Big Sky follows up on the premiere’s plot twist
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Tuesday, November 24. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Big Sky (ABC, 10:01 p.m.): So, the Big Sky series premiere ended with a bit of a twist. If you haven’t watched yet and wish to do so without any knowledge of what that twist might be, go watch it now and come back. When you return, read this little snippet from LaToya Ferguson’s coverage. (Seriously, turn back now if you want to watch with the surprise intact.)
The best thing to happen in the Big Sky pilot—other than everything John Carroll Lynch and Valerie Mahaffey are doing, as unsettling as it all is—is its “twist” ending. For the past week or so, ABC’s promotion for the series has been banging the drum of watching the premiere until the end. And for good reason, as it’s a moment that works very hard to convince viewers to stick around for at least another week. It’s also, arguably, the most necessary decision for the new series to make at the top, even though it doesn’t absolve it of so many of its other issues.
After all the intriguing series promotion and the subsequent underwhelming expectations set by the immediately-introduced love triangle between P.I. duo Cody Hoyt (Ryan Philippe) and Cassie Dewell (Kylie Bunbury) and Cody’s estranged ex-cop wife Jenny (Katheryn Winnick), Big Sky does what it needs to do at the end of the pilot by having Montana State Trooper Rick Legarski (John Carroll Lynch) straight up shoot Cody in the head. In fact, Cody’s fate is a saving grace for Big Sky, even if it—again—doesn’t fix all of the series’ issues.
LaToya returns to the recap beat this evening.
Can you binge it? This is only the second episode, so of course you can; the first one awaits you on Hulu.
Regular coverage
Next (Fox, 9 p.m.)
The Crown (Netflix): Binge coverage continues
From Film Club
Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix, 3:01 a.m.): “Ever since Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, newspapers and magazines have been obsessed with constructing a mythology of a ‘forgotten’ white working class through interviews at down-home diners and reportage from tractor pulls in deep red states. And if you’re someone who grew up in one of those states, it’s kind of funny to watch reporters from New York contorting themselves into pretzels trying to understand these exotic creatures in camouflage T-shirts. Funny, except that same effort has been used to prop up a politics of white grievance, erasing working people of color who live in the South and Midwest and excusing racist vitriol under the banner of ‘economic anxiety.’ To give it just a small crumb of credit, Hillbilly Elegy, the new Ron Howard film based on J.D. Vance’s 2016 memoir of the same name, doesn’t play as an apology for the toxic racism of white America. But like those New York Times profiles, it views its subjects as zoo animals, offering the same enduring stereotypes about Appalachia—namely, that it’s full of people too ignorant to realize that they’re being victimized by their own bad choices—peddled by Vance’s book.” Read the rest of Katie Rife’s film review.
Holiday stuff
Dragons Rescue Riders: Huttsgalor Holiday Special (Netflix, 3:01 a.m., premiere): A bunch of baby dragons celebrate “Odinyule” in this one-off special from DreamWorks Animation.
Wild cards
NCIS (CBS, 8 p.m., 400th episode): Mark Harmon’s son guest-stars as a young version of Mark Harmon in this Mark Harmon-starring CBS workhorse.
The Bachelorette (ABC, 8 p.m.): If things get truly bonkers in this, the weirdest season in Bachelor Nation history, we’ll sound the klaxon and convene an emergency roundtable; otherwise, feel free to head over to our sister site The Takeout for their suitably surreal coverage.
Tosh.0 (Comedy Central, 10 p.m., series finale): This sucker got canceled as part of Comedy Central’s shift to a focus on animation, alongside Drunk History and other shows. If this one’s still on your watch list, enjoy it while it lasts.