt Czuchry). But their reunion is short-lived when Conrad once again takes on the evil money-grubbing hospital, with the help of Nic (Emily VanCamp), over the fate of an uninsured and undocumented patient.
Miranda Richardson
Zoë Wanamaker
Phyllis Logan
Matthew Lewis
Philip Cumbus
Daisy Head
Anthony Head
Adrian Rawlins
Valerie Lilley
Chris Fountain
Wendy Craig
Dave Hill
Steve Evets
Paula Wilcox
Chlöe Hart
Elena Saurel
Thaila Zucchi
Nav Sidhu
Stewart Scudamore
Joel Montague
Katherine Pearce
Mark Chatterton
Laura Ainsworth
Eleanor Booth
Bethan Daniels
Olivia Rooks
Rosie Perry
Kobe Jerome
⨁Full Cast & Crew
Conversation9 Comments
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I'll give The Alienist another view, other than that, I'll re-watch Jason Momoa's 2011 flick, "Conan the Barbarian" on Syfy, and DVR "It Happened One Night," on TCM; "Jackie Brown," on the El Rey Network and "Mission Impossible" on STARZ. (All four movies air at the same time. Sigh.)
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Lucifer, Alienist, and Scorpion for me.
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Did you watch the PBS thing about Queen Elizabeth's Spies? I thought it was pretty good. Kind of surprising that even 500 years ago people were using secret codes to communicate. Especially amazing since so few people knew how to read back then. Also interesting that the Catholic Church (questionable though it might have been) gave 'permission' for regicide. Fun fact: similar thing happened during the 1930s, when the official Catholic Church (i.e., the pope) sanctioned the assassination of Hitler.
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I liked it especially because I learned a lot of things I didn't know before. Too often, I watch those shows thinking "I knew that" throughout. However, it doesn't surprise me to learn of the church sanctioning assassination. The popes were behind all sorts of nefarious activities through the centuries in order to assure their power and the power of the church.
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Yeah, the Catholic Church hasn't always been known for being above-board and respectable. Hopefully the last century or so has been an improvement in many ways. (except for hte obvious, of course)
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Yeah...too busy covering up molestations and paying off officials to keep the priests out of prison.
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I'll tune in for Kevin Can Wait and the Brave season (possibly series) finale. I may watch Man With a Plan if it isn't a repeat.
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I'll watch Supergirl and The Alienist.
The Avett Brothers are from my general area, and we have a local radio personality who goes all fangirl on them-- I think he thinks he 'discovered' the Avett Brothers or something.. ANyway, I'm sure this aging radio guy is wetting himself in excitement for this special.
Did people watch Bellevue last week? WGN aired it again a few times over the weekend. I actually got to see the beginning of it, thought maybe I'd give it a fair shot, but after 10 minutes I changed the channel. It's not going to be for me. I know we discussed the existence of cuss-words in primetime when discussing Grown-ish (they had the sh** word a few times), but the first few minutes of Bellevue featured the f-word. Not just once, or even twice, but five or six times. The entire scene seemed completely gratuitous and intentionally shocking.
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As I said last week, I didn't find the previews of Bellevue interesting enough to watch it.
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