Animation Bonanza (‘Lower Decks,’ Grown-up ‘Beavis and Butt-Head,’ ‘Little Demon’), ‘The End Is Nye,’ All About Mike Tyson, ‘She-Hulk’ Outed
Animated offerings include the Season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks and a glimpse of Beavis and Butt-Head as adults—it isn’t pretty. Even less pretty: the raucous FXX animated comedy Little Demon, about a teenager who learns she’s the Antichrist. Science guy Bill Nye hosts a six-part series advising viewers on how to survive a variety of future apocalypses. Travante Rhodes plays controversial boxer Mike Tyson in an eight-part Hulu bio-series. She-Hulk Jennifer Walters finds her calling after her green alter ego goes public.
Star Trek: Lower Decks
The whimsical animated spinoff opens Season 3 with a continuation from last season’s cliffhanger, with Ensign Mariner (Tawny Newsome) going rogue to clear her mother, Capt. Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis), of charges that she orchestrated an attack on the Pakled planet. As usual, Mariner ropes her loyal crew of underlings—Brad (Jack Quaid), Tendi (Noël Wells) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero)—into her scheme, illegally transporting to the Cerritos in drydock to steal the ship and save the day. What could possibly go wrong?
Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-head
Older doesn’t mean wiser when it comes to these chortling idiots. In the second half of a two-part episode, “Smart” Beavis and Butt-Head aliens from an alternate universe peek into the adult lives of the unrepentantly lazy B&B in our world, and it isn’t pretty. Beavis is prematurely wizened and Butt-Head is (what else) a gross slob, and that’s not likely to change even when Beavis is forced to take a job as a home aide—with a twist. (The first vignette finds Butt-Head becoming nice and even compassionate when he goes on meds. That won’t last.)
Little Demon
Irreverent is putting it mildly when it comes to this “adult animation” (translation: vulgar) comedy about 13-year-old Chrissy (voiced by Lucy DeVito), who’s appalled on her first day of seventh grade at a new middle school to discover (while having her first period) that her mom (Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza) once slept with Satan (Danny DeVito)—and, as mom puts it, “You are his mortal conduit to Earth, known to bodily types as the Antichrist.” Now that the devil has caught wind of his offspring, all hell is about to break loose at school, at home and elsewhere. Obviously not for the easily offended, Little Demon feels best suited for the easily amused.
The End Is Nye
Over six nights, or available to binge on streaming, science guy Bill Nye returns to TV to help us survive the next apocalypse. Several, in fact. From the fictional Disaster Institute, Nye enters a simulator that creates end-of-the-world global disaster scenarios, natural and fantastical, and he applies his knowledge of science to guide us toward hopeful solutions. Syfy leads into the premiere with a daylong “Recipe for Disaster” marathon of five Sharknado movies starting at 11:40 am/10:40c. You’ve been warned.
Mike
For those who haven’t yet had enough of the controversial boxer Mike Tyson, the streamer coughs up a conventional biopic in eight parts (two a week through Sept. 15). Trevante Rhodes is the adult Mike, who achieved fame in the ring after a rough childhood. Guest stars include Harvey Keitel as trainer Cus D’Amato, Russell Hornsby going over the top as promoter Don King and Laura Harrier as ex-wife Robin Givens.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
Now that her being-green secret is out after the first episode’s courtroom transformation, Jennifer (Tatiana Maslany) becomes infamous in the media as “She-Hulk,” a name she detests, while insisting she’s not interested in Avengers-style vigilantism: “That’s for billionaires and narcissists—and adult orphans for some reason,” she explains, tongue firmly in cheek. Suddenly unemployable as a lawyer, Jen finds a new calling when a rival firm offers her a position in a newly created superhuman law division. First client: the notorious Emil Blonsky, aka Abomination (Tim Roth), who’s up for parole. Never mind that he once tried to kill her cousin Bruce, the most famous Hulk.
Inside Thursday TV:
- Wild West Chronicles (8/7c, INSP): All photographers know it’s about being in the right place at the right time. So it is for C.S. and Mollie Fly, who open up a studio in Tombstone, Arizona, just in time to get a shot of the infamous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
- Great Chocolate Showdown (9/8c, The CW): The latest challenge for the remaining bakers tackles the age-old question: Do chocolate and veggies go together?
- The Con (10/9c, ABC): The true-crime docuseries revisits the case of fake-coupon queen Lori Ann Talens, who used her graphic-design skills to create fraudulent coupons while on bed rest after having a third child. She initiated a counterfeit ring that would eventually soak retailers for more than $31 million until she was busted.
- Everything I Know About Love (streaming on Peacock): A seven-part series based on Dolly Alderton’s fictionalized memoir dramatizes the romantic ups and downs for female besties in their 20s sharing a London house in 2012.
- House of Ho (streaming on HBO Max): The second season of the multigenerational reality soap about the wealthy Ho family from Houston introduces cousins and single roomies Bella and Kim Ho, and daughter Judy’s future sisters-in-law Vanessa and Tammy and their partners.