The news is on
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Thursday, January 7. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
This isn’t the first time we’ve been unsure of what will actually air on television in any given evening, but it is perhaps the most unsure. Below you’ll find a list of scheduled coverage. Other than that, we’ve got no idea. But we can guarantee that the news will be on and we’ll be watching it.
One specific note: As of this writing, NBC has not announced any changes to tonight’s lineup. If that remains true, then Tina Fey and Robert Carlock’s new sitcom will premiere. Mr. Mayor (NBC, 8 p.m, first two episodes, series premiere) is a sitcom about a hapless, inept billionaire who becomes the mayor of Los Angeles on what’s essentially a whim. It stars Ted Danson and Holly Hunter. We’re not sure this is the best moment for such a series to kick off, but if it airs, keep an eye out for Saloni Gajjar’s coverage.
Regular coverage
Star Trek: Discovery (CBS All Access, 3:01 a.m.): Third-season finale
The Stand (CBS All Access, 3:01 a.m.)
Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina (Netflix, ongoing): Binge coverage concludes
Vikings (Amazon, ongoing): Binge coverage continues
From Film Club
Pieces Of A Woman (Netflix, 3:01 a.m.): “Pieces Of A Woman, Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó’s first English-language feature, opens with a bang, then immediately sputters. In its harrowing prologue, which depicts a home birth gone terribly wrong in one mesmerizing continuous take, we see a young couple, Martha (Vanessa Kirby) and Sean (Shia Labeouf), plunged into the sudden chaos of delivery. After nearly 23 minutes on edge, Martha holds her newborn baby in her arms for a few blinks of an eye before tragedy strikes and the opening title card hits the screen. The White God director’s latest is meant to be a portrait of grief in the aftermath of a staggering loss. The pain of mourning someone that never truly had a chance to live is complex, slippery, unimaginable. So unimaginable, in fact, that Mundruczó and screenwriter Kata Wéber seem to have difficulty imagining it themselves. The result is a clichéd maelstrom of psychological turmoil and empty outpourings of feeling. The film is uninterested in the inner world it claims to investigate; it also cheapens a woman’s trauma by rendering her pain into a confused dramatic spectacle.” Read the rest of Beatrice Loayza’s film review.