Brian Wilson’s Road Trip, J.Lo’s ‘Halftime,’ ‘Mayans’ Finale, ‘Dateline’ Heads to Peacock
PBS’ American Masters salutes Beach Boys visionary Brian Wilson with a road trip special. Go behind the scenes with the busy Jennifer Lopez in the Netflix special Halftime. FX’s Mayans M.C. closes its fourth season. NBC’s true-crime Dateline franchise examines victims’ final days in its first original series for Peacock.
Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road
PBS’ American Masters series celebrates the legendary Beach Boys co-founder and visionary songwriter Brian Wilson by following him and friend/journalist Jason Fine on a rambling road trip through Los Angeles, stirring up memories of an amazing career and troubled personal life. As they tour local landmarks that helped define Wilson’s career, he reflects on his enduring musical legacy and his struggles with addiction and mental illness. Admirers weighing in include Bruce Springsteen, Nick Jonas and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James—with whom Wilson wrote a new song that appears in the special.
Halftime
The title of this behind-the-scenes documentary, profiling the non-stop dynamo that is Jennifer Lopez, refers partly to her Super Bowl LIV halftime show from 2020. Halftime follows Lopez as she prepares for this spectacular as well as other very public performances, including the most recent presidential inauguration. But Halftime is also a metaphor for the superstar’s life, as she reflects on pushing forward into a new phase of a career (on the concert stage, in movies and elsewhere) that may just be getting started.
Mayans M.C.
The fourth season of the violent Sons of Anarchy spinoff wraps with EZ (JD Pardo) trying up loose ends as the club’s future hangs in the balance after a season of warfare and shocking loss. Maybe diplomacy will save them, when club honcho Marcus Alvarez (Emilio Rivera) seeks to make peace with a Redwood Original.
Dateline: The Last Day
Because the appetite for Dateline’s brand of true-crime storytelling appears to be bottomless—witness the recent NBC docudrama The Thing About Pam—the franchise is branching out yet again with its first original spinoff for the company’s Peacock streamer. The Last Day features Dateline’s most recognizable correspondents in new reporting and stories that explore the last day in a victim’s life, focusing on the fateful decisions that led to tragedy. Detectives retrace the victims’ final hours while seeking clues to solve the murder.
Inside Tuesday TV:
- Holey Moley (8/7c, ABC): Will the silly mini-golf competition hit a high note on a night when all eight contestants are experienced musicians? Kermit the Frog joins Rob Riggle and Joe Tessitore in the commentary booth.
- All Rise (8/7c, OWN): Another crisis for Judge Lola (Simone Missick) when Sherri’s (Ruthie Ann Miles) volunteer work threatens to torpedo her judgeship. Elsewhere, Ness (Samathan Marie Ware) learns if she passed the bar.
- Redemption (streaming on BritBox): Ray Donovan’s Paula Malcomson stars in a gritty six-part crime drama as Liverpool detective Colette Cunningham, who’s called to Dublin when her long-missing daughter is found dead. She stays in Ireland to investigate and do right by the child she feels she failed.
- Jane & Lily: Ladies Night Live (streaming on Netflix): Celebrating the successful conclusion of their Grace and Frankie series, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin host an all-female lineup of stand-up comic talent, including Michelle Buteau, Cristela Alonzo, Margaret Cho and Iliza Shlesinger.