‘Blue Bloods’ Finale, ‘Dexter’ Prequel, Elton John’s Journey, ‘Conclave’ and ‘Joker’ Begin Streaming

Blue Bloods

“We’ve had a great ride,” Tom Selleck declared in a recent prime-time special celebrating Blue Bloods’ long run, dominating Friday nights for 14 seasons. That’s an understatement. With one last Sunday family dinner, and a citywide crisis for the various Reagans to manage, the series signs off to the dismay of its legion of fans. Edward James Olmos guest-stars as the inmate father of a gang member who rallies New York City’s many warring gangs to cause mayhem as they demand amnesty for their members behind bars. However it all plays out, Fridays won’t feel quite the same again with this family police drama no longer breaking (and buttering) bread together.

Dexter: Original Sin

How did Dexter Morgan get started on his blood-drenched crusade to wreak justice on villains who slipped through the cracks? “In the beginning, there was blood,” we’re told, as Michael C. Hall provides the inner voice for an origin story. Irish actor Patrick Gibson stars as the young Dex, welcomed into the Miami P.D. as a forensics intern under the watchful eye of his father, Harry (Christian Slater), who introduces a moral code to control his son’s darkest urges. Patrick Dempsey and Sarah Michelle Gellar co-star as precinct mentors, with Molly Brown as his high-school age sister, Deb. Episodes air Sundays at 9/8c on Showtime.

Elton John: Never Too Late

Named Time Magazine’s 2024 Icon of the Year, Elton John reflects on his remarkable career and his personal highs and lows in a stirring documentary that moves full circle from his legendary 1975 Dodger Stadium concert to his farewell show there in 2022. In the 1970s, with chart-topping hits on seven #1 albums, the flamboyant singer-songwriter appeared to have it all. But as the film from R.J. Cutler and John’s husband, David Furnish, reveals, it was a hollow success marred by struggles with drugs and sexuality until he got clean and found deeper purpose with family. At 77, he’s still standing. “Never Too Late” is also the title of a new song featured in the documentary, written by John and Brandy Carlile.

Conclave

Touted as an Oscar contender in the Best Picture and some acting races, nominated for seven Golden Globes and named one of the year’s top 10 films by the AFI and the National Board of Review, director Edward Berger’s absorbing suspense drama about the election of a new pope makes its streaming debut less than two months after its premiere in theaters. Ralph Fiennes stars as a cardinal in charge of the tense conclave when the College of Cardinals gathers to elect a successor after the current pontiff dies of a heart attack. Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow co-star as cardinals vying for the sacred honor, but as scandals and gossip disrupt the Vatican’s corridors of power, it’s anyone’s guess who’ll rise to the top.

Also making its streaming debut, having met much less enthusiastic critical response, is the Batman sequel Joker: Folie à Deux on Max, pairing Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix with Lady Gaga. The movie premieres on HBO Saturday night at 8/7c.

Carry-On

As if traveling during the holidays wasn’t cringe-inducing enough. Taron Egerton (who once played the aforementioned Elton John in Rocketman) stars in a breakneck thriller as a meek TSA agent who’s caught between a bomb and a hard place when a psychopath (Ozark’s Jason Bateman) blackmails him into letting a lethal package make it through screening and onto a Christmas Eve flight. Can this LAX luggage scanner save the day and keep his girlfriend (Sofia Carson) from a sniper’s crosshairs?

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

• Outlander (8/7c, Starz): So much to unpack from last week’s cliffhanger. Jamie (Sam Heughan) is alive! His wife Claire (Caitríona Balfe) married Lord John (David Berry), thinking the hot Scot was dead! William (Charles Vandervaart) now knows Jamie is his biological father, and he’s upset with everyone! How do you top that, Outlander?
• Hannukah on the Rocks (8/7c, Hallmark Channel): An unemployed Chicago corporate lawyer (Stacey Farber) finds new purpose during Hanukkah season at an Old Town bar where she learns to live it up as a bartender, bonding with a doctor (Daren Kagasoff) from Florida and his granddad (Double Dare’s Marc Summers).
• The New York Sack Exchange (8/7c, ESPN): A 30 for 30 special relives the glory days of the New York Jets’ much-feared defensive line of the 1980s, featuring Mark Gastineau, Joe Klecko, Abdul Sallam and Marty Lyons.
• Happy’s Place (8/7c, NBC): Bobbie (Reba McEntire) gives Isabella (Belissa Escobedo) romantic advice regarding her long-distance relationship, because that never backfires. Followed by Lopez vs. Lopez (8:30/7:30), where George (George Lopez) channels Dateline while investigating the quick death of a new appliance.
• S.W.A.T. (8/7c, CBS): When radioactive material goes missing from an L.A. lab, the team springs into action to stop a nuclear attack. Followed by Fire Country (9/8c), where the firefighters take on lethal underground zombie fires, with Phil Morris guest-starring as Eve’s (Jules Latimer) estranged rancher dad.
• True Crime Watch: ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c) revisits the ever-present cold case of 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey’s 1996 Christmas Day murder, with Byron Pitts’ interview with her father John Ramsey, now 81, and newly released footage of Barbara Walters’ interview with the parents. Dateline NBC (9/8c) reports the latest on sex offender Nicholas Rossi, a fugitive who faked his own death and fled the country in 2020.
• Children Ruin Everything (9/8c, The CW): What can the kids ruin next? How about the precious free time at night when parents James (Aaron Abrams) and Astrid (Meaghan Rath) would rather just play on an old game console.
• Violent Femmes: 40th Anniversary with the Milwaukee Symphony (10/9c, PBS): Rock and classical music collide when the folk punk group Violent Femmes collaborates with the Milwaukee Symphony to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their debut album.

ON THE STREAM:

• Die Hart (streaming on The Roku Channel): The third installment of the self-referential comedy once again stars Kevin Hart as himself, sort of, who rebounds from a flop biopic of George Washington Carver to beg a famed director (J.K. Simmons) for another chance, only to be accused of murder and going on the lam with getaway driver Jordan King (Nathalie Emmanuel).
• Silo (streaming on Apple TV+): Framed for a murder, the rabble-rousers from Mechanical go into hiding from a furious mob. Over in the less crowded Silo 17, Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) continues her desperate search for gear that will allow her to go back outside, perhaps back home, without dying.
• The Agency (streaming on Paramount+): While CIA’s London station deals with an angry delegation from Belarus, young agent Danny (Saura Lightfoot-Leon) is thrown into the deep end as she begins her mission at a geophysics institute.
• The Jetty (streaming on BritBox): Jenna Coleman (Victoria) stars in a four-part British mystery as detective Ember Manning, whose investigation into a fire in her lake district hometown reveals all sorts of sordid secrets.
• Wonder Pets: In the City (streaming on Apple TV+): A musical treat for preschool audiences features guinea pig Izzy, snake Tate and bunny Zuri, classroom pets in a New York City kindergarten whose tuneful adventures take them far outside the classroom.