Worth Watching: Brooks & Dunn on ‘CMT Crossroads,’ ‘Whistleblower’ Finale, ‘Jett’
A selective critical checklist of notable Friday TV:
CMT Crossroads (10/9c, CMT): This musical series usually features country stars collaborating with talents from outside the Nashville scene, but in this special concert episode, Brooks & Dunn mix it up with young country talent in a celebration of the duo’s No. 1 album of greatest-hits duets, Reboot. The outdoor concert was taped in downtown Nashville on June 4, reuniting Brooks & Dunn with Brett Young, Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi, Brandon Lancaster on LANCO, Luke Combs and performing a “Boot-Scootin’ Boogie” with Midland.
Whistleblower (8/7c, CBS): The popular true-crime series ends its season with two high-profile subjects who risked it all to speak truth to power. First is the story of Bunnatine “Bunny” Greenhouse, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civilian who questioned a $7 billion contract awarded to Halliburton for work in Iraq (with a connection to former CEO-turned-Veep Dick Cheney). Then comes the story of Bruce Boise, a pharmaceutical rep who was fired and blackballed after refusing to sell an opioid-laced lollipop for “off-label” use unapproved by the FDA.
Jett (10/9c, Cinemax): After her latest heist goes awry, the slinky thief played by Carla Gugino takes refuge with Phoenix (Gaite Jansen), and we’re treated to flashbacks of how they met two years earlier behind bars. If you think Jett is tough in her street dealings, wait till you see how she asserts her authority in women’s prison. She’d make those Orange Is the New Black ladies run for cover. Back on the outside, Jett finds herself trapped between several criminal factions, with a new mission to locate Blair (Shiloh Fernandez), the jerk who betrayed her and ran off with the loot.
Inside Friday TV: I guess Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (8/7c, ABC) never heard about accepting rides from strangers. Which is a lesson FitzSimmons (Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge) and Enoch (Joel Stoffer) will learn when a mystery woman (Karolina Wydra) offers to take them home to Earth… Showtime’s sports documentary 100% Julian Edelman (9/8c) profiles the New England Patriots star as he makes an improbable comeback from a knee injury that forced him to sit out the 2017 season, only to return and be crowned MVP of Super Bowl LIII this January… On the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn uprising, which helped spark the gay-rights movement, Turner Classic Movies devotes its prime-time schedule to vintage films set in and around the gay culture of Greenwich Village. First is 1971’s relatively obscure Some of My Best Friends Are … (8/7c), set in a gay bar on Christmas Eve 1971, where clientele and staff include future TV stars Rue McClanahan, Fannie Flagg, Gary Sandy and Gil Gerard. Followed by the campy 1976 farce The Ritz (10/9c), featuring Tony winner Rita Moreno as a performer at a gay bathhouse, and the 1988 film version of Harvey Fierstein’s groundbreaking play Torch Song Trilogy (11:45/10:45), co-starring Matthew Broderick and Anne Bancroft.
