The Missing debuts, sating America’s appetite for endangered British children
Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, November 14, and Saturday, November 15. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
The Missing (Starz, 9 p.m., Saturday): For everyone still missing Broadchurch and/or not fully on board with Gracepoint, the BBC thoughtfully serves up another good-looking, intense mystery series about imperiled children! When a British couple’s young son is abducted on a trip to Paris, the father (James Nesbitt) and a retired French detective (Tcheky Karyo) begin an obsessive, years-long search for the boy, destroying his marriage to grieving Frances O’Connor. Kate Kulzick’s TV Review will let you know if the great cast can make this one another must-see series.
Also noted
Constantine (NBC, 10 p.m., Friday): When one of John Constantine’s dumber pals unleashes a demon in downtown Atlanta, it’s up to Matt Ryan’s Constantine to clean up the mess, and up to Brandon Nowalk to ask, “Why is he in America again?”
Comedy Bang! Bang! (IFC, 11 p.m., Friday): Chris Hardwick leaves his nerd kingdom behind to match wits with Scott and Reggie in their enclave of absurdity, but Emily L. Stephens is, as ever, all tingly at an appearance from Andy Daly’s Chip Gardner, honorary Mayor of Hollywood (and star of one of the best CBB podcasts ever.)
Saturday Night Live (NBC, 11:30 p.m., Saturday): Providing perhaps superfluous publicity for the newest Hunger Games movie, Woody Harrelson hosts for the fourth time tonight (alongside musical guest Kendrick Lamar). Four times? That means we’re only one more Hunger Games away from Woody hosting the most laid back Five Timers Club sketch of all time. Opening line: “Hey, DeVito, um, are you still…cool?” Dennis Perkins checks in to see if there’s any repeat of last week’s line flub-a-thon—if there is, he suggests we check Woody’s dressing room.
Regular coverage
The Legend Of Korra (12 p.m., Friday):
TV Club Classic
The Twilight Zone (12 p.m., Saturday): Zack Handlen says, “Look over there!,” and then when you turn back around, he’s reviewed both “The Jeopardy Room” where Martin Landau’s Russian defector has three hours to find the bomb in his room, and “Stopover In A Quiet Town,” where a couple wakes up from a bender to discover themselves in a mysteriously empty town. And then Zack says, “But those were there the whole time…”
Elsewhere in TV Club
It’s Sesame Street Week here at the A.V. Club, everybody! So check out film critic extraordinaire Ignatiy Vishnevetsky’s look back at one of Jim Henson’s influences, master puppeteer Sergei Obraztsov. Then, have the hand operating you click on this week’s AVQ&A, where a muppet-load of A.V. Clubbers share their fuzziest memories of The Street. Then waddle on over to Marah Eakin‘s touching revisiting of Big Bird’s only big screen starring role Follow That Bird:
What I didn’t remember until the re-watch was just how achingly sad Follow That Bird is. Detailing Big Bird’s quest to find his bird self, subsequent realization that he already had a family, and attempt to return to Sesame Street, Follow That Bird is a story of self, of loss, and of the dumb adventures an 8-foot-tall, 6-year-old bird can get into without the help of friendly adults.