Month: May 2019

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Americans have this prim image of Emma Thompson. She’s played doctors, queens, a professor, a prime minister and more. She adapted and starred in “Sense and Sensibility”; we think of her as being … well, sensible. But Thompson was the first woman in Cambridge’s Footlights comedy troupe; she did lots of comedy on British TV, even hosting her own sketch show. Now she has her first time hosting “SNL”; the Jonas Brothers are music guests. Read more…

1) “Agents of SHIELD” season-opener, 8 p.m., ABC. Now that Marvel rules the movies, shouldn’t it be big on TV? It keeps trying, with shows ranging from pretty good (“Cloak & Dagger) to quite awful (“Inhumans”). This ambitious effort has drawn so-so ratings; ABC originally said it wouldn’t return until summer. Now the good news: Summer starts early and another season has already been ordered. As the team re-assembles (including Elizabeth Henstridge and Chloe Bennetm shown here), Coulson is dead, but Clark Gregg returns as a new character, Sarge. Read more…

1) “Mom” season finale (9 p.m.) and “The Big Bang Theory” (8 p.m.), CBS. Most of the attention goes to next week’s series finale for “Big Bang,” TV’s best comedy. (Tonight, Leonard’s mom arrives with deceptive sweetness and Stuart and his girlfriend overstay their welcome.) But let’s not overlook “Mom,” another terrific comedy. CBS hints that Bonnie and Adam might elope. Read more…

1) “Modern Family” season finale, 9 p.m., ABC. This is the sort of episode “Modern Family” savors, bouncing through several small stories. It’s almost time for Haley and Dylan to have their twins; that causes others to recall the birthdays that came during this hectic year. It wraps up the 10th season; only one more remains, for a top series (shown here with last week’s graduation episode) that once won five straight Emmys for best comedy series. Read more…

1) “Fosse/Verdon,” 10 p.m., FX. On a rainy weekend, some remarkable people gather at a beach house. There’s Bob Fosse, who recently was briefly in a mental institution … his wife, Gwen Verdon … his girlfriend, Ann Reinking … Verdon’s boyfriend … and two gifted writers, Neil Simon and Paddy Chayefsky. The idea is to comfort the widowed Simon, but other agendas surface. People want Fosse to do a movie or do a musical or just rest. Beautifully directed by Tommy Kail, this ends with a jolt. Read more…