Hey, noice! Brooklyn Nine-Nine is back
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Thursday, February 6. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC, 8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., special time, one-hour seventh-season premiere): Welcome to the first Thursday in this post-The Good Place world. Everything is fine—but perhaps it’s better to say that everything is noice.
The sixth season ended with the demotion of Captain Holt—something obviously distressing to all the fine folk of the Nine-Nine and delightful to the many D-bags Holt’s infuriated over a lengthy career. It seems likely that much of this one-hour premiere (two episodes, airing back-to-back) will deal with the new, uneasy status quo. LaToya Ferguson has her yogurt and highlighters ready and will recap the activities of Brooklyn’s finest.
Regular coverage
Star Trek: Picard (CBS All Access, 3:01 a.m.)
The Sinner (USA, 9 p.m.): Third-season premiere
Wild cards
Katy Keene (The CW, 8 p.m., series premiere): “Katy Keene is far from drama-filled (or reality-filled), the type of show unlikely to make an Emmy nomination list. But you could do worse for weeknight escapist fodder than tuning in to the weekly travails of Katy and her friends. They may just bring to mind your own dusty dreams you have socked away somewhere—if only you, too, were fueled by Chinese takeout, a solid group of pals, and a galvanizing scarlet wardrobe.” Read the rest of Gwen Ihnat’s pre-air review.
Briarpatch (USA, 10 p.m., series premiere): “Briarpatch feels a bit like a throwback to USA’s Blue Skies days, a series that traffics in the kind of crime dramedy on which the cable channel made its bones… It combines the easy pleasures of cornball small-town life, replete with odd supporting characters and their respective running gags, with the darker fare the channel has embraced in recent years: harsh violence, themes of nihilism and moral concessions, and aspirations of artistic superiority.” Read the rest of Alex McLevy’s pre-air review.
Interrogation (CBS All Access, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): This crime drama (of the “based on a true story” variety) boasts a top-notch cast and a weird, your-mileage-may-vary approach, which combined make for a mixed bag. On the one hand, Peter Sarsgaard stars alongside Andre Royo (The Wire), Kyle Gallner (Veronica Mars), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Punisher), and David Strathairn (so many things), among others. On the other, creators John Mankiewicz and Anders Weidemann conceived of the show as a story you structure on your own—a bit like Steven Soderbergh’s Mosaic, but without, you know, Steven Soderbergh. The creators encourage viewers to leap from one question to another, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that this would have been better as a regular old TV series. If you love a mystery and a good character actor or two, it’s worth a look—just be prepared for the gimmick to wear out its welcome in a hurry.
30 For 30, “Vick—Part 2” (ESPN, 9 p.m.): “For the past two NFL seasons, the greatest show on any given Sunday has been whatever game features either the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes or the Baltimore Ravens’ Lamar Jackson. These two quarterbacks’ creativity and playmaking skills stand out in comparison to the conservative tactics and brute physicality of so much of the league, which lately has been producing games that feel choppy and graceless. By contrast, watching Mahomes and Jackson escape tackles and make impossible throws isn’t just exciting, it’s moving. It’s marvelous theater.
For older fans, the Mahomes and Jackson phenomenon has been pleasantly familiar. It’s a throwback to the early 2000s, and the heyday of Michael Vick.” Read the rest of Noel Murray’s pre-air review.