Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Friday, January 25 and Saturday, January 26. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix, Friday): She may be alive, she may be unbreakable, but Kimmy Schmidt’s story of discovery and perseverance after 15 years of imprisonment in an underground bunker couldn’t last forever. (Dammit!) But at least now—after part four’s midseason split—we finally have access to the last six episodes. If the previous three seasons showed Kimmy adapting to life outside of the bunker, the show’s final run centers instead on her recovery. As Kimmy began to process her buried trauma, she learned to do with it what she does best: turn it into something positive. Now, she’s sending that positivity out into the world in a bid to guard young boys against the evils of misogyny… before it’s too late!
These final episodes are as much about looking back as they are about looking forward, reminding us of how much the characters have grown. Expect to see what Ellie Kemper called “a very loving send-off,” complete with more of the show’s flair for the bizarre, more almost-too-quick-to-catch one-liners, more musical numbers, and more irresistibly lively, unbreakable spirit. Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya has the review.
Regular coverage
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars (VH1, Friday, 8 p.m.)
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW, Friday, 9 p.m.)
Saturday Night Live (NBC, Saturday, 11:30 p.m.)
Wild card
Black Earth Rising (Netflix, Friday): Kimmy Schmidt may have found humor and optimism in and in spite of its lead’s horrific past, but this new Netflix drama—originally released on BBC Two— explores the very real and painful daily reverberations of past trauma. This contemporary thriller by The Honorable Woman and The Shadow Line writer-director Hugo Blick follows Kate Ashby (Chewing Gum’s Michaela Coel) who, after being orphaned by the Rwandan genocide, was adopted as an infant and raised in London by an international human rights lawyer (Sense And Sensibility and The Young Victoria’s Harriet Walter). Now an adult investigator recovering from a recent suicide attempt, Kate is incensed when her mother agrees to prosecute a militia leader who fought to end the Rwandan genocide. It also stars John Goodman. This well-received miniseries promises to grapple with challenging ethical questions, offering a complex study of what it’s like to live with emotional and physical scars, to cope with inherited trauma, to feel displaced, and to confront a past you can’t even remember.
12 Comments
Politics Corner – Scoreboard. Open the Government with a Clean CR – 52 votes in the Senate with reports that many more Republicans are reaching the breaking point. All Dems and 6 GOP are voting yes for a no wall solution. Trump’s bullshit ‘compromise’, 50 votes. The GOP has 54 Senate seats. No Dems defected, because it is garbage. You might have compared the 50 votes it received to the 54 seats the GOP controls. Leading mathematician say 52 is more than 50. No one knows for sure. But everybody knows 50 is less than 54. More fun with numbers – 60% of voters say Trump owns the shutdown. That includes Trump, on national TV, live.This isn’t a game. But for every person saying Dems should forfeit – we didn’t ask for this, and if we give the hostage takers what they want, next time they’ll come for Medicaid. Trump is dumb, but if we reward this dumb thing he did, he’ll do it again. Dumb as shit? Absolutely. Ruthless and stubborn? Absolutely. This is why we can’t cave. Because cavimg will make everything worse for everybody. They’ll be hostages every few months until every social program is gutted. It’s not a game, but if You’re thinking about caving, check the scoreboard.
The “compromise” deal seems specifically designed to reiterate the hostage scenario in three years. It would be the gift that keeps on giving for the GOP.
Separately Roger Stone was indicted. https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/426921-read-roger-stone-indictment
Actually one Dem senator voted for the compromise bill, Joe Manchin of WVa. Otherwise I completely agree.
This is correct, thank you for the correction. GOP also control 53 Senate seats, not 54. Accuracy is very important to me, but Kinja has a very narrow edit window. Always appreciate someone as devoted to facts as I am.
“Accuracy is very important to me, which is why my posts are always riddled with errors.”
The protectors of American innovation at the USPTO have until February to continue to operate, despite being funded entirely with fees and not with taxes.Commerce head Wilbur Ross, whose department encompasses patents, very helpfully said that instead of eating from food kitchens, every one of his furloughed employees should open a new line of credit to weather the shutdown, because interest is nothing. This isn’t really news, but it’s the helpful information my boss’s boss’s boss offers me.
The final episodes will be a uh fascinating transition. Damn it.
If Titus doesn’t end up with Mikey, I’m done with this world.
Mikey deserves better
Are you gonna cover Leaving Neverland?
Good riddance. While I thought the first few seasons of Unbreakable had a few laughs, the misandry of the last season was off-putting. Its casual assumption of male misogyny is exactly the kind of simplistic SJW propaganda that is counter-productive and leads to idiots like Trump being elected…