Worth Watching: Agatha Christie’s ‘Pale Horse’ and Other Streaming, ‘Lincoln Rhyme’ Finale, Syfy Marks ‘Friday the 13th’
A selective critical checklist of notable Friday TV:
Agatha Christie’s The Pale Horse (streaming on Amazon Prime Video): There’s more Rod Serling than Agatha Christie in the latest loose Christie adaptation by Sarah Phelps (And Then There Were None), who delights in burrowing into the more macabre psychological corners of classic whodunits. Borrowing from one of the queen of mystery’s more peculiar stand-alones, Horse stars Rufus Sewell (The Man in the High Castle) as Londoner in the sordid Swinging ’60s who finds his name on a list marking him for murder — by witchcraft?
Other streaming highlights include the Netflix movie Lost Girls, based on journalist Robert Kolker’s 2013 non-fiction book about the unsolved murders of female sex workers on Long Island. Amy Ryan (The Wire) stars as the mother of one of the missing women, whose relentless pressure on police commission Gabriel Byrne leads to the discovery of a serial killer on the loose. On a lighter note, the Disney+ coming-of-age movie Stargirl stars America’s Got Talent winner Grace VanderWaal as new student Stargirl Caraway, a ukulele-playing free spirit who changes the life of wallflower Leo (Graham Verchere) forever.
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector (8/7c, NBC): In a two-part, back-to-back season finale, quadriplegic forensics genius Lincoln (Russell Hornsby) finally comes face-to-face with the newly exposed villain (Brian F. O’Byrne) in a climactic showdown. But first, the Bone Collector puts a revenge plan into play, targeting Lincoln’s valued associate, Amelia (Arielle Kebbel).
Friday the 13th (starts at 12 am Friday/11c Thursday): For 24 hours, Syfy marks Friday the 13th — which seems especially well timed during this period of high anxiety — with a marathon of the Friday the 13th horror franchise, starting with the 1980 original (repeated at 8/7c). Jason keeps busy through each of the first eight films in the series, up to 1989’s Jason Takes Manhattan. Starting at 6/5c, Syfy becomes “Camp Crystal Lake’s Public Access Channel,” with interstitial gags including camp counselor “recruitment videos.” It’s still got to be better than the last season of American Horror Story.
Inside Friday TV: AS CBS’s Hawaii Five-0 (9/8c) approaches the end, Sex and the City‘s Willie Garson returns as Gerard Hirsch, who turns to Tani (Meaghan Rath) to help clear his uncle of murder, though she’s also busy working out her new relationship with Junior (Beulah Koale)… On CBS’s Blue Bloods (10/9c), Frank (Tom Selleck) works with Garrett (Gregory Jbara) to come up with a plan to convince the mayor (Dylan Walsh) to play well with others.
