Get twice the Donald Glover on Saturday Night Live

By Erik Adams | May 4, 2018 | 5:00am

TV Lists What's On Tonight

Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, May 4 and Saturday, May 5. All times are Eastern.

Top pick

Saturday Night Live (Saturday, NBC, 11:29 p.m.): The long-running late-night variety show is wrapping up its 43rd season with an unconventional notion: What if the people who hosted Saturday Night Live weren’t just recognizable and beloved celebrities, but also experienced in the ways of sketch comedy? Sure, booking a host like Solo: A Star Wars Story’s Donald Glover—who came up through the Upright Citizens Brigade ranks, made a movie with his Derrick Comedy troupe mates, wrote for 30 Rock, starred in Community, and made an hour-long stand-up special all before creating and headlining a TV-comedy game changer—means you’re not going to get the novelty of Ralph Nader mugging his way through a Nudie-suited cold open, or the infuriating phenomenon of an acting legend like Robert De Niro struggling to keep his eyes off the cue cards. But in exchange, you get someone who actually knows what they’re doing, like John Mulaney a few weeks back, or Amy Schumer and Tina Fey in coming episodes. And the additional coup of putting Donald Glover on the show: Like Chance The Rapper (whom Glover lent a hand to for his SNL debut), the host can also be the musical guest. Dennis Perkins thanks you, Saturday Night Live bookers.

Regular coverage

DuckTales (Disney, 8 p.m.)
Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC, 9:01 p.m.)

Wild card

Arrested Development (Friday, Netflix): In honor of the Bluth family’s favorite non-spring-break holiday (and to herald Arrested Development’s upcoming fifth season), Cinco De Cuatro, Netflix is releasing Mitch Hurwitz’s long-promised, chronological “remix” of season four, which was a previously scrambled, Rashomon-style story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together. There’s a practical explanation for this—it’s to help expand the show’s syndication package—but there were also practical explanations for the way the season originally came together, which Hurwitz rolled into one of the only genuine formal innovations in the brief history of the streaming sitcom. But in this version, the Bluths are all sharing episodes again, and I have no problem with that.