Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, March 27, and Saturday, March 28. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Saturday Night Live (NBC, 11:30 p.m., Saturday): After three weeks off from a shaky season, SNL invites the burly charisma machine that is Dwayne Johnson to save the day—although he thinks he’s there just to promote that upcoming movie where he punches a series of automobiles in the face, or that movie where he punches an earthquake in the face. Dennis Perkins scoffs that musical guest George Ezra has never punched a natural disaster in his life.
Also noted
Grimm (NBC, 8 p.m., Friday): Sure, it’s not like Community coming back from the dead (and then again), but Grimm’s resurrection into the regular A.V. Club weekly rotation is yet another testament to fans (of the show and A.V. Club reviews) convincing the powers that be that they were being big jerks by dropping them in the first place. New Grimm reviewer—and Portland, Oregon resident—Les Chappell jumped into the breach with this glowing endorsement of last week’s episode:
It’s a show that figured out its strengths in the early going and is able to play to those strengths, and having retained its entire core cast for its entire run it’s retained a striking amount of consistency. True, it’s probably never going to reach the heights of creator David Greenwalt’s last show Angel, but there’s nothing wrong with a show finding a comfortable life as a network utility player.
Yeah! “Network utility player!” Welcome back to the A.V. Club, Grimm!
12 Monkeys (Syfy, 9 p.m., Friday): Cole makes a last-ditch effort to stop the world-killing plague by zapping himself back to 1987. Emily L. Stephens would never, never suggest that, as a time traveler, “last ditch efforts” might have do-overs. Never.
Childrens Hospital (Adult Swim, 11:59 p.m., Friday): The staff gets invited to the White House. No doubt they will all be properly vetted and no one will accidentally kill the President. LaToya Ferguson is almost 100 per cent certain.
Regular coverage
Bloodline (Netflix). Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya’s daily reviews continue at 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday!
TV Club Classic
Doctor Who (Classic): Christopher Bahn returns with his exhaustive reviews of all things Doctor, this time taking us on a tour of Third Doctor Jon Pertwee’s battle against some cool turtle-guys in ”The Sea Devils.”