Worth Watching: Cooking with Selena, Getting ‘Sharkadelic’ With Snoop Dogg, a ‘Killer’ Finale

Selena + Chef HBO Max
HBO Max
Selena + Chef

A selective critical checklist of notable Thursday TV:

Selena + Chef (streaming on HBO Max): During the pandemic lockdown, with homebound amateur chefs finding themselves spending more time in the kitchen, most turned to cookbooks (or the Internet) for instruction. Not Selena Gomez. In a mouth-watering 10-episode series, the singer-actress-producer hyphenate went to the experts, getting tips from master chefs on how to prepare meals of every imaginable cuisine, with each lesson also spotlighting a food-related charity. Among the culinary wizards participating: Ludo Lefebvre, Roy Choi, Angelo Sosa, Candice Kumai, Jon & Vinny, Nancy Silverton, Tonya Holland, Nyesha Arrington, Antonio Lofaso and Daniel Holzman.

Sharkadelic Summer (9/8c, Discovery): Who knew Snoop Dogg was high on sharks? The celebrity rapper joins the Shark Week family to investigate the phenomenon of great whites stalking America’s shorelines. Like any self-respecting Shark Week fan, he’ll check out some of the wildest shark activity ever caught on tape. Also part of the nightly lineup: Air Jaws 2020 (8/7c), a 20-year celebration of the Air Jaws specials; and Mako Nation (10/9c), in which shark scientist Riley Elliott and underwater camera pro Andy Casagrande get their own fins wet to reveal the mako shark in its native habitat.

nbc news coronavirus classroom

Coronavirus and the Classroom (Credit: NBC)

Killer Camp (8/7c, The CW): The murder-mystery game reveals its final bloody hand as the killer is unmasked, but only after the surviving campers take a last vote on who they think is behind all of the faux murders. (In these circumstances, I often use Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None as my guide.)

Inside Thursday TV: NBC News tackles one of today’s most controversial issues in the prime-time special Coronavirus and the Classroom (8/7c)… truTV’s Tacoma FD (10/9c) begins a two-parter set at the annual Firefighter’s Ball, where Chief Terry McConky (Kevin Heffernan) hopes to impress wife Vicky (Heather Mazur) with his supposedly sexy dance moves, while Capt. Eddie Penisi (Steve Lemme) awaits word on a big promotion. To be continued… Streaming options include Topic’s Come Home, a three-part Irish drama starring Christopher Eccleston (The Leftovers) and Ray Donovan‘s Paula Malcomson as a married couple shattered when wife Marie suddenly bolts, exposing several dark secrets; and Peacock’s Five Bedrooms, an eight-part Australian romcom introducing five singles who meet at a wedding and decide to buy a group house together. What could possibly go wrong?