‘Young Sheldon’ Wedding, Meet the Polter-‘Ghost,’ Skeletons in the ‘SVU’ Closet, Prime Video’s ‘Fallout’

Young Sheldon

They’ll be getting their own spinoff next season, but first, new parents Georgie (Montana Jordan) and Mandy (Emily Osment) are getting hitched. And as they promised last week, after being ambushed by both of their moms’ secret baptisms for baby CeeCee, they’re having what Dale (Craig T. Nelson) calls an impromptu “spite wedding,” choosing the Justice of the Peace over a lavish ceremony. But after the happy couple heads off to a Dollywood honeymoon, the moms (Zoe Perry, Rachel Bay Jones) go to war again over who’ll babysit, a situation complicated by Meemaw (Annie Potts) getting on the wrong side of the law with her illegal gambling parlor.

Ghosts

We get another amusing glimpse into the lusty lives of the dearly departed when a charming poltergeist (New Girl’s Lamorne Morris) wearing a Negro Leagues baseball uniform arrives at Woodstone—attached, as go the spectral rules, to a guest to whom he’s forever yoked. Unless a smitten Alberta (Danielle Pinnock) can convince him to, as they say, jerk himself off onto a new “living” human so he can stay longer. “This is a desert. I’m parched,” Alberta explains. In other ghost activity, Nigel (John Hartman) and Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones) enjoy separate bachelor parties, and while Isaac insists he’s only interested in dinosaurs these days, he’s in for a surprise when his entertainment arrives.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Series star Mariska Hargitay directs a strong episode that tugs at the maternal instincts and struggles of justice warrior Olivia Benson. First, her adopted son Noah (the excellent Ryan Buggle) confronts her with troubling questions about her violent past and his biological roots. “Why are there so many bad guys in the world?” he wonders. A fair point, considering Benson and her team’s grueling case involving a teenage girl who’s brutally assaulted in a park by a “wolf pack” of boys, with her best friend missing and presumed kidnapped. Followed by an eventful episode of Law & Order: Organized Crime (10/9c), where Stabler’s (Christopher Meloni) younger brother Joe Jr. (Michael Trotter) reacts badly to his siblings’ intervention, while Reyes (Rick Gonzalez) returns to the squad and Stabler turns to his military contacts to get to the source of a heroin pipeline.

Fallout

In the high-concept tradition of The Last of Us and Halo, a popular post-apocalyptic video game comes to life with darkly comic verve. (Prime Video pushed up the release date twice for those who couldn’t wait.) If Ella Purnell thought she had it tough on Yellowjackets, that’s nothing compared to her adventures as Lucy, who’s lived her life underground in a vaulted shelter, protected from a world decimated by nukes more than two centuries earlier. Forced to go aboveground to rescue her father, Lucy is confronted by numerous obstacles, none more freakishly weird than the Ghoul (the great Walton Goggins), a bounty hunter without a nose. Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan, an executive producer, directed the first three of eight episodes, all available for delirious binge-watching.

9-1-1

The first responders of the 118 get in touch with their feelings, when Buck (Oliver Stark) continues to explore his newly awakened bisexuality on a first date with Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.), while his bestie Eddie (Ryan Guzman) takes stock of his relationship with Marisol (Edy Ganem). There’s also a new addition to Hen (Aisha Hinds) and Karen’s (Tracie Thoms) family. Still, it wouldn’t be 9-1-1 without at least one over-the-top crisis, this time involving a man whose hand appears to have a violent mind of its own.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• The Masters: First Round (3 pm/ET, ESPN): Tee off with golf’s greatest at 2024’s first major tournament from Georgia’s revered Augusta National Golf Club.
• Patti Stanger: The Matchmaker (8/7c, The CW): The “Millionaire Matchmaker” teams with Bachelor alum Nick Viall to help clients find their soulmates. First client: Shahs of Sunset’s GG.
• Grey’s Anatomy (9/8c, ABC): While Jo (Camilla Luddington) and Link (Chris Carmack) grapple with what might be a surprise pregnancy, Grey Sloan goes into crisis mode when a bunch of medical students are injured after a floor collapses during their white coat party. Followed by Station 19 (10/9c), in which the Grey’s spinoff marks its 100^th episode with a perilous rescue mission at Seattle’s famed landmark Space Needle.
• So Help Me Todd (9/8c, CBS): Jenifer Lewis (black-ish) chews the scenery as Lyle’s (Tristen J. Winger) opera-diva mother Jacqueline, improbably accused of an onstage murder. Followed by the delightful Elsbeth (10/9c), with special guest Retta (Parks and Recreation) as a matchmaker with a sinister secret. ER’s Gloria Reuben appears as Capt. Wagner’s (Wendell Pierce) wife.
• Elkhorn (9/8c, INSP): A fact-based drama re-creates the Western adventures of future president Theodore Roosevelt (Mason Beals) in the 1880s, introducing him as a grieving widower who takes solace ranching in North Dakota after the deaths of his wife and mother.
• Cities of Success: Denver & Boulder (10/9c, CNBC): The traveling franchise stops in Colorado to profile two major cities that have positioned themselves as business hubs, while dealing with affordable housing shortages amid homelessness and migrant issues.
• Star Trek: Discovery (streaming on Paramount+): The final journey’s next destination is the planet Trill, where Adira (Blu del Barrio) reunites with Gray (Ian Alexander) while Team Burnham encounters another dangerous test as they seek the next clue. For Former No. 1 Saru (Doug Jones), his new post as Ambassador is challenged by his engagement to Ni’Var president T’Rina (Tara Rosling).