Tony Awards, ‘Evil’ Is Back, ‘Dark Winds,’ The Young Elizabeth I, ‘Gaslit’ and More Finales

Tony Awards

SUNDAY: The best of Broadway, and some of its history, will be celebrated in a milestone ceremony honoring the first uninterrupted theater season in several years. The first hour, The Tony Awards: Act One, features many of the craft awards and several special performances, hosted by Emmy winners Darren Criss and Julianne Hough (each currently on Broadway in American Buffalo and POTUS, respectively). Oscar winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) hosts the three-hour live broadcast on CBS, including performances from nominated musicals A Strange Loop (favored to win), MJ, Mr. Saturday Night, SIX, Girl from the North Country, Paradise Square and nominated revivals of The Music Man (with Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster) and the late Stephen Sondheim’s Company. More highlights include special appearances by Bernadette Peters, Billy Porter, the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus and a reunion of the original cast of Spring Awakening (the subject of a recent HBO special).

Evil

SUNDAY: Creepy, kooky, sexy and often as funny as it is scary, the supernatural/spiritual inheritor of the X-Files throne is back for a third season of mirthfully malicious chills. The dizzying premiere plunges newly ordained priest David (Mike Colter) into a private hell of temptation after his fateful kiss with fellow paranormal investigator Kristen (Katja Herbers). She has her hands full at home with the return of her husband (Patrick Brammell), while her demonic nemesis Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) continues to troll her daughter Lexis (Maddy Crocco), though she’s hardly a pushover. At work, David, Kristen and skeptic Ben (Aasif Mandvi) observe a scientific experiment involving an attempt to weigh the human soul at the moment of death. “I’m a medical mystery,” chortles Wallace Shawn as a priest who unexpectedly survives the trial. As usual with Evil, there are no convenient or cozy answers.

Dark Winds

SUNDAY: Robert Redford and George R.R. Martin are among the executive producers of an engrossing mystery series based on Tony Hillerman’s celebrated Leaphorn and Chee novels. The excellent Zahn McClarnon (Fargo) has his meatiest role to date as Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn, whose beat includes the Navajo Nation near scenic Monument Valley (much is made of its place in Western movie history). Leaphorn tentatively welcomes Berkeley-educated Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) to his team as a new deputy just in time to tackle two seemingly unrelated cases: a brazen armored-car robbery by helicopter and a double murder in a motel on the reservation. The Americans’ Noah Emmerich co-stars as a wary FBI agent who gets in their business. Atmospheric and authentic, Dark Winds is a good fit for those who typically spend their Sundays with Masterpiece Mystery!

Becoming Elizabeth

SUNDAY: If your taste runs more toward period costume pageantry, this sensual historical drama introduces the future Queen Elizabeth I (the quietly compelling Alicia von Rittberg) as a teenager, the odd adolescent out after the death of King Henry VIII in 1547, who left behind three heirs from three deceased queens. Boy king Edward VI (Oliver Zetterström) rules—or rather is told how to rule by advisers—over a country in political and religious disarray. (Eldest sister Mary, played by a poignant Romola Garai, adheres to her mother’s Catholic faith.) But Becoming Elizabeth is less obsessed with royal intrigue than with bodice-ripping, once young Liz’s loins are stirred by the flirtatious attention of her new stepfather, Thomas Seymour (charismatic Tom Cullen), who weds the king’s lusty and manipulative widow, Catherine Parr (Jessica Raine, chewing the luscious scenery). Given how her own mother (the beheaded Anne Boleyn) fared in this treacherous court, Elizabeth will need to tread carefully. (See the full review.)

Gaslit

SUNDAY: “Some days it’s impossible to be me,” quips Martha Mitchell (a moving Julia Roberts) in the limited series’ finale, smiling through her pain as she declines, emotionally and physically, in the wake of the Watergate scandal. As her estranged husband and ex-Attorney General John Mitchell (Sean Penn) heads to trial, a chastened John Dean (Dan Stevens) has another memorably harrowing encounter with deranged conspirator G. Gordon Liddy (the outrageous Shea Whigham). As sad as Martha’s story is, she manages to get the last word (sort of) in this memorable series.

The First Lady

SUNDAY: The penultimate chapter of the three-in-one biographical series goes to war—Eleanor Roosevelt (Gillian Anderson) helping FDR (Kiefer Sutherland) in their public partnership as the nation enters WWII—and political battle, as Michelle Obama (Viola Davis) consents to help Hillary Clinton (the ever-reliable Kate Burton) in her presidential campaign. For Betty Ford (the brilliant Michelle Pfeiffer), it’s a much more private conflict, when her family tries to get her to face her alcoholism with a painful intervention.

More Finales:

• Barry (Sunday, 10/9c, HBO): The third season of the brilliant dark comedy was not made available for preview, but with former war buddy-turned-FBI agent Albert Nguyen (James Hiroyuki Liao) and a vengeful Jim Moss (Robert Wisdom) now on the not-quite-reformed hit man’s trail, things are looking more dire than ever for Barry (Bill Hader).
• The Baby (Sunday, 10:30/9:30c, HBO): In the finale of the macabre horror comedy, Natasha (Michelle de Swarte) decides to give the mysterious infant what she thinks he wants.
• Ten Percent (Sunday, 10/9c, BBC America): David Harewood (Supergirl) guests in the British comedy’s Season 1 finale, as the talent agency prepares for a visit from their American boss.

Inside Weekend TV:

• Amy Schumer’s Parental Advisory (Saturday, streaming on Netflix): The comic curates a showcase for fellow stand-ups including Lil Rel Howery, Ron Funches, Rachel Feinstein, Chris Distefano, Christina P and Jaye McBride.
• Dirty Little Secret (Saturday, 8/7c, Lifetime): From the network’s “Ripped from the Headlines” slate, Melissa Joan Hart stars as a nurse whose title shame involves hoarding at home, which becomes an emotional burden and dilemma for her 17-year-old daughter (Lizzie Boys).
• Time 100: The World’s Most Influential People (Sunday, 8/7c, ABC): Hosted by Simu Liu (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), with performances by Mary J. Blige and Miranda Lambert, a special goes inside the recent gala celebrating the magazine’s annual list of influencers.
• The Booze, Bets and Sex That Built America (Sunday, 8/7c, History Channel): A new extension of the channel’s “That Built” franchise focuses on the origins of America’s alcohol, tobacco, gambling and sex industries. The premiere profiles Jasper “Jack” Daniel (whiskey) and Adolphus Busch (beer), and explores the development of the cigarette and the condom.
• Riverdale (Sunday, 8/7c, The CW): The show’s annual musical fantasia could hardly be more fitting for this twisted town: American Psycho the Musical.
• Color My World with Love (Sunday, 9/8c, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries): Heart-warmer alert: Erica Durance (Smallville) is the protective mother of Kendall (Lily D. Moore), an artist with Down Syndrome who begins a relationship with another diverse learner, Brad (David DeSanctis), when they meet in a cooking class.