Worth Watching: ‘Hollywood Game Night,’ ‘Dr. Pimple Popper, ‘Siren’
A selective critical checklist of notable Thursday TV:
Hollywood Game Night (9/8c, NBC): On a summer night overrun with game and reality-competition shows, only one boasts a multiple Emmy winner as host: Jane Lynch (with two for Hollywood Game Night, one for Glee and a fourth for acting in a short-form comedy). A sixth season opens with a fresh beach-house setting, as Lynch presides over teams led by American Ninja Warrior‘s Akbar Gbajabiamila and Matt Iseman, joined by Superstore‘s Nico Santos, and another featuring The Good Place co-stars D’Arcy Carden, Jameela Jamil and Marc Evan Jackson. New games this season include something called “Whipflash!”
Dr. Pimple Popper (9/8c, TLC): Back for a third season of dermatological rescues that often go more than skin deep, Dr. Sandra Lee has seemingly never met a lump, bump or alarming growth she couldn’t handle. Following a season preview at 8/7c, the opener finds the good doctor treating a woman with substantial growths on her ears, another with stress-inducing bumps all over her neck and chest, and a man with a lump on his middle finger. Pop goes the doctor.
Siren (8/7c, Freeform): The fishy supernatural thriller resumes its second season with the mermaids gone way offshore in the wake of the attack on the oil rig. This leaves Ben (Alex Roe) and Maddie (Fola Evans-Akingbola) understandably missing Ryn (Eline Powell), who’s gone back under the sea to save her kind from extinction.
Inside Thursday TV: What could be a more appropriate title for a Christmas-in-July movie than Hallmark Movies & Mysteries’ Christmas Camp (9/8c)? Sounds pretty campy when an ad exec (Lily Anne Harrison) heads to Christmas Camp to get into the spirit in hopes of landing a toy company’s account. Naturally, the camp’s owner’s son (Bobby Campo) is on hand to try to land a soulmate. Ho-ho-ho… History’s Ax Men (9/8c) goes “Back to the Woods” with the rugged loggers of the Pacific Northwest for a 10th season… The CW’s female-forward fantasy The Outpost (9/8c) returns for a second season. And while they’ve retaken said outpost, there’s no rest for Talon (Jessica Green) and Gwynn (Imogen Waterhouse), who are busy preparing for war… It’s all about trust on CBS’s Elementary (10/9c) when Sherlock (Jonny Lee Miller) and Watson (Lucy Liu) are asked to consult on a murder case by Cassie Lenue (Allie Ioannides), a whip-smart young criminal they once helped put behind bars. What’s her motive?
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