Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Tuesday, December 15. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Nick News With Linda Ellerbee (Nickelodeon, 8 p.m.): For nearly a quarter century, Linda Ellerbee has been the first most trusted person in news for a whole bunch of young people. Tonight marks the final episode of Nick News, as Ellerbee looks back on her time there before signing off for the last time. And, as much as we loathe millennial nostalgia as much as the next person (probably more, honestly!), we’ll admit to feeling pretty damn nostalgic about all this, especially since Ellerbee is a hell of a journalist, in or out of the context of Nick News—her NBC News Overnight was called “possibly the best written and most intelligent news program ever.” To the extent we understand anything about whatever the hell the Lewinsky scandal, it’s from Ellerbee’s Peabody Award-winning episode on the story. Anyway, here’s a 1993 episode about fire safety and poetry. Enjoy.
Also noted
Jessica Jones (Netflix): Oliver Sava’s latest review will be looking at “AKA WWJD,” which was one of Caroline Siede’s favorite episodes when she binge-reviewed the show, particularly for how the episode put the spotlight on how Kilgrave’s justifications for his actions echo the excuses of real-life rapists and abusers. This should be one very much worth discussing a second time around.
Girlfriends’ Guide To Divorce (Bravo, 10 p.m.): The holiday season has largely wiped out the TV Club roster of shows, but a couple cable network dramas are still chugging along. First up, Girlfriends’ Guide To Divorce features Abby dating a TV celebrity in the hopes of boosting her blog traffic. Which was pretty much the exact same plot description of the last one of these episodes we highlighted. Does every episode of this show prominently feature Abby using romance to increase blog readership? That’s … that’s kind of amazing, actually. Anyway, Gwen Ihnat will be round later with her more reasoned thoughts on all that’s going on.
Manhattan (WGN, 10 p.m.): This is the other show of note still airing new episodes, although there’s no episode description out for tonight’s “Jupiter.” So we’ll just assume it’s all about Dr. Oppenheimer going on a date with a bigtime radio celebrity in an attempt to boost readership of his newspaper column. Because, you know, they didn’t have blogs in the 1940s. Brandon Nowalk appreciates our attention to historical detail.
What else is on?
NCIS (CBS, 8 p.m.): “Ducky is attacked by a man claiming to have information about his half-brother who died decades ago.” We’ll admit that, when we first read this, our first thought was that CBS is helping Jonathan Cryer deal with the end of Two And A Half Men by letting him reprise his Pretty In Pink role on other CBS shows. In reality, “Ducky” is the nickname of Dr. Donald Mallard, which is only marginally less ridiculous, honestly, at least when it comes to how obviously the writers strained to reverse-engineer that nickname. Anyway, Ducky is played by David McCallum of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which we really wish meant either the attacker or the lost half-brother would be the perfect spot for a Robert Vaughn guest spot, but that may be too old a callback, even for CBS. (On second thought … nah.)
NCIS: New Orleans (CBS, 9 p.m.): Not in the Christmas spirit yet? Well, NCIS: Gumbo Style is more than happy to oblige: “The evidence from a string of deadly Christmas burglaries lead the team to Wade’s adopted son.” Nothing says festive cheer like a bunch of people being killed by a guy dressing up as Santa and breaking in through the chimney. (No, seriously: If that’s not what is meant by “Christmas burglaries,” we’re all suing.)
Limitless (CBS, 10 p.m.): CBS is the last outpost of new scripted network programming, and Limitless finishes out the night as one of the show’s supporting players steals some NZT for himself, prompting that most scintillating of TV things: an internal investigation!
CNN Republican Presidential Debate (CNN, 9 p.m.): This is a thing. You can watch it if you wish. We’re now six weeks from the Iowa caucus, when all of this may or may not start to actually matter. In the meantime, we’re sure at least one silly controversy will come out of this. That’s almost something, we guess.
Apollo 13 (WGN, 6 p.m.): We’ve said this before, but on our random list of “Best Mainstream 90s Movies,” this is in our top three, along with L.A. Confidential and Fargo. We just get so damn inspired and teary-eyed when they reenter the atmosphere!
Mad Max (Encore, 8 p.m.): While Road Warrior and now Fury Road are probably the most revered of the Mad Max films—and Beyond Thunderdome might actually have the biggest pop culture imprint, if only for the ubiquity of “Two men enter, one man leaves!” references. (We feel like it’s ubiquitous, at any rate. We may be weird that way.) But the original Mad Max is its own kind of great, a much lower-budget, closer-to-home vision of a world that hasn’t quite realized it’s post-apocalyptic.
NHL Hockey: Avalanche at Blackhawks (NBC Sports, 8:30 p.m.): This isn’t exactly an elite match-up, given that Colorado is scuffling right at the bottom of the Central Division, but hey, this is still a chance to see the world champs from Chicago do what they do. Should be worth a watch.
In case you missed it AKA we just really enjoy posting wrestling clips, don’t think about it too much
WWE Monday Night Raw: The year-ending pay-per-view Tables, Ladders, And Chairs was this past weekend, and we imagine there’s plenty of fallout of that for Kyle Fowle to work through on tonight’s Raw review. So let’s all take a step back and remember a simpler time, when a man let his wrestling—or, more accurately, his blowing up of buses—do the talking for him.
The Texas Rattlesnake just has so much to teach us.