Worth Watching: Ziva Returns to ‘NCIS,’ ‘Voice’ Finale, HBO Gets ‘Well Groomed’
A selective critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:
NCIS (8/7c, CBS): This is the episode where we may learn what Ziva (Cote de Pablo) meant when she referred to “the one more thing I have to do before I can put all this behind me” and reunite with her family. Whatever this “thing” is, it brings the beloved agent back with Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and the NCIS team for the first time since October, and the action will continue when the show returns from its winter break on Jan. 7.
The entire CBS lineup is new for the last time until 2020. On FBI (9/8c), the feds link a former kidnapping victim to a string of murders including the daughter of an NYPD detective. And Kristen (Ebonée Noel) needs to get her self-confidence back after a training exercise has her doubting her abilities as an agent. On NCIS: New Orleans (10/9c), the pursuit of dastardly Eddie Barnett (Eddie Cahill), who took the life of Agent Lasalle (Lucas Black) a few weeks ago, is complicated when Agent Pride (Scott Bakula) is cut off from the team.
The Voice (8/7c, NBC): For the first time in seven seasons, each team has a singer left in the competition for the finals: Ricky Duran from Team Blake, Jake Hoot from Team Kelly, Katie Kadan from Team Legend and Rose Short from Team Gwen. One will be named at the end of the two-hour live finale, and each will get to perform in special collaborations, but the coronation once again threatens to get lost amid an all-star parade of guest musical talent. The playlist includes former coach (and American Idol alumna) Jennifer Hudson performing “Memory” from the upcoming movie version of Cats, plus songs from Black Eyed Peas, Luke Combs, Lady Antebellum, Dua Lipa and Season 16 winner Maelyn Jar on (though you can just call her Maelyn now), who delivers a twist on the holiday classic “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
Well Groomed (9/8c, HBO): Think Best in Show meets Hair Battle Spectacular. If you’ve ever watched a professional dog show and wondered just who’s responsible for those wild hairdos, this documentary introduces the curious to the world of competitive dog growing. The film follows canine stylists over a year as they dye, shave and primp their pups into potential prize-winners, with literally hair-raising results.
Inside Tuesday TV: ESPN’s Roger Federer: Everywhere Is Home (8/7c) follows the tennis great on an exhibition tour of Latin America, where he’s visited only once before… More winter finales: On Fox’s The Resident (8/7c), Devon’s (Manish Dayal) last day as an intern is made more challenging when he and Conrad (Matt Czuchry) deal with the ethical implications of a suicidal patient who needs a liver transplant… Fox’s Empire (9/8c) continues its march toward the end with Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) still trying to convince Lucious (Terrence Howard) that their relationship is over. Isn’t that something of a broken record by now?… The melodrama promises to run even higher on the season finale of OWN’s Ambitions (10/9c)… HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (10/9c) ends its season with a roundtable discussion in which the host and correspondents Mary Carillo, Bernard Goldberg, Jon Frankel, Andrea Kremer, Soledad O’Brien and David Scott recap the top sports stories of 2019, then revisit some of their own pieces from the past year… Channing Tatum returns for more rugged adventure on National Geographic’s Running Wild with Bear Grylls (10/9c), having appeared on the show five years ago. This time they’re off to Norway, where they skydive into unwelcoming terrain including giant boulder fields and towering cliffs… Making his Netflix stand-up debut, The Daily Show‘s Ronny Chieng reflects on his new home country in Ronny Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America!
