Jake Giles Netter / Max
Hacks
It’s still a mystery why this generation-gap buddy comedy and spot-on show-business satire doesn’t air on HBO proper, but no matter. Season 3 (dropping two episodes weekly) is a winner, as stand-up comedy legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) reels her former joke writer and social conscience Ava (Hannah Einbender) back into her glamorous orbit when a tempting new opportunity presents itself. They can’t quit each other, even when it often feels like they can’t stand each other. You’ll cheer on Deborah, still ambitious at 70, as she prepares to “shatter the glass hip” of the ageist entertainment. (See the full review.)
Bertrand Calmeau/CBS
Ghosts
Wrapping a third sensational season with one of its most hilarious and surprising episodes to date, Ghosts stages that most traditional of season-ending May events—a wedding—in the least traditional way possible. Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones) prepares to say his “I do’s” to redcoat Nigel (John Hartman), but there are complications, distractions and twists that will have fans counting the days until the show returns in the fall. As for Pete (Richie Moriarty), who’s ventured far from Woodstone, he’ll soon learn that freedom comes with a cost.
Martin Mlaka / Sky UK
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
A wrenching six-part adaptation of Heather Morris’ harrowing yet uplifting non-fiction Holocaust novel stars Harvey Keitel in an affecting performance as the title character, Lali Sokolov. A survivor of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp during the Holocaust of World War II, he tells his story of survival more than a half-century later to novice writer Morris (Melanie Lynskey), framing his account as the most unlikely of love stories. It was in Auschwitz, assigned to tattoo numbers onto incoming prisoners, that he meets and falls for new arrival and future wife Gita (luminous Anna Próchniak). Their hidden and forbidden affair embodies the overarching theme “love will survive,” which is also the title of the haunting new song Barbra Streisand sings over the end credits. All six episodes are available at launch. (See the full review.)
Netflix
A Man in Full
Jeff Daniels stars in David E. Kelley’s boisterous six-episode adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s best-seller as Atlanta real-estate big shot Charlie Croker, fending off enemies from all sides as he faces bankruptcy. Among those more than ready to count Charlie out: his ex, Martha (Diane Lane), a shady loan officer (Ozark’s Tom Pelphrey) and a rival who’s chummy with Martha (Lucy Liu), each hoping to see his empire crumble. Emmy winners Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing) and Regina King share directing credits.
FX Networks
Welcome to Wrexham
The Emmy-winning soccer docuseries returns for its third season, no longer an underdog. The historic Wrexham Red Dragons from Wales, a team now co-owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, have finally been promoted back into the English Football League, but the euphoria only means the stakes are higher. As the season opens with two episodes, Wrexham AFC returns from playing “friendly” summer matches in America, but the reception isn’t quite so warm with the EFL. New players and a surprising exit keep the team on its toes.
Sundance Now
Scrublands
Why would a priest who’s seemingly beloved by his small-town Outback community suddenly open fire on his flock, killing five parishioners in broad daylight? This horrific incident opens a brisk, compelling four-part mystery adapted from Chris Hammer’s Australian rural noir novel. The story unfolds a year after the killings, when a journalist (Luke Arnold) arrives to write a feature on the remote town’s healing, getting a cold shoulder from locals who mistrust his “trauma porn” angle. The reporter soon realizes that dark secrets lurk beneath the impoverished village’s shattered surface, more than a few involving the true nature of the late Father Byron Swift (Jay Ryan).
Courtesy of Prime
The Idea of You
He played a prince in Red, White and Royal Blue, and is currently starring opposite Julianne Moore as a consort to King James I in Starz’ lurid Mary & George, and now Nicholas Galitzine completes the trifecta by starring in a feisty romcom. He’s Hayes Campbell, the 24-year-old heartthrob lead singer of boy band August Moon, who’s over the moon for 40-ish single mom Solene (Anne Hathaway) after they meet-cute at Coachella. Can an ordinary woman find happiness with a considerably younger superstar in today’s judgey TikTok climate?
INSIDE THURSDAY TV:
- Selena + Restaurant (7/6c, Food Network): Spinning off her Selena + Chef home-cooking series, the Only Murders in the Building star Selena Gomez goes to work at L.A.’s top eateries to see if she can create a dish that deserves to be on the menu.
- Young Sheldon (8/7c, CBS): Oscar winner Octavia Spencer has her hands full when she guests on the soon-to-depart sitcom as Meemaw’s (Annie Potts) probation officer.
- 9-1-1 (8/7c, ABC): It’s their wedding day, but Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) wants to know where the blazes is her groom, Chimney (Kenneth Choi)? The 188 is on the case to find him before the blessed day spirals into yet another disaster.
- Law & Order (8/7c, NBC): Lt. Kate Dixon (Camryn Manheim) steps into the spotlight when she and her son Patrick (Only Murders in the Building’s James Caverly), who is deaf, get involved in a case involving a doorman accused of killing a powerful real-estate developer with social connections to new DA Nicholas Baxter (Tony Goldwyn). The doorman’s young daughter Alex (Alona Jane Robbins) is also deaf and one of Patrick’s students, and the Dixons hope to be able to vouch for the defendant’s character before ADAs Price (Hugh Dancy) and Maroun (Odelya Halevi). Followed by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, with a special appearance by former regular Kelli Giddish as Amanda Rollins, helping the squad on her day off as they come to the rescue of a runaway bride.
- Elsbeth (10/9c, CBS): Recently seen as the superintendent on Abbott Elementary, Keegan-Michael Key guests on the light crime drama as a financial advisor who Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) suspects had a hand in the death by golf cart of a groom at a country-club wedding.
ON THE STREAM:
- The Contestant (streaming on Hulu): When aspiring Japanese comedian Tomoaki “Nasubi” Hamatsu agreed to a challenge in which he was left naked in a room for more than a year, earning food and clothes by filling out magazine sweepstakes, he was unaware he was also appearing on a national TV show, becoming an inadvertent and early reality-TV star in 1998. This documentary tells his bizarre story.
- We Were the Lucky Ones (streaming on Hulu): The Holocaust drama ends with the Kurc family searching for connection, learning each other’s fate at the end of World War II.
- Star Trek: Discovery (streaming on Paramount+): The next step in the season-long quest takes Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Tilly (Mary Wiseman) to a pre-industrial society where finding the next clue presents a danger of violating the Prime Directive and revealing their space-age tech.
- Turtles All the Way Down (streaming on Max): Isabela Merced stars in a movie adaptation of John Green’s novel as teenage Aza Holmes, whose OCD creates challenges in her relationship with her childhood crush Davis (Felix Mallard).
- Chivalry (streaming on The Network): The new streaming platform presents its first comedy, a British show-biz satire starring and created by Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani, going behind the scenes when an acclaimed female director is brought on to put things back on track of a troubled production led by a veteran male producer.
- Börje—The Journey of a Legend (streaming on Viaplay): A Swedish-English drama depicts the career of hockey star Börie Salming, a pioneering European player in the NHL for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Jason Priestley co-stars as famed talent scout Gerry McNamara.
- Taste: The Flavor of Life (streaming on Curiosity Stream): Don’t watch this on an empty stomach. A far-reaching docuseries charts the evolution of humans and other animals through the sense of taste.