Stephen King Bonanza With ‘Mr. Mercedes,’ ‘Castle Rock,’ Plus ‘Yellowstone’ & ‘Queen Sugar’ Finales
A critical checklist of notable Wednesday TV:
Mr. Mercedes (10/9c, AT&T Audience Network): Last summer’s best Stephen King series returns for a second round, skipping to the third book of the Bill Hodges trilogy. Which means the retired detective (Brendan Gleeson) is once again obsessed with psycho killer Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway), currently deep in a coma but still haunting Bill’s nightmares. Thanks to a mad-science experiment by a brain surgeon (Booardwalk Empire‘s Jack Huston), Brady will soon be able to wreak psychic havoc without even having to leave his bed. Mortality is a major theme this season, so take bets now on who’ll survive this macabre story.
Castle Rock (streaming on Hulu): If you’ve been waiting patiently for the summer’s other Stephen King-inspired series to shift into high spooky gear, this week’s episode delivers—anchored by a tremendous performance from Sissy Spacek (the original Carrie) as befuddled Ruth Deaver. Experiencing “confusion in time and space,” Ruth wanders in and out of troubling memories during a terrifying dark night of the soul, further disoriented by the lurking presence of the mysterious John Doe “kid” (Bill Skarsgård). If you end the hour wondering what you (and Ruth) just went through, Castle Rock has done its job.
The Sinner (10/9c, USA): Possibly the night’s creepiest hour is the fourth chapter in this unnerving mystery anthology. As Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman) continues to pry into the secrets of the Mosswood Grove cult, his investigation leads to a psychiatric facility that hits close to home and a fateful walk in the woods. “Are you playing games with me?” he asks enigmatic cult leader Vera (the electrifying Carrie Coon). Does he need to ask?
Finales: Paramount Network’s Yellowstone (10/9c) closes the first season of the modern Western saga with battle lines drawn within the Dutton family. In other words, dirty business as usual… OWN’s Queen Sugar (10/9c) expands its third-season finale to 90 minutes to celebrate Aunt Violet’s (Tina Lifford) big day with Hollywood (Omar J. Dorsey). In other family news, a prison protest triggers a revelation from young Micah (Nicholas Ashe) that helps Nova (Rutina Wesley) make a decision about her unpublished book.
Inside Wednesday TV: ABC partners with People Magazine for a two-night special telling The Story of the Royals (9/8c) — the British royals, naturally — with a focus on the modernization of the monarchy with the offspring of Princess Diana and Prince Charles… NBC’s World of Dance (9/9c) moves into the first round of “The Cut” phase, with only the top three scorers in each division moving on. Guest mentors include Julianne Hough, working with brother Derek to counsel the Upper division, while Savion Glover teams with Jennifer Lopez to coach the Junior Team contestants… Community‘s Danny Pudi stars in the latest installment of truTV’s darkly whimsical Bobcat Goldthwait’s Misfits & Monsters (10/9c), as a scientist whose breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence might end the world instead of saving it.
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So it's just been announced that "The Big Bang Theory" will end production after the next season-the 12th-is over. It's now the longest running multi-cam, live audience sitcom without any noticeable change in cast members (both Mayim and Melissa did not replace anybody when they came later). So as Linda Richmond on the "Coffee Talk" sketch on "Saturday Night Live" would say, "Discuss!"
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What can I say? I've watched it since the very first show, and I don't think I've ever missed an episode. I'll miss it, but I realize it's got to end sometime.
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TBBT is not my favorite show, but even though I don't watch it regularly, I do usually keep up with it via reruns. It's an okay show, and I'm glad that they do seem to do some things 'right,' as in 1) they sometimes change up which characters spend time together, and 2) there are no gender stereotypes on this show. Sure, in early seasons, Penny was sort of a negative female stereotype, but thankfully they've had her move away from that. I think one of the show's most important points is that it brought "nerds" and brains to the forefront and put them in the public consciousness as real people.
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Tonight's AGT Results Show...
I'm thinkin' that...the Cats, the Belly Slappers and the Strange Girl...have gotta' move on to the next level...
(Has anyone figured out what happened last night...when the Strange Girl was climbing the wall (backwards!) (to escape from the other 20 Strange Girls chasing her)...and it ABRUPTLY cut to a commercial...then returned to her with Tyra (not) talking to the judges.
Was it one of the (many) production glitches...or was part of the act CENSURED???)
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It was so abrupt it's hard to tell. I don't think they were aware of it in the theater or Tyra would have mentioned something about it.
I couldn't figure out why there were no judges comments about it when they came back either unless they made their comments while the network was running commercials...and again, didn't know what happened.
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Since they didn't broadcast her WHOLE act for voting...I'd think it would only be fair the give the Strange Girl an "automatic pass" on to the next round...
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If we learned one thing this week, it's that you are terrible at making predictions! None of your picks made it! Better luck next time!
