Worth Watching: Murder in the Asylum on ‘Prodigal Son,’ the Complete ‘Laugh-In,’ Tripping With ‘Zoey,’ ‘Fake Famous’
A selective critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:
Prodigal Son (9/8c, Fox): In the wildest episode yet this season, Malcolm (Tom Payne) is drawn back to Claremont Psychiatric and his maniac father Martin (Michael Sheen) after an inmate’s murder. “C’mon, it’ll be fun!” exults Martin as he begs to be part of the crime-solving team. “Why can’t I be a peer?” he whines, while Malcolm works out his severe daddy issues in group therapy. Back on the Whitly home front, mother Jessica (Bellamy Young) is growing increasingly suspicious of her offspring’s involvement in the disappearance of the villainous Nicholas Endicott (Dermot Mulroney), and Malcolm’s sister Ainsley (Halston Sage) is beginning to have alarming flashbacks to that night. As Martin is the first to note, “Apples don’t fall that far from the tree.”
Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In: The Complete Series (available on Time Life Video): Sock it to me! For the first time, from the rarely seen 1967 pilot to the 25th-anniversary reunion, the entire six-year run of the groundbreaking gag-fest is available on DVD in a 37-disc package. With Dan Rowan and Dick Martin emceeing the insanity, Laugh-In made stars of Goldie Hawn, Lily Tomlin (as Edith Ann and Ernestine), Arte Johnson, Jo Anne Worley, Henry Gibson, Ruth Buzzi, and so many more with its freewheeling cascade of jokes, sketches and celebrity cameos.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (8/7c, NBC): If anyone could use a day off, it’s Zoey (Jane Levy) — but she picks exactly the wrong time to indulge in some mind-altering recreation with her funky neighbor Aiden (Felix Mallard), when a crisis at work brings SPRQ Point’s controversial and loopy founder (Noah Weisberg) to her doorstep. Said crisis also causes a dilemma in the workplace for corporate spokesman Simon (John Clarence Stewart), who has to explain why the new tech can’t distinguish people of color.
Big Sky (10/9c, ABC): The net continues to tighten around the kidnapper/sex traffickers, but will Montana state trooper Rick Legarski (John Carroll Lynch) even realize it from his hospital bed? His condition creates obstacles for P.I.’s Cassie (Kylie Bunbury) and Jenny (Katheryn Winnick), and makes life more miserable than usual for his warped accomplice, Ronald (Brian Geraghty), who’s just about had it with his nagging mom (Valerie Mahaffey). Norman Bates would be so proud. Character-actor alert: Stealing the episode is Karin Konoval (recently recurring as a nurse on The Good Doctor) as Legarski’s live-wire lawyer, who introduces herself to his unhappy wife by blurting, “Seems your husband is a horrible man.” Well, it’s true.
Fake Famous (10/9c, HBO): What does it take to become a social-media influencer? Tech journalist Nick Bilton, in his directing debut, aims to find out in a provocative documentary in which he recruits three relative nobodies to seek fame online. First, the fake photoshoots, then the brands start knocking to get their products hyped on their platforms. It’s that easy, and that phony.
The Pembrokeshire Murders (streaming on BritBox): Prefer your crime dramas more low-key and realistic? This engrossing three-part true-crime drama stars Luke Evans (The Alienist) as a Welsh Detective Superintendent who in 2006 reopens a long-unsolved series of murders, determined to use new forensics to keep their prime suspect from getting out on parole. A companion documentary, Catching the Gameshow Killer, includes footage from a 1989 episode of the game show Bullseye, on which the suspect appeared and which led to his downfall.
Inside Tuesday TV: PBS’s Finding Your Roots (8/7c, check local listings at pbs.org) gets its Irish up while tracing the roots of Jane Lynch and Jim Gaffigan back to their ancestors from the home country… Comic actor Rob Huebel (Children’s Hospital) returns to ABC’s black-ish (9/8c) as Bow’s (Tracee Ellis Ross) white cousin Gary. He’s her new project, seeking to teach him how to be an ally… Siblings Leanne and Steve Ford, of Restored by the Fords fame, are back on HGTV with a new series, Home Again with the Fords (9/8c), in which they re-establish their Pittsburgh roots by helping locals renovate old homes. First up: an 1880s family farmhouse with a mini-golf course and ice cream stand on the premises… Streaming on Netflix: Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready Season 2, in which the ubiquitous comedienne pays it forward by showcasing six rising comics with 15- to 20-minute sets.
