Back in the Saddle with Joe Pickett, Time Loops in ‘Lazarus Project,’ HBO’s ‘Idol,’ TLC Forever

Joe Pickett

SUNDAY: If you’re mourning the demise of ABC’s Big Sky, or are still pining for more TV on the lines of Longmire, take heart. A second season of the terrific series adaptation of C.J. Box’s best-selling mystery thrillers has finally arrived. (Originally a Spectrum Originals exclusive, it has since moved to the Paramount streamer—and in another world could have been a big hit for a network like CBS.) Once again using Canadian locations to pass for Wyoming, Joe Pickett stars For All Mankind’s pitch-perfect Michael Dorman as the title game warden, a family man of innate decency who guards against his inner reservoir of violent anger, always in danger of being triggered by the corruption in his midst. With lawyer wife Marybeth (Julianna Guill, wonderful) still healing from the attack that ended the gripping first season (available for binge-watching), they stumble across a potential serial killer in the new season, launching with two episodes.

The Lazarus Project

SUNDAY: If we could turn back time … turns out we can. That’s the premise of this intriguing British sci-fi thriller from Sky Studios, starring I May Destroy You’s Paapa Essiedu as George, an everyday app developer in the U.K. who suddenly becomes aware that he’s living the last six months over. And over. What explains this Groundhog Day phenomenon? The Lazarus Project, of course, “a top-secret multinational organization dedicated to preventing and undoing mass extinction events,” George learns in an exposition dump. Because he’s one of the rare humans who has detected these manufactured time loops, George is recruited into the save-the-world organization. But when tragedy alters his own personal timeline, will George use Lazarus for his own purposes?

The Idol

SUNDAY: Met with a less than euphoric response when screened at the Cannes Film Festival, where one reviewer likened it to a “sordid male fantasy,” The Idol is the rare HBO show premiering without stateside critics getting an advance look. Make of that what you will, but know that Euphoria creator Sam Levinson is reveling in the advance buzz for the instantly controversial show-biz story of pop star Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), whose comeback after a breakdown is engineered by sexually manipulative impresario Tedros (Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye).

TLC Forever

SATURDAY: The story of the R&B girl group comprised of Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes has enough drama and heartbreak for a movie—and in fact, Lifetime will present the 2013 CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story biopic (first seen on VH1) at 5:30 pm/4:30c before premiering a new two-and-a-half-hour documentary. TLC Forever follows the group’s rise to fame and acclaim and the perseverance required to carry on after “Left Eye’s” untimely death in 2002 in a car crash.

INSIDE WEEKEND TV:

• Act Your Age (Saturday, 8/7c and 8:30/7:30c, Bounce): With back-to-back episodes launching the second half of the first season, Age puts the spotlight on three timeless comedy stars—Kym Whitley, Tisha Campbell and Yvette Nicole Brown—in a sitcom about women in their 50s in the Washington, D.C./Northern Virginia area who are figuring out their next moves.
• Wedding Season (Saturday, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel): Meet cute alert! Stephanie Bennett is a journalist who’s doing triple duty as bridesmaid to her three best friends—but maybe a trip down the aisle is in her own future when her bestie’s brother (Casey Deidrick) becomes her substitute date.
• 48 Hours (Saturday, 10/9c, CBS): Agatha Christie would love this one. In “The Case of the Poisoned Cheesecake,” Peter Van Sant reports on the 2016 attempted murder of a Queens, N.Y. stylist whose Russian client tries to poison her with tainted cheesecake. Their uncanny resemblance to each other could be the clue to a motive.
• 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days (Sunday, 8/7c, TLC): Meet seven new couples—and one returning (Gino and Jasmine)—as they decide if there’s a romantic future for them once they cross international borders to start their lives together.
• Battle on the Beach (Sunday, 9/8c, HGTV): The third season of the beachfront home renovation competition finds mentor Ty Pennington hoping for a first team win over previous champs Taniya Nayak and Alison Victoria. After a kick-off challenge deciding which house each team will tackle, they go to work on kitchen and dining room makeovers that make it worth coming in from the water in Golf Shores, Alabama.
• The Eric Andre Show (Sunday, midnight/11c, Adult Swim): The raucous spoof of late-night talk interspersed with elaborate pranks is back for a sixth season of outrageous hijinks, with guests this season including Jon Hamm, Natasha Lyonne, Raven-Symoné and Tinashe.