Crisis on ‘Grey’s,’ Netflix’s ‘Night Agent,’ 50 Years of ‘Young and Restless,’ NCAA Sweet 16
Grey’s Anatomy welcomes back Kate Walsh as Addison Montgomery, just in time for anti-abortion protestors to cause havoc at the hospital. Netflix’s action thriller The Night Agent catapults a night-shift FBI agent out of the White House basement to protect a woman in jeopardy and save the country. The Young and the Restless kicks off a 50th anniversary celebration with a gala in Genoa City. After a weekend of upsets, NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament moves into the Sweet 16 round.
Grey’s Anatomy
In the first of a two-part episode—translation: cliffhanger alert—Kate Walsh returns as Addison Montgomery, helping Bailey (Chandra Wilson) welcome a new group of OB/GYN trainees. Her arrival triggers a violent reaction from anti-choice protesters, which leads to a lockdown at Grey Sloan. And as the promo blares: “No doctor is safe.”
Call Jane
By coincidence, Hulu begins streaming a 2022 film inspired by the underground network The Janes, which helped provide access to safe abortions in the days before the Roe-vs-Wade ruling. Elizabeth Banks stars as a 1968 Chicago housewife who is denied an exemption by a hospital’s all-male board when she seeks the procedure to remedy a possibly life-threatening condition. Sigourney Weaver and Wunmi Mosaku co-star as part of a community committed to helping such women in crisis.
The Night Agent
Like a more mindless version of Bodyguard, this overlong 10-part action thriller stars square-jawed Gabriel Basso as boy-scout FBI agent Peter Sutherland, an underappreciated hero living in the shadow of a (seemingly unfairly) disgraced father who toils away on the night shift in the White House basement, manning an emergency phone line that never rings. Until cybersecurity whiz Rose (Luciane Buchanan) calls in a panic, fleeing a home invasion that costs the lives of her secret-spy relatives. The chase is on, and on and on, as they avoid relentless assassins while investigating a cartoonish conspiracy that reaches to the White House. Oscar nominee Hong Chau (The Whale) co-stars as the female president’s Chief of Staff, who seems to be the only one who believes Peter is up to the job of saving the world.
The Young and the Restless
The long-running CBS daytime soap, one of the few still standing, marks its actual 50th anniversary on Sunday, but the celebration begins today, when Victor (Eric Braeden) and Nikki Newman (Melody Thomas Scott) host Genoa City’s posh Bicentennial Gala ball. The occasion brings back several fan favorites while business as usual continues, meaning no secret can stay buried forever. A prime-time retrospective special airs Monday night.
Alaska Daily
It’s a rare series that takes journalism seriously, and in one of the better subplots of this issue-oriented drama, Eileen (Hilary Swank) inspires veteran local reporter Bob (Matt Malloy), who goes along to get along, to toughen up to get some much-needed intel that can help the paper in its crusade to find the true killer of indigenous woman Gloria Nanmac. With only one episode remaining, Eileen and her fearless partner Roz (Grace Dove) continue chasing leads, though both are distracted by the fact that their enterprising work has led to job offers from significant big-city papers. Will they stay or will they go? For that matter, will Alaska Daily itself make it past the first season?
Star Trek: Picard
The Trek nostalgia goes into overdrive in another pivotal episode of Picard’s triumphant final season, when an away team infiltrates a top-secret repository of off-the-books tech. (Or as Patrick Stewart’s Picard puts it: “Burgle the very institution hunting us.”) The rest of the Titan crew decamps to the fleet’s museum, run by Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), who wryly observes: “Leave it to you, Jean-Luc, to turn fatherhood into an intergalactic incident.”
INSIDE THURSDAY TV:
- NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament (6:30 pm/ET, TBS; 7 pm/ET, CBS): The first weekend of the Road to the Final Four certainly lived up to expectations, with quite a few shocking upsets. Now the Sweet 16 remaining teams step up with games Thursday and Friday, with the Final Four decided in games played Saturday and Sunday. Thursday’s roster includes Kansas State vs. Michigan State on TBS, followed by Tennessee vs. Florida Atlantic; on CBS, UConn faces Arkansas, followed by UCLA vs. Gonzaga.
- Law & Order (8/7c, NBC): A journalist’s murder prompts detectives Cosgrove (Jeffrey Donovan) and Shaw (Mehcad Brooks) to complete the victim’s research into a fatal fire. One hitch: the prosecutors’ key witness is awaiting trial for a hate crime. On Special Victims Unit (9/8c), an internet dating site bedevils a young widow, and Organized Crime (10/9c) investigates an assassination attempt at a city council candidate’s fundraiser.
- Station 19 (8/7c, ABC): While department counselor Diane Lewis (Tracie Thoms) drops by to check on Maya (Danielle Savre) as she returns to duty, 19’s shaky Capt. Beckett (Josh Randall) makes a major life decision.
- Walker (8/7c, The CW): Cordell (Jared Padalecki) sacrifices time with the kids to keep the city safe when the rangers realize the extent of militia group Grey Flag’s plans.
- Animal Control (9/8c and 9:30/8:30c, Fox): The new sitcom airs back-to-back episodes, with Frank (Joel McHale) visiting his dad with assistance from Amit (Ravi Patel), who later tangles with a kangaroo.
- The Lesson Is Murder (streaming on Hulu): A three-part docuseries from ABC News Studios could be thought of as How to Not Get Away with Murder, as criminologist and former FBI special agent Dr. Bryanna Fox leads a group of grad students on case studies of three murderers, interviewing them on camera.
- The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip (streaming on Peacock): Veterans of the New York City, Atlanta, Salt Lake City, Miami and Potomac versions pack their designer bags for Thailand in the spinoff’s third season.