Powerful Crime Drama in ‘Long Bright River’ and ‘Adolescence,’ Hetty’s Ghostly Gift, ‘Wheel of Time’ Turns Again, ‘Top Chef’ in Canada

Long Bright River

Emmy winner Amanda Seyfried (The Dropout) stars in an emotionally compelling crime drama based on Liz Moore’s terrifically gritty novel. Seyfried is Mickey Fitzpatrick, a Philadelphia cop who patrols the depressed neighborhood she grew up in and on whose streets her drug-addicted sister Kacey (Ashleigh Cummings) has gone missing. Mickey’s search for Kacey and flashbacks to their tragic past provide a poignant framework for Mickey’s rogue investigation into a series of murders of forgotten street women just like Kacey. Mickey’s also a single mom to 8-year-old Thomas (the remarkable Callum Vinson), who yearns for more family connection, but Mickey’s messy personal life and dogged sense of duty make her one of the most intriguingly imperfect heroines since HBO‘s Mare of Easttown. The deeper Mickey digs into the corruption of the city, the better we understand her own sorrows and regrets in a suspenseful tearjerker.

Adolescence

While River takes its bittersweet time (eight episodes) to play out its story, this gripping British drama delivers its punch in four taut hours, each distinct episode filmed (by director Philip Barantini) in a single continuous take. There’s no opportunity to look away from the raw, wrenching emotion when, in the first hour, police raid a suburban home to arrest 13-year-old Jamie Miller (an astonishing Owen Cooper) for the murder of a female classmate. Co-writer and star Stephen Graham plays his disbelieving father, Jimmy, who in the final hour (set 13 months later) is still coming to grips with the tragedy. The standout episode, which unfolds like a blistering one-act play, involves Jamie’s meeting with a court-appointed psychologist (The Crown‘s Erin Doherty), during which encounter the boy comes off as alternately charming, menacing and broken. This limited series will haunt you.

 

Ghosts

The haughty Hetty (the delightful Rebecca Wisocky) has long felt like the odd ghost out because she boasts no apparent supernatural power. That changes in a St. Patrick’s Day-themed episode that also introduces Asif Ali (Hulu‘s Deli Boys) as Jay’s (Utkarsh Ambudkar) unlucky-in-love cousin Sunil. Elsewhere on the spectral plane, Isaac (Brandon Scott Jones) goes overboard trying to impress the B&B’s latest spirit, dinosaur-loving stripper/skydiver Chris (Deniz Akdeniz).

The Wheel of Time

For Season 3 of the fantasy series based on Robert Jordan’s sprawling novels, Wheel adapts the fan-favorite fourth volume, The Shadow Rising, with action flying quickly as war erupts between two factions of power-wielding females. Elsewhere, villager Rand (Josha Stradowski) clashes with his protector Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) over his new life as the Dragon, the reincarnated figure who may save — or end — the world. Launching with three episodes.

Top Chef

Bring on the poutine! The trendsetting cooking competition heads north to Canada for the 22nd season, with 15 chefs demonstrating their prowess for host Kristen Kish, head judge Tom Colicchio, and Canada native Gail Simmons. In the opener, the chefs pick an ingredient from the pantry while incorporating the judges’ surprise ingredients, and in the Elimination Challenge, they prepare dishes representing Canada’s five regions.

Matlock

Matty (Kathy Baker) is at an emotional crossroads. Now convinced that her boss and friend Olympia (Skye P. Marshall) may be the culprit who hid documents in the opioid case, she finds it hard to focus as the team takes the all-important class-action case against a toxic beverage to trial. She’s also worried that her needy sister Bitsy (Julie Hagerty) will discover she’s the inspiration for Matty’s folksy “Matlock” character. And the search continues for a mole within the firm that could help Matty in her quest for justice.

The Pitt

“Get Dr. Robby!” That’s the common refrain in another strong episode of the hospital drama, with one senior resident suddenly sent home (prompting plenty of gossip) and Robby (Noah Wyle) hopping from crisis to crisis to fill the void. They may be short-staffed, but the empathetic Robby urges charge nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa), still recovering from her assault, and senior resident Heather (Tracy Ifeachor), who’s processing her own secret trauma, to go home and heal.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• 9-1-1 (8/7c, ABC): The search is on for Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), kidnapped in a cliffhanger by the least likely serial killer (Abigail Spencer) in recent memory. Followed by Doctor Odyssey (9/8c), with a blackout aboard the ship complicating treatment for the shark-attack victims; and Grey’s Anatomy (10/9c), welcoming back Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) and Nick (Scott Speedman) for a liver transplant case.
• Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage (8/7c, CBS): Young Sheldon‘s Annie Potts and Craig T. Nelson visit the spinoff when Mandy (Emily Osment) discovers Meemaw’s illegal sportsbook and wants a piece of the action.
• Law & Order (8/7c, NBC): D.A. Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) recuses himself in a case involving a politician’s murder. Followed by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (9/8c), where the squad debates a case involving sex and drug use.
• Animal Control (9/8c, Fox): The Season 3 finale finds Frank (Joel McHale) and the crew scrambling to find strays to fill the new kennel before the press arrives for the facility’s groundbreaking ceremony. Followed by the season finale of Going Dutch (9:30/8:30c), where the Colonel (Denis Leary) makes a grand gesture to compensate for forgetting his daughter Maggie’s (Taylor Misiak) birthday again, but risks endangering his relationship with Dr. Katja (Catherine Tate).
• Elsbeth (10/9c, CBS): The great Tracey Ullman is the guest star du jour, playing a professional psychic who tries to read Elsbeth (Carrie Preston) when she starts snooping into the murder of a client’s stepson.
• Found (10/9c, NBC): A timely episode follows M&A as the team searches for missing undocumented children.

ON THE STREAM:

• The Parenting (streaming on Max): A wildly talented cast gathers for a supernatural comedy when Rohan (Nik Dodani) and Josh (Brandon Flynn) rent a country house to bring their parents together, played by Brian Cox, Edie Falco, Lisa Kudrow and Dean Norris, with current The White Lotus star Parker Posey as their rental manager — who somehow forgot to mention the 400-year-old poltergeist haunting the property.
• Pippin 50th Anniversary Concert (streaming on BroadwayHD): There’s magic to do when Tony winner Alex Newell (Glee) leads the cast as the Leading Player in a concert performance of Stephen Schwartz’s famed musical from London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
• Control Freak (streaming on Hulu): Kelly Marie Tran stars in a psychological horror thriller as a motivational speaker tormented by an itch on the back of her head that’s the sign of a parasitic demon.
• Reacher (streaming on Prime Video): The hulky hero (Alan Ritchson) finally confronts his nemesis, Quinn (Brian Tee), but his mission of vengeance will have to wait, because Quinn has sent goons to Chicago to target Neagley (Maria Sten) and other allies, potentially blowing his cover.
• Like Tears in Rain (streaming on Viaplay): Blade Runner star Rutger Hauer, who passed away in 2019, is profiled in a documentary directed by his goddaughter, Sanna Fabery de Jonge.