One World assembles dozens of celebrities to (virtually) aid healthcare workers
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, April 17, and Saturday, April 18. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
One World: Together At Home (Saturday, 8 p.m., full list of available viewing sources below): We’ve been at this whole shelter-in-place thing long enough that specials in which musicians perform from their living rooms seem old hat. But even by that standard, this special—curated “in collaboration with Lady Gaga”—is pretty stacked and kinda strange. A fun game: Pick any four names off the roster below and assign them to a corresponding Golden Girl. We’ll go first: Samuel L. Jackson is Dorothy, Megan Rapinoe is Sophia, Paul McCartney is Rose, and Usher—well, Usher is clearly Blanche.
One World is “a historic, cross-platform global special that will celebrate and support healthcare workers and others on the frontlines, and the World Health Organization (WHO) as they lead the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.” It’s also meant to get you to stay home, and to encourage all citizens of the world to “call on governments, corporations, and philanthropists to step up their investments in global health.”
You can watch One World: Together At Home via (deep breath): ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC Music, Amazon Prime Video, Apple, Facebook, Instagram, iHeart Radio, Yahoo, Twitter, and YouTube.
Regular coverage
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Disney+, Friday, 3:01 a.m.)
RuPaul’s Drag Race (VH1, Friday, 8 p.m.)
For kids
The Last Kids On Earth: Book 2 (Netflix, Friday, 3:01 a.m., premiere): This charming post-apocalyptic story returns for a second outing today, with more monsters, zombies, and world-class actors giving fun voice performances. “There’s no shortage of imagination displayed in the various monstrous creations,” Gwen Ihnat said of the first go-round, adding:
Jack makes for a perfect hero to guide kids through this potentially bleak landscape, finding no small victories in locating a lost pal, raiding a grocery store, and tabulating all the monsters’ various strengths so as to be better prepared for the next showdown. Even though a happy ending seems unlikely, Jack takes his unconventional fun times where he can, while kids remain riveted by his unusual plight.
Can you binge it? The first “book”—a one-hour-ish special, just like the new installment—awaits you on Netflix.
On stage At home
The Phantom Of The Opera (YouTube, Friday, 1 p.m., available for 48 hours): To support The Actors Fund, Andrew Lloyd Webber is releasing one of his shows per week for 48 hours (24 hours in the U.K.). This week’s entry is The Phantom Of The Opera, which is worth seeing for the sheer spectacle alone (and if you’ve got a kid at home who loves musicals, we promise they’ll be riveted).
Wild cards
#blackAF (Netflix, Friday, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): “Less glossy and laugh-out-loud funny than black-ish, #blackAF is most effective at being a ‘reboot’ when dealing with serious marital strife. A black-ish season-four arc saw Dre and Bow facing possible divorce, a storyline that mirrored Barris’ relationship with his wife, also a biracial anesthesiologist named Rainbow… It was impossible to imagine Dre and Rainbow splitting for good on ABC’s Tuesday-night anchor, but it seems like anything can happen on #blackAF. It’s that kind of unpredictability and refreshing tone that make the idea of future #blackAF seasons exciting—as long as Barris continues to follow the advice his character gets from Tyler Perry: ‘Tell your own experience. Can’t nobody tell you how to be you.’” Look for the rest of Patrick Gomez’s pre-air review later today.
Too Hot To Handle (Netflix, Friday, 3:01 a.m., complete first season): On the heels of breakout hits The Circle and Love Is Blind, Netflix is shooting for reality show success yet again with this new dating show. Too Hot To Handle gathers 10 ridiculously attractive, sex-positive singles from around the (English-speaking) world and throws them together at a tropical resort. They arrive eager for a month of debauchery until they’re informed of the series’ premise: They’ll win $100,000 if they all remain abstinent—even a kiss on the lips will cost the entire group money. The spunky narrator, Desiree Burch, says the goal is to get these sexed-up commitment-phobes to develop meaningful emotional relationships. But any hope of Love Is Blind-esque journeys of growth quickly dissolves as the cast begin forsaking the greater good for their own gratification and, even worse, scheming to commit offenses to cost the group money out of spite. The international and sex-positive cast is appreciated, but finding someone to root for among the group may prove difficult. [Patrick Gomez]
Selah And The Spades (Amazon Prime, Friday, 3:01 a.m., streaming premiere): “If you took Harry Potter, put it in a paper bag with The Wire, and shook it vigorously, you’d get the basic idea behind Selah And The Spades—a film that, to its credit, is only partially defined by those two elements. It takes place in the ubiquitous YA setting of an elite boarding school; at Haldwell School for Boarding and Day Students, the pupils have sorted themselves into five groups, no hat required. Each of these groups is in charge of catering to a particular teenage vice: One throws the parties, another runs a racket betting on football games, another helps classmates cheat on their exams, and another provides a smokescreen of respectability so the administration suspects nothing. But the most powerful of them all are the Spades, led by honors student Selah (Lovie Simone), who sell the drugs that fuel the parties that cause the hangovers that necessitate the cheating.” Read the rest of Katie Rife’s film review here.