Worth Watching: ‘Drunk’ on Watergate, JFK Jr. ‘Biography,’ ‘Man on the Moon’
A selective critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:
Drunk History (10/9c, Comedy Central): What did they know, when did they know it, and were they too tipsy to remember? The inebriated comedy series that delivers revisionist history through freely flowing cocktails revisits Watergate in an episode devoted to whistleblowers. Saturday Night Live alum Vanessa Bayer takes on the juicy role of Martha Mitchell, the irrepressibly dishy wife of Nixon crony John Mitchell (Veep‘s Tony Hale). She never knew when to keep her mouth shut, and the country thanks her for her service.
Biography: JFK Jr.—The Final Year (9/8c, A&E): On the 20th anniversary of the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., who perished with wife Carolyn and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette when the plane he was piloting crashed off Martha’s Vineyard, a special two-hour Biography explores the famous offspring’s personal, business and political dealings during his last months. Much of the source material comes from a new book, America’s Reluctant Prince: The Life of John F. Kennedy Jr., by historian and longtime friend Steven M. Gillon.
Man on the Moon (10/9c, CBS): Legendary CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite was never better than when reporting on—or some might say cheerleading — NASA’s space program during its triumphant Apollo era. In an hour-long special anchored by brand-new CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell from Kennedy Space Center, Cronkite’s coverage of the Apollo 11 launch and moon landing will be featured along with Neil Armstrong’s own narrative, recalling another of Cronkite’s broadcast triumphs: You Are There.
Inside Tuesday TV: Few things are stranger than a vanity project, but at least Stranger Things fan favorite David Harbour appears to be having a grand time starring in Netflix’s half-hour mockumentary special, Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein, which purports to be lost footage from his own father’s televised stage play… The CW’s new sci-fi drama Pandora (8/7c) stars Priscilla Quintana as Jax, an orphaned recruit at Earth’s Fleet Training Academy, whose mission to defend the galaxy could be complicated by what she discovers about her own identity… In the first round of Judge Cuts on NBC’s America’s Got Talent (8/7c), country-music star Brad Paisley joins the panel as a guest judge, and gets to hit the Golden Buzzer to send one act straight to the live shows. Everyone else must blow the rest of the judges away to be able to move on… Having sufficiently mourned the loss of one of their colorful tribe, FX’s Pose (10/9c) gets back to being bitchy, when Damon (Ryan Jamaal Swain) and Ricky (Dyllon Burnside) don’t exactly rise above while competing for a dancing spot on Madonna’s “Blonde Ambition” tour.