A docu-comedy hybrid follows a juror through a trial, unaware that it’s fake and everyone around him is an actor. Country music star Kane Brown guests on Fire Country as a train hopper who helps out at a crash site. Tennis star Boris Becker and rap producer J Dilla are subjects of new documentaries.
Prime Video
Jury Duty
Think Night Court is wacky? Get a load of this eight-part docu-style prank comedy, in which an unsuspecting dupe by the name of Ronald Gladden is placed on a jury during a trial that everyone else knows is a scripted fake. He’s surrounded not by his peers, but by actors who are all in on the scripted joke. (Dead to Me’s James Marsden appears as a version of himself, further throwing off the balance of reality and fakery.) The series launches with four episodes, with two a week through the April 21 finale, when Ronald will presumably witness his co-stars plead guilty to having fooled him.
Sergei Bachlakov/CBS
Fire Country
Fresh off co-hosting the CMT Music Awards last weekend, country-music star Kane Brown exercises his acting chops in his episodic debut on the hit first-responder drama. He plays Robin (think Robin Hood), a mysterious train hopper who joins the effort to help injured passengers after a train crashes. The rescue is complicated when it’s discovered the train is carrying illicit cargo.
Apple TV
Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker
Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney’s two-part profile of German tennis superstar Boris Becker unfolds over three years of interviews, culminating in his sentencing a year ago to prison for financial malfeasance. Becker reflects on a life in the spotlight from the time he won Wimbledon at 17 through his turbulent tabloid existence since retirement. Among his peers weighing in: John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and Novak Djokovic.
Courtesy of Netflix
Transatlantic
A glossy historical drama from Unorthodox creator Anna Winger feels timely in its depiction of a refugee crisis in 1940 Europe, when hordes of persecuted citizens fled to the port city of Marseilles seeking a way out of Nazi-occupied France at a time when exit visas were scarce and the U.S. was still maintaining a neutrality policy. Gotham’s Cory Michael Smith stars as American journalist-turned-humanitarian volunteer Varian Fry, whose Emergency Rescue Committee helped smuggle thousands to safety through perilous back channels. Community’s Gillian Jacobs co-stars as Chicago heiress Mary Jayne Gold, who helps bankroll the risky effort. If much of this recalls 1942’s Casablanca, by coincidence the Oscar-winning classic airs Saturday at 8/7c on Turner Classic Movies.
INSIDE FRIDAY TV:
- The New York Times Presents: The Legacy of J Dilla (10/9c, FX, streaming on Hulu): The latest installment of the New York Times docuseries remembers rap producer J Dilla (born James Dewitt Yancey, a Detroit native), whose reputation has grown since his death at age 32 in 2006. Exclusive interviews with his family create an intimate portrait of a hip-hop visionary who made his mark in collaborations with Erykah Badu, Busta Rhymes, A Tribe Called Quest and D’Angelo.
- Jason Isbell: Running with Our Eyes Closed (8/7c, HBO): The latest in Bill Simmons’ Music Box docuseries profiles the musician as he heads into the studio with his band The 400 Unit to record his deeply personal new album Reunions.
- Lopez vs. Lopez (8/7c, NBC): Expect fireworks when George (George Lopez) and his ex Rosie (Selenis Leyva) turn to a TV judge to resolve their latest dispute.
- The Monkees (8:30/7:30c, 5:30 pm/PT, AXS TV): The madcap musical hit from the late 1960s joins the network as part of a new “Retro Night,” which includes the second season of The Very, VERY Best of the ’80s (8 pm/ET) and Nothing But Trailers Flashback (9 pm/ET), with movie trailers themed to genres prevalent in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.
- Gold Rush: Parker’s Trail (9/8c, Discovery): Having washed out in Alaska, 28-year-old Parker Schnabel takes his crew to Peru in his international quest for gold. There, they work with a miner who shares extraction strategies passed down over the centuries from the Incas.
- True Crime Watch: ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c) plays back the scandalous events surrounding the 2014 murder of Robert Limon, whose wife Sabrina was convicted along with her younger firefighter lover. On Dateline NBC (9/8c), correspondent Josh Mankiewicz digs into the 2014 shooting death of 27-year-old Texan Jonathan Crews. Was it suicide, as his girlfriend claimed, or murder?
- Now Hear This (9/8c, PBS): The Great Performances series returns with violinist/conductor Scott Yoo on a global journey to illuminate the stories and music of renowned composers. He starts in Buenos Aires, where he explores composer Astor Piazzolla’s “History of Tango.”
- Blue Bloods (10/9c, CBS): Things could get messy when one of commissioner Frank’s (Tom Selleck) “Dream Team” is sidelined by a departmental investigation.
ON THE STREAM:
- Tiny Beautiful Things (streaming on Hulu): The versatile Kathryn Hahn stars in an 8-part limited series (all episodes available for binge-watching) as Clare, a stalled writer who takes over an advice column while her personal life collapses around her. “How did I get so far from the person I wanted to be?” Clare wonders, reflecting on her past as she tries to fix the present.
- Chupa (streaming on Netflix): A family-friendly fantasy stars Evan Whitten as teenage Alex, who befriends a mythical chupacabra cub while visiting his extended family (including Demián Bichir as his grandfather) in Mexico. When Alex learns a sinister scientist (Christian Slater) is hunting little Chupa for his own purposes, they set off on an adventure.
- Praise This (streaming on Peacock): Grammy nominee Chloe Bailey (grown-ish) stars in a musical film set in Atlanta, where an aspiring singer joins her cousin’s underdog gospel youth choir praise team during a national competition.