Twice-Told Docudrama in ‘Painkiller,’ ‘Strange New Worlds’ Cliffhanger, Survival Games on CBS & The CW, Medical Emergency ‘in the Shadows’

Painkiller

The story of America’s addiction to Oxycontin—“heroin in pill form”—and the legal scandal that blemished the venal Sackler pharmaceutical family, was dramatized in 2021 for Hulu as the Emmy-winning Dopesick. And while nothing in this six-part docudrama version matches the power of Michael Keaton’s award-winning performance as Dopesick’s core character of a country doctor-turned-addict, it remains a compelling and enraging cautionary tale, even when director Pete Berg’s production becomes overwrought and even cartoonish in depicting the villains’ rapacious greed. Each episode is introduced, documentary-style, by a grieving parent of a child who succumbed to the drug, a sobering start to a solid docudrama with strong work by Uzo Aduba as a frustrated U.S. Attorney’s office investigator, serving as narrator to the crimes of Purdue Pharma head Richard Sackler (a calcified Matthew Broderick), who in a tired device is hounded by the arrogant ghost of his grandfather Arthur (Clark Gregg), whose callous marketing philosophies made the family billions. Taylor Kitsch co-stars as a working-class family man whose back injury leads to a spiral of addiction, with West Duchovny (David’s daughter with Téa Leoni) as a newbie Pharma saleswoman who lives to regret her success.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

The excellent second season of the Trek prequel snaps back into action mode, following last week’s brilliant musical detour, for a season-finale cliffhanger involving the Enterprise’s nemesis, the lizard-like Gorn, who have attacked a neutral planet on the edge of Federation space. (Shades of the invasion of Ukraine setting off an international diplomatic crisis.) While Capt. Pike (Anson Mount) and his crew debate how to rescue the survivors without instigating a Starfleet war, the stakes become personal for quite a few Enterprise personnel. Classic Star Trek fans will also enjoy a chance encounter with a key figure from the canon, just one more reason to watch this entertaining sci-fi adventure.

The Challenge: USA

Formerly an MTV staple, the reality-competition pioneer returns to CBS with an overstuffed cast featuring 18 veterans of CBS’s reality hits (Survivor, The Amazing Race, Big Brother), who are blindsided when they learn they’ll be competing against six Challenge alums who know what it takes to make it through the gauntlet. Host TJ Lavin gets things rolling by introducing a twist that could put multiple players in jeopardy at the first elimination. The two-part season premiere continues Sunday, where The Challenge will also air for the first three weeks. When it’s all over, one man and one woman will be left to split a $500,000 prize.

Fight to Survive

More Survivor survivors saddle up alongside other reality vets (from shows including Naked and Afraid, Alone and American Ninja Warrior) for a more primal battle, enduring grueling conditions on a remote tropical island for 25 days as they face off in competitions for tools and resources. Ninja Warrior’s Akbar Gbajabiamila hosts as the players open the season with a struggle for control of the island’s natural resources, while Missy Byrd (Survivor) challenges Keali’i “K” Ka’apana (Called to the Wild) to a fight.

What We Do in the Shadows

Hairy flying frogs and a delicious celebrity cameo spice up the latest chapter of the rollicking supernatural comedy, which takes us someplace we hope never to visit again: a creepy Urgent Care facility for the undead, when half-vampire “familiar” Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) suffers a mutilating injury while trying to fly. Though hardly the maternal type, Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) volunteers to take “Gizmo” to the doctor, which alarms the half-human should she discover he was turned by a vampire other than his master Nandor (Kayvan Novak). An equally funny subplot finds energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) drained of his own energy when he suddenly becomes fascinating to mortals.

And Just Like That…

You can take the girl out of the city, but I guess we’re not allowed to see it. The romance of Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Aidan (John Corbett) continues to evolve in the wake of her (unseen) visit to his family in Virginia, which prompts a quick trip to New York from Aidan’s friendly but concerned ex, Cathy (Rosemarie DeWitt). The rekindled love affair, the best argument to date for reviving Sex and the City, is inspiring Carrie to consider one of her biggest life changes to date, while the rest of her entourage are stuck in tiresome B-stories—especially Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristin Davis), who fret that their offspring might be hooking up. (I’d urge elopement.)

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Generation Gap (8/7c, ABC): Former Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner is the celebrity guest. Will anyone from either generation recognize her?
• Alone Australia (10:30/9:30c, History Channel): The Down Under version of the popular survivalist reality series begins a run following episodes of Alone.
• Love in Taipei (streaming on Paramount+): A YA romance, based on the novel Loveboat, Taipei, stars Ashley Liao as Ever, a would-be dancer who travels to Taipei for a cultural immersion program but soon is immersed in a love triangle and a journey of self-discovery.
• The Ex-Wife (streaming on BritBox): New Amsterdam’s Janet Montgomery is the title character in a psychological thriller about an ex who won’t leave her former husband (Sleepy Hollow’s Tom Mison) and his new wife (Celine Buckens) in peace.