Worth Watching: ‘Years’ Finale, David Spade in Late Night, ‘Bachelorette’ Nears Her Final Choice
A selective critical checklist of notable Monday TV:
Years and Years (9/8c, HBO): “It’s been tough this century,” muses family matriarch Muriel Lyons (Anne Reid) — and she’s not kidding — as Russell T Davies’ extraordinary near-future parable of societal collapse reaches its harrowing finale. In 2029, with even the BBC now shuttered under the autocratic rule of Prime Minister Vivienne Rook (Emma Thompson), is there any hope for true (not fake) news and personal liberty? After several episodes of devastating setbacks, the Lyons finally fight back, joining a revolution with hopes of freeing asylum detainee Viktor (Maxim Baldry) and standing up to the troops turning their neighborhoods into walled-off camps. It’s a thrilling if somewhat rushed finish.
Lights Out with David Spade (11:30/10:30, Comedy Central): The latest attempt to find a companion piece to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah brings the snarky ex-Saturday Night Live comedian back into the spotlight, eschewing political satire for broad swipes at pop culture, “Hollywood Minute” style. The show will open with a traditional monologue, but it’s mostly a panel show, with Spade trading quips with the likes of (on opening night) scheduled guests Whitney Cummings, Neal Brennan and Erik Griffin.
The Bachelorette (8/7c, ABC): Hallmark romances feel more real to me than this televised hunt for a soulmate, and yet many will watch breathlessly as Hannah narrows the field in the first half of a two-night live season finale. At least they get a trip to Greece out of it before she has to send home one of the finalists: Jed, Peter or Tyler C. (If history is a guide, one of the rejected beaus from this or a former round will get his own season. And so it goes.)
Inside Monday TV: Discovery’s Shark Week continues with Sharks of the Badlands (8/7c), which enlists scientists to try to explain why there are so many white sharks in the waters around Cape Cod, Mass… The top 10 women compete on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance (8/7c), paired with All-Stars in duets outside their own specialty. Break metaphorical legs, ladies… In the uplifting POV documentary Inventing Tomorrow (10/9c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org), six young scientists from Indonesia, Hawaii, India and Mexico bring their visions for environmental change to ISEF (the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair) in Los Angeles. Watch, learn and dream of a more hopeful future… Telemundo’s Spanish-language hit La Reina del Sur (10/9c) promises plenty of action and maybe even some closure in its season finale, starring Kate del Castillo as the tempestuous Teresa Mendoza.
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O
FAMILY GUY reruns on TBS for me!!!
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R
The word "penultimate" to describe a TV show's second to last episode...seemed (to me) to recently appear out of nowhere...(but is now used almost everywhere)...
Today I read..."Tonight is Legion's antepenultimate episode"...(third to last!!??!!)...
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C
I don't remember seeing "penultimate" until recently either. In fact, I don't remember them making so much of a big deal out of things like "Only 3 more episodes this season!" Do they think I'm more apt to watch because the season is ending? I'm not!
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I've seen the likes of "Only 3 more episodes this season!" over the past few years — as well as the syntactically clever "Only 2 more episodes until the season finale!" My guess is that it might be an attempt to get people to catch up on their DVR backlog and start watching live for fear of spoilers. "Live +7" ratings and the like are now a thing but real-time eyeballs are still valued by advertisers — not to mention the benefits of cultural buzz.
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I've heard "penultimate" over the years. More often recently, perhaps.
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I meant to add earlier that an erudite construct like "antepenultimate" definitely fits with Legion's cultivated faux (or maybe not so faux) preciousness. It's also a bit more momentous to note the next-to-next-to-last episode of a series, which this is, not just a season. I find it odd that I've heard "penultimate" and even "antepenultimate" in this context before yet referring to the final episode (or whatever) in a string as the "ultimate" one still carries for me an absolute meaning of best or most concentrated rather than simply last.
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Years and Years received no uptake via HBO. At all. This is pretty much the only place ever mentioning it. Not sure how well it did in the U.K.
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G
ABC"s most addicting show Grand Hotel!!! I would definitely watch this one if it aired during the highly competitive regular season.
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C
Nothing on my watch list for tonight!
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