Worth Watching: ‘Twilight Zone’ Finale, Big Bird Lip-Syncs, NBA Finals
A selective critical checklist of notable Thursday TV:
The Twilight Zone (streaming on CBS All Access): The first season of Jordan Peele‘s successful reboot of the iconic supernatural anthology comes to a close with one of the most meta episodes in the entire series’ history. Forget about breaking fourth walls, this surreal tale about a sinister “Blurryman” freaking out a writer (Atlanta‘s Zazie Beetz) smashes the entire artificial edifice of a fictional series. To say more would be to give too much away, but there’s joy to be had as well in a Seth Rogen cameo as a star of the show-within-the-show. And even if you catch on — as I did — to the identity of the “Blurryman” a few moments before the eventual reveal, it’s still something a true Twilight Zone fan is likely to savor all the way until a second season arrives next year.
Lip Sync Battle (10/9c, Paramount Network): From childhood, we’ve all known that anything is better when Big Bird is involved. And so it will presumably be as the mock musical competition returns with Sesame Street‘s avian hero facing off against Jason Schwartzman, which doesn’t seem a fair fight at all. With the help of Elmo and Cookie Monster, Big Bird performs Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling,” while Schwartzman brings feeling to his rendition of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” And it’s pretty clear how Big Bird feels about playing with fire.
NBA Finals (9/8c, ABC): The Toronto Raptors upset Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference, and as they host the Golden State Warriors in their first-ever NBA Finals game, the underdog team faces a likely uphill climb, as they must overcome a 3-15 all-time record in first games. Plus, Golden State is a much more rested team, having enjoyed nine days off after beating Portland. Let the games begin, but not before things kick off, as they have for 12 years, with a special edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live: Game Night (8/7c, following the game on the West Coast), featuring scheduled guests Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.
Inside Thursday TV: The second season of Freeform’s Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger (8/7c) wraps with Tyrone (Aubrey Joseph) and Tandy (Olivia Holt) heading to the Loa dimension to stop the evil forces threatening New Orleans… NBC double-stacks remaining episodes of its sitcoms A.P. Bio (8/7c), which was recently canceled, and Abby’s (9/8), which is still awaiting word on renewal… VH1’s Emmy winning spec-drag-tacular RuPaul’s Drag Race (9/8c) will crown a lip-syncing queen in the season finale… A transcontinental challenge awaits Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Watson (Lucy Liu) in CBS’s Elementary (10/9c), because they’re stuck in London trying to investigate the shooting of a gravely wounded Capt. Gregson (Aidan Quinn) back in New York.
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Will try and watch A.P. Bio, Abby's and Elementary. But the fam wants to go to the movies to see Aladdin.
Anybody watch The Inbetween last night? I found it hauntingly intriguing.
There were a couple of reveals there that I didn't see coming.
Highly recommended (especially for summer).
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C
I haven't watched it yet.
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G
NBC just cancelled Enemy Within, Abby's and The Village.
I'll miss Enemy Within very much. Probably my top new show this season (The Passage also).
Abby's is an enjoyable light cute comedy. Oh well.
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C
Nothing unexpected there.
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Watched InBetween. Have questions: Are the older cop and the other older man gay partners, and did they raise the psychic girl?
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G
I think I need to watch it again. I was confused as well. Looks like her grandfather drugged her very often and molested her. But one time he gave her too much drugs and she died. What a morbid scenario.
The handsome black cop at the end kissed a girl/woman in the hospital bed. Do we have any idea about that backstory? Is that why he was transferred to this precinct which I think is very far from where he is from.
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I'm talking about the psychic girl...the star of the show...not the little ghost girl. The black cop was in LA. The one in the hospital bed must be why he really transferred to Seattle. I'm sure we'll learn more about that soon.
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G
Oh the psychic young woman!! I have to watch this again.
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I think the older cop did raise the psychic. We'll learn more about that soon I'm sure. Not sure about the other older man being a gay partner. Pilots are usually overstuffed with too many characters and storylines. As the show progresses and fleshes out it should start clearing up for us.
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I just thought there seemed to be a close bond between the two older men, and they didn't really make it clear who the other guy was.
The older cop did say something about being partially responsible for raising her, so I'm assuming he shared the duties with another person.
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The pilot intrigued me and I'm looking forward to more episodes this summer.
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R
Elementary saves the night for me.
This isn't the first time Sesame Street residents have squared off in karaoke-type competition. A while back Miss Piggy and Kermit were on Drop the Mic. (I never watch that show, but actually happened to stumble across that very episode.) While these stunts might be fun, they could also serve to taint the reputation of a beloved children's show. Not to mention the fact that I've seen these characters hawking cars and SUVs. Just shows what happens when Disney gets involved. >:(
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Thank goodness for The CW! I've got iZombie and In the Dark to watch! Also, 2 new episodes of the cancelled AP Bio are on!
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