Worth Watching: ‘You’ Gets Crazier in Second Season, Animated ‘Fast & Furious,’ ‘Last Jedi’ on Disney+
A selective critical checklist of notable Thursday TV:
You (streaming on Netflix): Twas the day after Christmas, and does that mean Netflix is taking a breather? No more than Joe Lockhart (Penn Badgley), the romantic-obsessive psycho, has given up on his blood-spattered quest for love. In the second season of the perversely addictive thriller (originally on Lifetime), Joe flees across country after the surprise return of his vindictive — for good reason — ex, Candace (Ambyn Childers), who accurately observes, “Murder has a way of following you.” And who knows more about following, or stalking, or spying with lecherous intent, than Joe — who assumes the name of a total stranger named “Will” in his desire to drop off the grid. Where there’s a faux Will, there’s also a way to scale new heights of madness, when Joe/Will falls in love with a woman actually named Love (Victoria Pedretti). But this new romance also requires coddling her unstable twin, Forty (James Scully). Throw in a sisterly pair of spunky neighbors (Carmela Zumbado and Jenna Ortega), who activate Joe’s protective impulses — in a murderous, Dexter sort of way — and by the time we hit the bloody end of this season, with twists you’ll never see coming, Joe has new appreciation for the insanity of this thing called love.
Fast & Furious: Spy Racers (streaming on Netflix): The hit movie franchise, itself something of a cartoon, has spawned an animated spinoff, with a voice cast led by Teen Wolf‘s Tyler Posey. He plays Dom’s (the Vin Diesel character) younger cousin Tony Toretto, who follows Dom’s high-octane example when recruited by a government agency to infiltrate a racing league that fronts for SH1FT3R, a notorious crime syndicate revving for world domination. Ladies and gentlemen, start your motors!
The Last Jedi (streaming on Disney+): For Star Wars completists wishing the entire saga were available for streaming in one place, the franchise’s new home of Disney+ takes a step closer to that reality by acquiring the 2017 blockbuster, the second spoke of the sequel trilogy, bridging The Force Awakens and the recently released The Rise of Skywalker. Mark Hamill reprises his role of Luke Skywalker in an emotionally satisfying chapter that pits Rey (Daisy Ridley) against Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).
The Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition (9/8c, ABC): To answer the question “Is there nothing new on network TV tonight?” in the affirmative, a two-hour episode of the baking competition moves the six remaining contestants on to rounds involving pastries and cookies. Because we haven’t eaten enough this week.