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For me it's Burden of Truth, the only new thing. I usually end up rewatching SEAL Team episodes on Wednesdays.
I wonder why ABC is doing their Royal thing now? I would have thought it's the kind of thing that would have been very popular back in May or June, or whenever the royal wedding took place. But since a lot of that hype has died down, late August seems an odd time for this type of how. Almost like the network is 'burning it off."
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Something to fill up the space between their game shows and reruns. It's probably just a lot of things that were filmed before the wedding thrown together to make a 2 hour "special."
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Tonight it's Got Talent, MasterChef (x2), Born This Way (x2), Suits, The Sinner, and Misfits & Monsters for me.
I might take another look at Raising Tourette's. Last week was interesting, but I don't really see it going anywhere.
What's happened to everyone? Fred hasn't posted anywhere in 5 days, and Unicorn hasn't posted in over a week!
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Yeah, I posted some comments yesterday about Monday's episode of Salvation--Fred's favorite summer show--and he didn't respond. I hope all is OK.
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By the way, how did 100 Code end up? Even when I still watched, the focus of the investigation had changed from the original killer to the person who ran that fantasy website. Did that get resolved, or is there enough mystery left for a second season?
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It didn't get resolved. The mystery guy who ran the fantasy website remained anonymous in the last scene. Maybe since Michael Nyqvist died in 2017, there appear to be no plans for a second season.
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Good to know you're ok. I've lost people online before, and it tends to worry me (if I like them hehe).
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Oh, I didn't realize that Nyqvist had died. According to imdb, the original series was filmed in 2015, and Nyqvist appeared in a number of other projects after that.
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I don't think it really matters anymore, but SPOILERS:
They found and did away with the guys who were committing the recent murders, but as Sophie said, they didn't find out who the big bad guy behind it all was.
I don't know if you watched long enough to see the cop's daughter get romantically involved with the younger cop he asked to watch her, but the young cop turned out to be responsible for taking nude pics of younger girls and posting them online. They caught him too.
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Some of them were things he'd filmed before 100 Code but didn't get released until after it originally aired.
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He hasn't posted to any of the other sites he's usually on either.
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Yeah, I saw the daughter and the young cop. I knew he was a creep from the get-go, when he first met her. And if I recall correctly, I think the daughter even knew he was stalking/photographing her, which makes it even creepier that she went along with him. At first she seemed like a pretty smart young woman, but then she seemed to lose all her common sense. But then, teenagers can be really stupid at times.
I hope Fred returns soon and all is well......
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He had her expose herself in her bedroom window, but she wasn't even sure he could see her let alone be taking pictures of her.
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Thanks for noticing, but my father was very sick and passed, so no time for posting or watching anything lately.
Only good things ahead......
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Thank you for your concern. My dad was very sick and passed. So no time for posting or watching. Will try and catch up with Salvation and my other shows this weekend.
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Sorry for your loss. Hope you are ok!
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Are there any others left?
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I saw a post of yours on the "A Trial Concludes" article yesterday, and then, it disappeared. Know what happened?
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All ok! That surprise CBS announcement that its biggest show Big Bang will be ending after next season will most definitely hurt them rating wise.
My prediction (kind of obvious) is that CBS will order a spin-off of sorts. It's just too big of a hit to just end like that. Even ABC ordered a spin-off for the moderate hit The Middle .
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Sorry for your loss. :'( TV will still be here when you're ready. Most shows are available on network websites (The CW, CBS, etc.)
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They already have Young Sheldon, or doesn't that count?
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They hardly ever fix anything. Usually, things get tagged as spam for having a URL or an email address in them. Don't worry about it.
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Young Sheldon is so very different than Big Bang. I was thinking about CBS continuing the original show with whomever wants to be involved and adding new characters. Or spinning off a character or two from the original show into a new one. So many great sitcoms in the past spawned off great spin-offs. I'll spare you my list.
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Other than Salvation, I have Take Two, The Outpost, Burden of Truth and Carter.
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From "All in the Family"-"Maude"
"The Jeffersons"
From "Happy Days"-"Laverne & Shirley"
"Mork & Mindy"
That's all I can name right now.
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But...in the past, they were relatively minor characters working for relatively small salaries. Every regular character on Big Bang except for Stuart is making nearly one million dollars an episode. It would be way too expensive to try to get any of them to do a spinoff that might not be successful.
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I think the cost would be prohibitive. See my reply today to Fred.
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Here are some more:
Different Strokes- Facts of Life
The Cosby Show- Different World
Golden Girls - Empty Nest
Mary Tyler Moore- Rhoda
Maude- Good Times
All in the Family spun off Maude which led to Good Times. That's a rarity!
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Frasier.
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Don't know how I missed that one! Joey springs to mind now . But it was a disappointment I think Joey was the only Friends spin-off. Now that was a very costly sitcom. Each in the main cast was being paid a record (at the time) amount of money. I can't recall how much but it was around a million an episode toward the end of the run.
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