The End of ‘Evil,’ ‘Reasonable Doubt’ Returns, Hanging with Orangutans, Becoming ‘Unbelievably Vegan’

Series Finale

All good things come to an end, they say, but does Evil really have to? The series finale, while undeniably rushed, still manages to weave the threads of humor, horror and glorious surprise that make this spiritual descendant of The X-Files a must-see. The church may have disbanded the assessment trio — Kristen the forensic psychologist (Katja Herbers), David the priest (Mike Colter) and Ben the tech-savvy skeptic (Aasif Mandvi) — but their work is far from finished. (And by the end, you can believe that should another outlet step up — we’re looking at you, Netflix — it wouldn’t take much to get them back in business.) While the malevolent Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) and the demonic gang of The 60 prepare for a Black Mass with potentially far-reaching consequences, everyone fears for Kristen’s safety — including her rambunctious daughters, who should know better than to break out those creepy VR goggles. And though I’ve mentioned it before, it bears repeating that should a spinoff be in the cards, they need look no further than the great Andrea Martin as the resourceful Sister Andrea. Just saying.

Season Premiere

The sexy legal drama, which owes a considerable tonal debt to the potboilers of Shonda Rhimes, returns for Season 2 with Jax (Emayatzy Corinealdi) two months into recovery from her kidnapping ordeal, finally cleared to go back to work at her posh boys’-club law firm. But a high-profile case involving one of her BFFs, Shanelle (Shannon Kane), hits too close to home, so she calls in the services of a hotshot — and very hot — defense lawyer (Morris Chestnut from CBS’s upcoming Watson series), which probably won’t do much to repair the fault lines in her troubled marriage.

Series Premiere

What is it with TV and the primate kingdom? There’s Bad Monkey on Apple TV+, Chimp Crazy on HBO and now the latest from nature maven Sir David Attenborough, our guide to the jungles of Sumatra, where we meet a multigenerational tribe of great apes who share 97 percent of our DNA. Among the fascinating orangutans on display: Rakus, who made news as the first wild animal to be filmed treating a wound with a medicinal herb.

Special

In a special that sounds like it could be the template for an ongoing series, best-selling chef and veganism advocate Charity Morgan tries spreading her healthy vegan philosophy to (of all places) a Nashville sports bar where meat is king. Can she convince the Germantown Pub’s stubborn chef to adapt her “Three R” system of “Replace, Replicate, Repeat” to his kitchen? Sounds rather unbelievable.

Democratic National Convention (8 pm/ET, PBS; 9 pm/ET, ABC, CBS, NBC): Presidential contender Kamala Harris takes the stage on the final night of the Democratic gathering in Chicago. (Will she go on earlier than President Joe Biden did on Monday?) In late night, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert finishes a weeklong visit to the Windy City from the spectacular Auditorium Theatre on CBS (time approximate, 11:35/10:35c), and Jon Stewart hosts a live edition of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show (11/10c).

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• That ’90s Show (streaming on Netflix): The spinoff of That ’70s Show is back with eight new episodes, and Leia (Callie Haverda) is in the doghouse when grandparents Red (Kurtwood Smith) and Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp) return home to find a ginormous hole in their kitchen wall. Reluctant to leave her friends when summer is over, can Leia convince her mom, Donna (Laura Prepon), to stay in Wisconsin for good?
• Fifteen-Love (streaming on Sundance Now): Provocatively timed on the cusp of the start of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, a six-part melodrama stars Poldark’s Aidan Turner as a tennis coach rocked when his former protégée (Ella Lily Hyland) makes troubling allegations against him five years after an injury sidelined her from the game.
• Classified (streaming on Prime Video): An eight-part drama sends Ella (Imani Pullum), a rebellious San Francisco teen, to South Africa to chill with her estranged dad, enrolling in an elite school where she’s unexpectedly drawn into political intrigue.