TV shows, new DVDs, movies and books you’ll want to check out this week!
(All times Eastern.)
MONDAY, April 18
Hotel Impossible
Hotel “fixer” Anthony Melchiorri returns with his team of skilled designers for the seventh season of his ongoing mission to revive and repair troubled hospitality properties across the country (9 p.m., Travel Channel).
TruInside: The Comedy Cellar
Some of TV’s hottest comedians all got their starts in a cramped, dank basement in New York City’s Greenwich Village called the Comedy Cellar, and this episode of the docu-series follows a typical week in the life of the iconic standup club (10 p.m., TruTV).
TUESDAY, April 19
NCIS
Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and senior agent T.C. Fornell (Joe Spano) team to pursue two escaped British prisoners, including a former spy, who smuggle themselves to America inside a shipping container (8 p.m., CBS).
NCIS Casts Another Potential Series Regular Prior to Michael Weatherly’s Exit
The Night Manager
Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie headline the cast in this six-part miniseries adaptation of the John le Carré’s bestselling spy tale about love, loss and revenge among modern international criminals (10 p.m., AMC).
Will Hugh Laurie Write a Sequel to his ’90s Spy Novel?
WEDNESDAY, April 20
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit
Benson (Mariska Hargitay), Tutuola (Ice T) and the SVU team investigate a high school student’s hook-up with his female teacher, which ended up as a far more sinister after-school situation than anyone intended (9 p.m., NBC).
What Are Former Law and Order Stars Up To?
There Goes the Motherhood
Six upscale L.A. moms swap diamonds for diapers in this new docu-series as they take an eight-week parenting course taught by expert Jill Spivack, bonding into a unique Hollywood Hills “mommy group” (10 p.m., Bravo).
THURSDAY, April 21
The Odd Couple
Oscar (Matthew Perry) faces a personal dilemma when he dates a young nanny (Brianne Howey) who works for his neighbor (Teri Hatcher), and Felix (Thomas Lennon) is forced to participate—for a change—in an activity in which he’s not interested (8:30 p.m., CBS).
Is Matthew Perry Having Fun Yet?
Inside Amy Schumer
The outrageously funny breakout star returns for the fourth season of her critically acclaimed sketch comedy series, with a string of guest stars including Jake Gyllenhaal, Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, Lenah Durham, Steve Buscemi and Harvey Keitel (10 p.m., Comedy Central).
Quiz: Get To Know Comedienne Amy Schumer
FRIDAY, April 22
The Chew
Actress Susan Sarandon teams up with chef Mario Batali and dishes about her new movie, The Meddler (11 a.m., ABC).
Wild to Inspire
In celebration of Earth Day, you can take a look at the short films of the finalists from this year’s “Wild to Inspire” filmmaking competition, sponsored by Nat Geo Wild and the Sun Valley Film Festival, dedicated to animals and the people who love them (6:30 p.m., Nat Geo Wild).
SATURDAY, April 23
Jack of the Red Hearts
A streetwise teen (AnnaSophia Robb) on the run from her probation officer connects with an autistic girl and has to make a choice: to save herself, or help someone else (8 p.m., Lifetime).
Electronic Music Awards Show
Drop your best beats in front of your flat screen for this first-ever celebration of the top artists, trailblazers and legends of electronic music, as well as the hottest trending acts of today (8 p.m., Fox).
Avicii and 9 Other Folk/Electronic Classics
SUNDAY, April 24
Sports Detectives
This six-hour docu-series seeks—and seeks the truth—about some of the legendary missing treasures in the annals of sports, including Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point ball, the American flag draped around goalie Jim Craig after the “Miracle on Ice” and a bat used by Lou Gherig (9 p.m., Smithsonian Channel).
Meet Sports Memorabilia Collector, Songwriter and Author Seth Swirsky
The Good Wife
The night goes from bad to worse when Alicia (Juliana Margulies) throws a party to celebrate Howard and Jackie’s wedding, and Eli (Alan Cumming) asks Jason (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) to investigate Peter (Chris Noth) in preparation for his trial (9 p.m., CBS).
The Good Wife Creators Tease the Final Nine Episodes of the CBS Drama
Rebellion
This three-night TV drama starring Brian Gleeson, Charlie Murphy and Michelle Fairley kicks off on the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising, charting the turbulent birth of modern Ireland and its fight for independence around the outbreak of World War I (8 p.m., Sundance).
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Go behind the scenes of Disney’s exciting new live-action, special-effect hybrid-ization of The Jungle Book with Ellen Wolff’s The Art of The Jungle Book (Insight Editions), a dazzling collection of full-color photos, concept art and interviews with the cast (including Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken and Ben Kingsley).
For decades, late-night television has set the tone for American conversation, humor and political satire. Jon Mack’s delightful Monologue: What Makes America Laugh Before Bed (Blue Rider) explores the world of the time-honored “lead-in” to late-night talk shows and the tremendous pop-cultural influence wielded by nighttime hosts with first names like Johnny, Jay, Dave, Conan, Jon and Jimmy.
It’s been ranked as the No. 1 movie of all time by the American Film Institute, and now author Harlan Lebo’s Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker’s Journey (Thomas Dunne Books) recounts the making of one of the most famous films in Hollywood history, using previously unpublished materials from studio files, exclusive interviews with surviving members of the cast and crew, and what may be the only copy of the “lost” final script of director Orson Welles’ 1951 masterpiece.
Peek behind the curtains at some of the most colorful—and brilliant—marketing razzle-dazzle to ever light up the New York nighttime sky in Drew Hodges’ On Broadway: From Rent to Revolution (Rizzoli), a lovely coffee-table book bursting with color, overflowing with photos and packed with stars, and all about bringing Broadway’s biggest shows to life in the past 20 years.
For Star Wars fans, this new book is a juicy jawbreaker. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back—The Original Topps Trading Card Series, Volume Two (Abrams ComicArts) reproduces all 352 collectable “bubblegum” trading cards—plus 88 stickers—released as tie-ins to the 1980 blockbuster movie sequel. It’s almost 550 pages of character profiles, story tidbits, movie factoids, quotes, trivia and puzzles, plus rare promo images and commentary from Gary Gerani, the original editor of the Topps Star Wars series.
NEW ON DVD & BLU-RAY
Downton Abbey’s Maggie Smith stars in the British comedy-drama The Lady in the Van (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment), based on Alan Bennett’s memoir about an eccentric elderly woman who “temporarily” parked her vehicle in his driveway—for 15 years.
Leonardo DiCaprio took home an Oscar for his raw, powerful performance in The Revenant (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment), an intense and gripping survival epic based on the true exploits of American explorer Hugh Glass. If you missed it in the theater, now you can see every award-winning detail in Blu-ray, and a special making-of documentary.
A big-hearted polar bear and his of his buddies come to the Big Apple on a mission to save his Arctic homeland from human over-development in the animated family comedy Norm of the North (Lions Gate Home Entertainment).
THIS WEEK AT THE MOVIES
In this Snow White prequel, two sister queens (Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt) prepare for war and a noble huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) and his warrior lover (Jessica Chastain) set out to stop them, in The Huntsman: Winter’s War.
Chris Hemsworth’s Four Best Saturday Night Live Skits
Director Richard Linklater’s comedic successor to his high-school-centric ode to the ’70s, Dazed and Confused (1993), Everybody Wants Some!! follows a group of college newcomers in the 1980s as they navigate their newfound freedoms.
Richard Linklater Talks Before Midnight, Boyhood, and a Possible TV Series
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