Worth Watching: Final Bow for ‘Dads,’ Kelly Clarkson and ‘Hamilton,’ Netflix’s ‘Warrior Nun’
A selective critical checklist of notable Thursday TV:
Council of Dads (8/7c, NBC): Once again, NBC has cut short a drama the network had hoped could be the next This Is Us. (The first sentimental casualty, from a season earlier: The Village.) In what is now billed as the series finale of the tear-jerking drama about the widowed Robin (Sarah Wayne Callies), her kids and the “council of dads” helping them cope with the loss of the beloved Scott (Tom Everett Scott), the storm still rages in Savannah. And as Anthony (Clive Standen) comes to the rescue of Robin and Theo (Emjay Anthony), and Dr. Oliver (J. August Richards) helps Sage (Jazz Raycole) through her early delivery, the family has plenty to cope with. Not just the aftermath of the storm and the future of the Crab Shack, but the revelation that Anthony, not Scott, is Luly’s (Michele Weaver) biological dad.
The Kelly Clarkson Show (syndicated, check local listings): On the day before the filmed version of the Broadway phenomenon Hamilton premieres with great fanfare on Disney+, Daytime Emmy Award-winning host Kelly Clarkson welcomes much of the show’s original cast for a virtual reunion. The Kellyoke segment features “It’s Quiet Uptown,” the same song Clarkson recorded for The Hamilton Mixtape. Expect more musical highlights as composer/star Lin-Manuel Miranda is joined by the show’s leading women (Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo and Jasmine Cephas Jones) and men (Leslie Odom Jr., Daveed Diggs, Christopher Jackson and Okieriete Onaodowan).
Warrior Nun (streaming on Netflix): Sometimes all you need is a title to know if a series is up your alley. This 10-episode high-fantasy young-adult series, filmed in Spain and inspired by Manga novels, stars Alba Baptista as a 19-year-old orphan who awakens in a morgue with a divine artifact embedded in her back, conveying superpowers as the chosen Halo-Bearer for an ancient order of demon-hunting nuns. (And to think all Sally Field needed was a good breeze to become The Flying Nun.) While taking down demons on Earth, this warrior nun must also contend with forces from heaven and hell that want to control her.
Inside Thursday TV: Sundance Now imports the steamy eight-part Swedish thriller Blinded, about a financial journalist whose secret affair with a bank director is complicated when she has to report on his business dealings and discovers he’s hiding something… Also streaming: six episodes of a second season of the BET+ crime drama The Family Business, with Ernie Hudson and Valarie Pettiford headlining the ensemble as the Duncans, who operate a luxury car dealership that’s the front for more illicit operations… On The CW’s Burden of Truth (8/7c), Joanna (Kristin Kreuk) and Billy (Peter Mooney) must lean on an unreliable whistleblower when their case takes a turn… As NBC’s Blindspot (9/8c) nears the end of its run, the team worries that someone on the inside is tipping off evil FBI honcho Madeline (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) as she and henchwoman Ivy (Julee Cerda) close in on the location of their secret bunker in Prague.