Worth Watching: ‘Kominsky Method’ & ‘Bojack’ Return to Netflix, Megan Hilty Celebrates a Country Christmas (Already!) on Lifetime
A selective critical checklist of notable Friday TV:
The Kominsky Method (Netflix) Chuck Lorre‘s hilariously wry rumination on aging, starring Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin as (respectively) a Hollywood acting coach and powerful agent, returns for a second season of golden-age angst, health scares — and even romance, when Norman (Arkin) rekindles a long-ago relationship with an elegant widow (Jane Seymour) he meets at a funeral: “At our age, it’s called having a social life.” (See the full review.)
Bojack Horseman (Netflix) It’s the beginning of the end for the celebrated animated satire, with the first half of the series’ final season finding the infamous equine in rehab. Is self-improvement even possible for BoJack? Could this tormented and self-absorbed Horseman of the Hollywood apocalypse actually be heading toward a happy-ish ending?
Also part of Netflix’s weekly Friday dump of too-much-is-never-enough programming: Following a limited run in theaters, Eddie Murphy’s Dolemite Is My Name premieres, starring Murphy as real-life comic Rudy Ray Moore, whose career took off in the 1970s when he reinvented himself as blaxploitation kung-fu pimp Dolemite… Stranger Things‘ Gaten Matarazzo hosts the hidden-camera Prank Encounters, trapping strangers in terrifying scenarios played for laughs… French and Spanish versions of the comical cooking competition Nailed It! remind us of Netflix’s global reach.… True Detective‘s Carmen Ejogo stars in the psychological horror movie Rattlesnake, as a mother who makes a deal with a possible devil to save her daughter from a rattlesnake bite. The payback: She must put a deadly bite on someone else.
Sweet Mountain Christmas (9/8c, Lifetime): In my household, we wait at least until after Halloween (and closer to Thanksgiving, really) before we turn our thoughts to Christmas. But not on Lifetime — and Hallmark, each launching a series of Christmas movies this weekend. The “It’s a Wonderful Lifetime” marathon begins by bringing back Megan Hilty, fresh off her successful portrayal of Patsy Cline in Patsy & Loretta. In Sweet Mountain Christmas, she’s a country-music star whose detour to her Tennessee hometown, en route to a Christmas concert in New York City, could become permanent when she’s snowed in and falls for a handsome snowplow driver (Marcus Rosne). As one does.
Inside Friday TV: The resurgent Washington Nationals return to their home turf for the third game of The World Series (7:30/6:30c, 4:30/PT), up two games to zero for rival Houston Astros. Could we be seeing another sweep?… Halloween-themed episodes are everywhere, including in Hawaii. CBS’s Hawaii Five-0 (8/7c) welcomes back Masi Oka as Dr. Max Bergman, who’s dressed as John Wick for the occasion — but the party gets cut short when the team goes looking for a “monster” that escapes from a basement during a home invasion… Another Hawaiian costume party awaits CBS’s Magnum P.I. (9/8c) when Thomas (Jay Hernandez) and pickpocket Jin (Bobby Lee) dress up as John Lennon and Yoko Ono to find a fugitive in their colorful midst… Find out which veterans and newbies survived the cut when CMT’s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team (9/8c) announces the new squad in the season finale… PBS’s American Masters explores the career of one of the 20th century’s most influential visual artists in “Rothko: Pictures Must Be Miraculous” (9/8c, check local listings at pbs.org). Appearing as Mark Rothko in original scenes is actor Alfred Molina, whose celebrated stage performance as the artist in the play Red will be shown Nov. 15 as part of Great Performances’ “Broadway’s Best” series.
