Worth Watching: New Faces on ‘Talent’ and ‘Songland,’ ‘Animal Kingdom’ Returns, ‘Fosse/Verdon’ Finale
A selective critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:
America’s Got Talent (8/7c, NBC): The format’s the same, but the faces keep changing — and in Season 14, a new host (Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s Terry Crews, fresh from the Champions spinoff) joins two new judges: actress Gabrielle Union and Dancing with the Stars veteran Julianne Hough (whose brother Derek holds court on the network’s World of Dance), replacing Mel B and Heidi Klum. Thankfully, the focus remains mostly on a new parade of acts: some outrageous, some inspiring, all hoping to make it to the end to vie for that $1 million prize.
Followed by the premiere of NBC’s aspirational Songland (10/9c), an unusually compelling competition in which fledgling songwriters — who also have the ability to perform their creations with gusto — pitch their songs to three seasoned producers and a superstar performer, starting with John Legend. It’s a fascinating window on the collaborative process, as the producers (Ryan Tedder, Ester Dean, Shane McAnally) and Legend almost instantly start spit-balling ideas, lyrics and truly constructive criticism after a first listen, while the songwriters look on in wonder. Three of four hopefuls move on to a round in which they work closely with the producers to reshape the song, sometimes drastically, into something Legend might actually record. The song he picks becomes available for download the same night.
Animal Kingdom (9/8c, TNT): Larceny is thicker than blood as the fourth season of the crime-family saga returns with mama bear Smurf (Ellen Barkin) again calling the shots for her turbulent tribe. Even she admits she has her hands full with the emotional powderkeg that is her eldest son, Pope (Shawn Hatosy), who tests a new outlet for his rage issues. And grandson J (Finn Cole) is adjusting to his new life and identity outside the Cody compound. But it wouldn’t be Animal Kingdom if there wasn’t at least one risky robbery. Welcome back, you crooks.
Running With Beto (8/7, HBO): He may not have won his 2018 race to unseat Ted Cruz from the U.S. Senate, but there’s little doubt that El Paso congressman Beto O’Rourke made a name for himself during his unorthodox campaign — which now has become an underdog run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Filmmaker David Modigliani was embedded for a year in O’Rourke’s county-by-county Texas campaign for this intimate documentary, which looks at the toll such an exhaustive process has on a candidate, his family and his deeply committed staff.
Fosse/Verdon (10/9c, FX): In the finale of this remarkable show-biz biographical series, Bob Fosse (Sam Rockwell) decides to tell his own story on film — which would be 1979’s unforgettable, and unsparing, Oscar-winning (though not for Fosse) All That Jazz. The movie eerily foreshadows Fosse’s own death in 1987 at 60, and will make a fascinating comparison study with this series, which at long last gives Gwen Verdon (Michelle Williams) her due.
Inside Tuesday TV: Entertainment legends Carl and Rob Reiner sit for The Big Interview with Dan Rather (8/7c, AXS TV), sharing show biz stories and, as they often do on Twitter, reflecting on the state of the world and politics… A&E’s Biography continues a series on famous comedians with the two hour Jeff Dunham: Talking Heads (8/7c), profiling the popular ventriloquist, followed by Jeff Foxworthy: Stand-Up Guy (10/9c), bringing the “redneck” satirist together with colleagues Kathleen Madigan, Ron White and Larry the Cable Guy to talk about his life in comedy… ESPN’s 30 for 30 series uses mostly archival footage to tell the story of auto racing pioneer Janet Guthrie, the first female racer to quality for and compete in the Indianapolis and Daytona 500, in the documentary Qualified (9/8c)… ABC’s series looking back at 1969 (10/9c) ends with “Fortunate Sons,” an hour that explores the culture and media wars that illuminated a generation gap ignited by controversy over the Vietnam War and the My Lai massacre scandal… PBS’s Frontline (10/9c, check local listings at pbs.org) embeds with a Phoenix police unit to investigate “Sex Trafficking in America.”
Conversation17 Comments
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O
A treasure trove of crud - pass!!
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P
I\'ll probably check out Songland. The fashion in which so much of today\'s pop music is crafted is kind-of alien to me but I\'m still curious about it.
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R
Blood and Treasure is the only new thing I\'m watching tonight.
Speaking of that sort of treasure-seeking adventure stuff, does anyone remember a show from the last \'90s called Relic Hunter? I\'ve been watching a few episodes lately on a cable channel. It stars Tia Carrere (sp?) as a sort of female Indiana Jones, an antiquities professor who goes globe-trotting in search of various historical artifacts. I had never heard of the show before... I guess it only aired in syndication back in the day, so who knows when--or even if--it aired in my area.
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G
That show sounds vaguely familiar. Probably aired around the same time as Hercules and Xena (more popular syndicated adventure favorites).
My standards for entertainment decline after the regular season, so my expectations are super low. That method of evaluating summer shows worked great in previous summers.
This summer I\'m looking forward to:
CW\'s Burden of Truth
CW\'s The Outpost
NBC\'s The Inbetween
Netflix\'s Designated Survivor
plus ABC\'s and CBS\'s current Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. / Blood & Treasure respectively
6 shows. But I do already miss CBS\'s fantastic , super underrated Salvation.
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P
I never saw Relic Hunter but the name, lead, and premise sure do seem like someone was riffing closely on Tomb Raider (which I\'ve likewise never played or watched, so I\'m just going on general cultural awareness here).
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R
Actually, Relic Hunter came before Tomb Raider. Well, before the movie, at least. Relic Hunter lasted 3 seasons, according to imdb, and after that ended (or right around the same time) there was another short-lived show with a similar concept, called Adventure, Inc.
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R
Both The Outpost and Burden of Truth seemed like they were late-summer shows, weren\'t they? It doesn\'t seem like they were on all that long ago.
And what about Carter? Season 2 should be appearing sometime in the next few months, I think. It\'s going to be WGN for sure, but maybe another channel (Bravo?) as well. The articles I\'ve seen about it haven\'t been very specific.
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G
The Outpost later in the summer, but Burden of Truth premiere very shortly. Both were highly watchable last summer.
I absolutely adored Carter season 1! Thank you for reminding me about that hidden treasure. Unfortunately I don\'t have access to WGN. Not sure if I have Bravo, don\'t think I ever watched anything on that channel.
Last summer I had CMT\'s Nashville (series has ended). I\'ll miss that one also.
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R
You may be able to watch Carter on the WGN website. Looks like their current show Gone is available on there.
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G
My TV GUIDE magazine shows Burden of Truth season 2 starting up on Sunday June 2.
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R
Thanks for the heads-up! :-)
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G
If you don\'t subscribe to Netflix just ask a friend or close relative for their passcode. This way you can watch Designated Survivor season 3.
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C
Back to crazy Tuesdays again! MasterChef Jr., Animal Kingdom, America\'s Got Talent, the finale of Fosse/Verdon, and 2 new episodes of The Hot Zone!
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G
Dropping CBS\'s Blood & Treasure? I\'ll give it another shot tonight.
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C
I\'ve just got too much to watch, and it didn\'t impress me that much.
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G
It didn\'t impress me that much either, but I try and give new shows some time to improve ( at least a few episodes ) until I drop them.
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C
I\'ve got 7.5 hours of prime time shows plus another 2 hours of reality shows I\'ll probably watch if I\'m awake later. I don\'t have time to give a show time to improve.
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