Worth Watching: ‘Good Fight’ Moves to CBS, Nickelodeon Revives ‘All That,’ New Season of ‘Endeavour’
A selective critical checklist of notable weekend TV:
The Good Fight (Sunday, 9/8c, CBS): It’s impossible to calculate how many times I’ve heard people complain about CBS putting its Good Wife spinoff behind the paywall of its CBS All Access streaming service. Now the series is finally getting the exposure it deserves, as the first season of the politically charged and dynamically entertaining legal drama makes its broadcast debut — edited for language and sexual content, naturally. Christine Baranski reprises her Emmy-nominated role of Diane Lockhart, who as the series begins is forced out of her old firm after losing her fortune in a Madoff-like scheme. With protégée Maia Rendall (Rose Leslie), whose family connection to the scandal has also derailed her career, Diane joins a minority-owned firm where Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) is a rising star.
All That (Saturday, 8:30/7:30c, Nickelodeon): If you’re of a certain generation, you’ll have fond memories of the kids’ comedy-variety show that aired from 1994 to 2005, helping launch the careers of Saturday Night Live‘s Kenan Thompson and partner in comedy Kel Mitchell, both executive producers of a revival with an all-new youthful cast. (Mitchell and fellow original cast members Lori Beth Denberg and Josh Server appear in the opener.) The Jonas Brothers stop by to perform and help kick things off.
Tempting Fate (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): The network’s “Book to Screen” initiative continues with the first of three TV-movie adaptations of Jane Green best-sellers, airing on consecutive Saturdays. Fate stars Alyssa Milano as a happily married mother of two who risks her seemingly perfect marriage to Elliott (Steve Kazee) when she succumbs to the allure of a younger man (Zane Holtz). Grey’s Anatomy‘s Kim Raver co-directs with exec producer Manu Boyer.
Endeavour (Sunday, 9/8c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org): The Inspector Morse prequel returns for a sixth season on Masterpiece Mystery, now set in 1969, with DS Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) sporting a period-appropriate mustache as the team deals with the Oxford City Police’s merging with the Thames Valley Constabulary. In the first 90-minute episode, Morse returns to Oxford to investigate a murder, questioning the guilt of the prime suspect.
City on a Hill (Sunday, 9/8c, Showtime): Kevin Bacon has a ball playing a swaggering jerk of a crooked FBI agent in an otherwise unexceptional crime drama set in 1990s Boston. He forms an unlikely odd-couple partnership with a straight-arrow ADA (Aldis Hodge) as they team to take down a working-class crew of armored-truck robbers. The clichés on both sides of the law are staggering.
Big Little Lies (Sunday, 9/8c, HBO): You’re better off with the eventful second episode of Lies’ new season, during which things quickly fall apart in the domestic worlds of Renata (Laura Dern), when husband Gordon (Jeffrey Nordling) encounters a legal hurdle, and Madeline (Reese Witherspoon), when husband Ed (Adam Scott) becomes privy to her omissions and deceptions. While Celeste (Nicole Kidman) tries opening up to mother-in-law Mary Louise (Meryl Streep) about the true nature of her dead son, Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz) is unnerved by the arrival of her own hypercritical mom, Elizabeth (Crystal Fox).
Inside Weekend TV: If you missed it the first time around, Bravo repeats its addictive fact-based romantic thriller Dirty John in an eight-episode marathon (starts Saturday, 9 am/8c), bookended by the documentary Dirty John, The Dirty Truth at 7 am/6c and again at 5 pm/4c. Connie Britton stars as a divorcee who falls for a dangerous con man (Eric Bana). It’s more enjoyable than it has any right to be… There’s a new space race on TV, as multiple channels produce series and specials to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. New on Smithsonian Channel: the six-part Apollo’s Moon Shot (Sunday, 8/7c), which tells the story of the Apollo 11 mission through archival film and access to unique artifacts… Zendaya stars as an unhappily rebellious and drug-abusing teen surrounded by even more unpleasant peers in HBO’s graphic Euphoria (Sunday, 10/9c), which seems to consider itself daring while only managing to be unbearably dull.
