Adventure Time returns to celebrate Finn’s birthday with 4 new episodes
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Sunday, December 17. All times are Eastern. Seven more shopping days until Christmas!
Top picks
Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 7 p.m.): The holiday miracles just keep coming, as the three-month absence of Adventure Time ends with this four-episode, hour-long binge. First, Finn turns 17 in “Seventeen” and a mysterious, multi-tentacled warrior crashes his party. Then Tree Trunks’ considerable romantic history gets explored in “Ring Of Fire.” Further treks lead to “Marcy & Hunson,” as Marcy’s dad returns and tries to atone for previous misdeeds by attending her cool concert, and “A New Investigation,” in which Finn and Jake get a brand-new case. Looks like season 10 is off to a considerably great start, and there’s no one we’d rather spend this time of year with than Finn, Jake, and Oliver Sava, of course.
A Christmas Story Live! (Fox, 8 p.m.): Unless! It’s Maya Rudolph (as the mom), Jane Krakowski (as the teacher), and Matthew Broderick (as the narrator) in a live musical version of A Christmas Story. Our resident musical expert, Caroline Siede, will be on hand to evaluate this special against Fox’s other recent live musical outings.
Regular coverage
Almost everything has already fled for the season, so here are your few offerings tonight:
Shameless (Showtime, 9 p.m.)
Search Party (TBS, 10 p.m.): Second-season finale! If you haven’t caught up on this comedy-mystery hybrid series yet, it’s definitely worth it.
Wild card
Romance At Reindeer Lodge (Hallmark, 8 p.m.): There was quite a Twitter tantrum this week when Netflix nastily called out the 53 subscribers who watched its movie A Christmas Prince for 18 days in a row. Since these types of movies are a bit of a guilty pleasure for us this time of year, we went ahead and watched A Christmas Prince, which turned out to have a ton in common with every other TV royal-romance holiday movie. For something a little less out of the ordinary (or at least, less tied to a monarchy), Hallmark’s new holiday outing Romance At Reindeer Lodge, premieres tonight. UnREAL’s Josh Kelly and Neighbours’ Nicky Whelan play Jared and Molly, two anti-holiday people who get stuck at a magical lodge. It doesn’t take much sleuthing to figure out what is about to happen next, even if you’re Molly, who somehow wound up on a plane to Vermont when she thought she was going to Jamaica. Still, the Hallmark Channel movies still make for pleasingly palatable backgrounds for wrapping presents and addressing cards and all the other chores we’re way behind on this holiday season.