Discovery’s Final Mission, ‘Elsbeth’ Is Back

The venerable hospital drama, just renewed for its 21^st season, welcomes back one of its own when Jessica Capshaw returns as Dr. Arizona Robbins (seasons 5 through 14) to perform a tricky surgery. What will she make of the newest batch of interns, still on the ropes and being grilled about their spotty track record? Elsewhere at Grey Sloan Memorial, Teddy (Kim Raver) is itching to get back on the job after her near-death experience.

Meta crossover alert! To mark its 100^th episode, having just been renewed for an eighth season, the hit first-responder show acknowledges its new home on ABC by staging one of its crises at the Bachelor mansion. Seems one of the female contestants goes a bit too far in making a first impression on Bachelor Joey Graziadei (playing himself), ending up in the opposite of a bed of roses. In a more personal emergency, Athena (Angela Bassett) returns from her eventful Poseidon Adventure-like cruise to learn that her son Harry (Marcanthonee Jon Reis) is in trouble with the law.

Film noir lives on in glorious black and white in Oscar winner Stephen Zaillian’s stylish adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s psychological crime novel The Talented Mr. Ripley. Andrew Scott (Fleabag) is perfectly cast as Tom Ripley, a petty grifter barely surviving in 1961 New York when he accepts an offer from a tycoon to bring his indolent trust-fund son Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), who Ripley barely knows, home from his escapades in Italy. Slowly, Tom insinuates himself into Dickie’s life, aiming to win over Dickie’s suspicious girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning) in the process. For Ripley, this is an opportunity for reinvention, a path of lies that leads to murder.

The first of the streamer’s Star Trek spinoffs (from back when the platform was known as CBS All Access) begins its final journey with a rousing fifth and final season for the Discovery crew, who have adjusted to life in the far future after being thrust 900 years away from the era of Kirk and Spock several seasons ago. Their “millennium celebration” at Federation HQ is cut short by a new assignment, a “Red Directive” orchestrated by a secretive Dr. Kovich (cult film director David Cronenberg). Capt. Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) leads her team to an 800-year-old abandoned Romulan vessel harboring a valuable ancient artifact described as “the greatest treasure in the known galaxy.” Turns out they’re not the only ones looking for this cosmic MacGuffin, setting up conflict with space pirates Moll (Eve Harlow) and L’ak (Elias Toufekis). Back on home base, First Officer Saru (Doug Jones) weighs a career opportunity that could bring him personal satisfaction even if it means giving up his Starfleet commission.

It was a long wait between episodes, but those who were charmed by the pilot of this spinoff back in late February are in for a treat. The Columbo-style “how-catch-’em” crime caper, starring Emmy winner Carrie Preston as incurably perky lawyer-turned-amateur snoop Elsbeth Tascioni (from The Good Wife and The Good Fight), returns with two back-to-back episodes. In classic Columbo tradition, we know who done it—typically a well-known performer—and the fun is in watching the hero figure it out. Guest stars are Jane Krakowski as a ruthless real-estate agent, whom Elsbeth suspects had something to do with the “accidental” fatal fall of a building’s cranky co-op president (Linda Lavin), followed by Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson as the manipulative producer of a Real Housewives-style reality TV show who finally got fed up with his most demanding diva. The guests look like they’ve having as much fun sparring with Elsbeth as we do watching them.

The nostalgic family comedy from Canada that has more than a touch of The Wonder Years in its DNA ends its third season—no word of renewal yet—with young Mark’s (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) graduation from junior high. Series creator Mark Critch, who based the show on his own childhood, wrote the episode, featuring young Mark’s graduation speech, which is bound to be moving as the lad reflects on how his family and friends have helped shape his character.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• 30 Years of TCM (8/7c, Turner Classic Movies): The essential movie channel celebrates its 30^th anniversary this month, with each week’s Thursday lineup introduced by network staffers past and present. The channel’s first president, Brad Siegel, introduces Woody Allen’s 1977 Oscar-winner Annie Hall to kick things off, followed by 1982’s Diner(10/9c) introduced by former General Manager Tom Karsch (1995-2007).
• Young Sheldon (8/7c, CBS): The impending nuptials of Georgie (Montana Jordan) and Mandy (Emily Osment)—who’ll be getting their own spinoff next season—causes a religious rift between their devout moms, Mary (Zoe Perry) and Audrey (Rachel Bay Jones).
• Ghosts (8:30/7:30c, CBS): Jon Glaser guests as the B&B guest who threatens never to go away. He’s also the younger brother of Trevor (Asher Grodman), a chip off the money-manipulating block who’s found a loophole in the Woodstone Rewards Program. Elsewhere, new ghost Carol (Caroline Aaron) is showing renewed interest in her cuckolded ex, Pete (Richie Moriarty), and Sasappis (Román Zaragoza) worries the scoutmaster will get his heart broken again.
• The First 48 (8/7c, A&E): The true-crime docuseries returns with new episodes, followed by premieres of Accused: Guilty or Innocent?(9/8c) and Interrogation Raw (10/9c).

ON THE STREAM:

• Tokyo Vice (streaming on Max): The crime thriller’s Season 2 finale could decide the fate of yakuza leader Tozawa (Ayumi Tanida) as journalist Jake (Ansel Elgort) and detective Katagiri (Ken Watanabe) close in on taking the gangster down.
• Música (streaming on Prime Video): Rudy Mancuso is the star-director-writer of a semi-autobiographical romcom about a young Brazilian-American aspiring artist in Newark who lives with synesthesia, hearing rhythm in every sound he hears, which complicates his love life. Riverdale’s Camila Mendes co-stars, along with Rudy’s real-life mom Maria.
• The Influencer (streaming on ALLBLK): Christina Cooper (Dear White People) stars in a thriller as Niecy, a social-media star who attracts the wrong, and deadliest, kind of follower.