World Series Begins, Simone Biles’ Olympics Comeback, Billy Crystal Gets Serious in ‘Before,’ Springsteen’s ‘Road Diary’

The World Series

One of baseball’s greatest rivalries resurfaces in a bicoastal World Series, with star power fueling both the Los Angeles Dodgers (Shohei Ohtani) and the New York Yankees (Aaron Judge) as they meet for the first game at Dodger Stadium. This is the 12th time the teams have met in the Fall Classic, the first since 1981.

Simone Biles Rising

Back in July, as a curtain-raiser to the thrilling Summer Olympics in Paris, Netflix aired the first chapters of a docuseries charting world-renowned gymnast Simone Biles’ return to the sport after withdrawing from much of the Tokyo games in 2021. Her comeback continued triumphantly in Paris, and the Netflix crew was there following her on her path to three more gold medals and a silver, making her the most decorated gymnast in history.

Before

“My life has turned into a Dali painting,” muses Eli (a somber Billy Crystal), a child psychiatrist haunted by the recent suicide of his wife (a spectral Judith Light). His unhappy life takes another turn when an odd little boy, Noah (Jacobi Jupe), shows up on his doorstep, which he’s bloodied with his scratching. Noah has alarming visions, and his drawings suggest an eerie connection with Eli in a slow-burning psychological thriller that might appeal to die-hard fans of M. Night Shyamalan. Launches with two episodes.

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band

Hit the road with the superstar who says, “Since I was 15, playing live has been a deep and lasting part of who I am and how I justify my existence here on Earth.” Director Thom Zimny’s backstage documentary follows Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band musicians in rehearsals and onstage with footage from their 2023-2024 global tour, where they rocked eager crowds for the first time since the pandemic shutdown. Springsteen also appears on BBC America’s The Graham Norton Show (11/10c) alongside Amy Adams and Vanessa Williams.

Blue Bloods

Jake Weber (Medium) guests on the police drama as a British investigator who enlists Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) to help search for an international fugitive, while Jamie (Will Estes) works closer to home to take down a fraudulent sports gambling website. And once again, their commissioner dad Frank (Tom Selleck) butts heads with Mayor Chase (Dylan Walsh).

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

• Happy’s Place (8/7c, NBC): The Tennessee bar isn’t such a happy place when Bobbie (Reba McEntire) decides she needs to mentor half-sister and co-owner Isabella (Belissa Escobedo) in the ways of the business.
• S.W.A.T. (8/7c, CBS): The 20-Squad joins the L.A. sheriff department’s gang unit to stop a rash of stash house robberies that has left no witnesses alive. Followed by Fire Country (9/8c), where Bode (Max Thieriot) considers a potentially life-changing opportunity.
• Sweetpea (8/7c, Starz): Having gotten away with two impulsive murders of horrible people in the darkly comic thriller, Rhiannon (Ella Purnell) plots to take down her next target: longtime bully — and wonderfully named — Julia Blenkingsopp (Nicôle Lecky), who’s now planning to buy Rhiannon’s home and flip it. Not if Rhiannon gets to her first.
• Operation Nutcracker (8/7c, Hallmark Channel): An event planner (Ashley Newbrough) desperately seeks an antique nutcracker that’s gone missing at a family’s Christmas charity auction, getting an assist from the family’s heir (Christopher Russell).
• True Crime Watch: On ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c), Deborah Roberts explores the 1987 murder of Atlanta socialite Lita McClinton Sullivan, killed at her front door in a murder-for-hire plot by a man delivering roses. Dateline NBC (9/8c) reports on two potentially linked murders.
• Fat Joe Talks (9/8c, Starz): This week’s guest: Mary J. Blige, hip-hop royalty and star of the network’s Power Book II: Ghost.
• Great Performances (9/8c, PBS): The New York Philharmonic teams with an international cast for the semi-staged oratorio Emigré, about two Jewish refugee brothers who flee to Shanghai during World War II.

ON THE STREAM:

• Don’t Move (streaming on Netflix): Yellowstone’s Kelsey Asbille stars in a real-time thriller as Iris, whose forest hike is waylaid by a psychopath (Finn Wittrock) who injects her with a serum that will slowly paralyze her over the course of 20 minutes.
• La Maison (streaming on Apple TV+): Amid New Year’s Eve celebrations, the plotting between rival fashion houses shows no signs of slowing down in this addictively soapy French-language drama. But LEDU’s new creative leader, Paloma (Zita Hanrot), is biding her time at former boss Vincent’s (Lambert Wilson) island retreat, learning the intricacies of the craft while others worry that she’s falling under his influence.
• Disclaimer (streaming on Apple TV+): Catherine’s (Cate Blanchett) life continues to shred in Alfonso Cuarón’s multi-layered psychodrama when her nemesis, Stephen (Kevin Kline), brings copies of The Perfect Stranger to her workplace: “The world needs to know who Catherine Ravenscroft really is.” But is this really Catherine? Stephen also targets her vulnerable son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee) in a diabolical catfishing scheme.
• RuPaul’s Drag Race Global All Stars (streaming on Paramount+): In the finale, the remaining global drag stars compete for the $200,000 prize by creating a music video to a new track, “Dance Like the World Is Watching,” with the help of choreographer Jamal Sims.
• Trap (streaming on Max): M. Night Shyamalan’s summer thriller makes its streaming debut, starring Josh Hartnett as a serial killer trying to elude capture while attending a pop concert with his daughter (Ariel Donoghue).