Worth Watching: The Final ‘Pieces,’ Night 2 of Democratic Debates, 10 Years of ‘Watch What Happens’
A selective critical checklist of notable Thursday TV:
Life in Pieces (9/8c, CBS): Our time with the Shorts has come to an end after four seasons, too short a time for the family sitcom’s fans. The series closes with back-to-back episodes, including a family trip to the Bahamas with Grandpa Mort (Paul Dooley) in the first hour. In the series finale, which was never intended as such, turning points include Tim (Dan Bakkedahl) and Heather (Betsy Brandt) considering adding another baby to the family, Jen (Zoe Lister-Jones) and Greg (Colin Hanks) looking for a new house, and Matt (Thomas Sadoski) mulling the biggest life change of all after getting a job offer in Germany.
2020 Democratic Presidential Primary Debate (9/8c, NBC, MSNBC, Telemundo): Four of the five top-polling Democratic candidates for the presidential debate are on the ticket for the second night, with former veep Joe Biden squaring off against Vermont Sen. (and 2016 runner-up) Bernie Sanders, California Sen. Kamala Harris and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Hoping to get a word in edgewise are Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, California Rep. Eric Swalwell and two upstarts with no elected office: author/activist Marianne Williamson and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. Once again, the late-night comedians will go live (excepting ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and CBS’s James Corden, both off for the week).
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen (10/9c, Bravo): Time flies when you’re dishing with your besties, and somehow we’ve come to the 10th anniversary of Cohen‘s giddy gabfest. To mark the occasion, he invites Bravo superfan Chrissy Teigen into the Clubhouse — “She’s tweeted into the live show at a shockingly impassioned level,” Cohen gushes — for a look back at some of the wackiest and loudest moments in the show’s history. Guest and host will also go head-to-hand in a game to test her Bravo knowledge. And for a grand finale, Luann de Lesseps will sing “Feeling Jovani.” This calls for a drink.
Inside Thursday TV: In the first-season finale of CW’s In the Dark (9/8c), look for a new development in the relationship between Murphy (Perry Mattfeld) and Dean (Rich Sommer)… On CBS’s Elementary (10/9c), shady tech billionaire Odin Reichenbach (James Frain) has an intriguing offer for Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) and Watson (Lucy Liu), involving the development of a program that could help predict future crimes. (Didn’t we see this in Minority Report?) Speaking of which, our heroes help Detective Bell (Jon Michael Hill) look for an NYPD officer before he can carry out a sniper shooting… New to Netflix: Anima, a 15-minute musical one-reeler from director Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread) described as a “mind-bending visual piece” with music from Radiohead’s Thom Yorke.
