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Primetime Picks… 12/30/18

Dec 30, 2018 Posted by in Features | Comments

With the new year approaching, the Winter TV season is finally upon us, and there are lots of new and returning shows about to premiere. Tonight FOX has the season premiere of The Orville on a special night, and TBS is airing the second half of the latest season of Angie Tribeca.

The Orville was a great surprise for me last year. From all the ads I had expected it to be a parody of Star Trek, along the lines of Galaxy Quest. However, it turned out to be more serious homage to Star Trek: The Next Generation with some humor thrown in. It tackled social issues while also sending the crew on interesting and entertaining adventures, and interacting with different alien species and cultures. I’m looking forward to seeing what new adventures await the crew of the Orville this season.

In tonight’s premiere, “Ja’loja”, as The Orville heads toward Moclus for a unique ceremony, life aboard the ship heats up when Kelly gives Ed some startling news; Gordon asks John for dating advice; Claire turns to Isaac for parenting advice.


 

Last night TBS surprisingly aired the first half of the fourth season of Angie Tribeca. In the premiere, the series jumped ahead 20 years as Angie (Rashida Jones) was released from prison and recruited by her former boss, Lt. Atkins (Jere Burns), for The Special Division Force, a top secret organization formed by the Vice President. The team also consists of former medical examiner Dr. Scholls (Andrée Vermeulen), Angie Jr. (Bobby Cannavale)—Angie’s estranged son she hadn’t seen since she sent him to boarding school at the age of 2—and the young and brilliant Maria Charo (Kiersey Clemons). It’s unclear if the SDF are the good guys or the bad guys, but they like to believe it’s the former.

I thoroughly enjoyed last night’s five episodes. The show is just as funny and clever as ever. There are so many rapid-fire puns and pop-culture references, and lots of witty banter packed into each episode—it will likely take multiple viewings to catch it all. I really like the new direction of the show. It keeps the same feeling, but also opens up the world, allowing the team to travel across the globe/world instead of being stuck in one place. Plus, it introduces some great new characters—Bobby Cannavale is hilarious as the disgruntled young son who is upset at his mother for abandoning him. And there is this really fun competition between Scholls and Charo, who are constantly trying to prove who is smarter. There have been some amazing guest stars in the first half of the season, and I can’t wait to see who else shows up in tonight’s second half. I also look forward to seeing what odd cases the final five episodes of the season have in store!

If you missed last night’s episodes, you can catch them on On Demand, on the TBS app, or at TBS.com.

In the first of tonight’s final five episodes of the season, “Freezing Cold Prestige Drama”, in Fargo, S.D., the team is tasked with waiting for the arrival of a certain truck, the contents of which are unknown to the team; Charo and AJ cover up an unfortunate incident which has ties to the mysterious arrival of the truck.


 

Tonight I’ll also be watching/recording the Deadly Class preview, and Counterpart.