TV picks: ‘American Idol,’ ‘Leaving Neverland,’ ‘Good Girls,’ ‘For the People,’ and more
What's new or noteworthy in the coming week of television.
American Idol. I’m still liking ABC’s kinder, gentler Idol auditions, where the talent gets most of the attention and the freak-show aspect has been muted — even if the stories can get a little sappy. (Just try to make it through Sunday’s two-hour premiere without a tear or two.) Look for 25-year-old Margie Mays of Wilmington among the hopefuls on the first night. 8 p.m. Sunday, March 3, and Wednesday, March 6, ABC.
Leaving Neverland. Here’s the four-hour, two-night documentary you’ve been hearing so much about, in which two men talk about the sexual abuse they say they experienced as young boys at the hands of Michael Jackson. “Leaving Neverland doesn’t attack Jackson with ‘gotcha!’ tabloid attitude. Instead, it builds a slow, inexorable, and heartbreaking case,” Inquirer music critic Dan DeLuca wrote of the film. 8 p.m. Sunday, March 3, and Monday, March 4, HBO.
Free Solo. Alex Honnold’s astonishing ropes-free climb up the face of Yosemite’s El Capitan is the subject of this surprisingly suspenseful film — winner last Sunday of the Oscar for feature documentary — about one man’s obsession and the people who find a way to live with it. It’s OK if you have to look away at some points — I certainly did. 9 p.m. Sunday, March 3, National Geographic Channel.
Good Girls. Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Retta (Parks and Recreation), and Mae Whitman (Parenthood) return for a second season as three women whose initial decision to solve their financial problems by robbing a grocery store continues to have enough life-changing consequences to keep the show going. 10 p.m. Sunday, March 3, NBC.
A.P. Bio. Glenn Howerton is back as the disgraced philosophy professor who’s now supposed to be teaching Advanced Placement biology to high school students in Toledo. Patton Oswalt plays the principal who’s trying to make a teacher out of him. 8:30 p.m. Thursday, March 7, NBC.
For the People. Shondaland legal drama set in the Southern District of New York — a court we’re hearing a lot about lately — kicks off its second season with a case involving a gamer, an online dispute, and the death of a U.S. senator. Season premiere was directed by Havertown’s Tom Verica, one of the show’s executive producers. 10 p.m. Thursday, March 7, ABC.
After Life. New dark comedy stars Ricky Gervais as a widower whose response to losing his wife is to stop holding back, and to start saying and doing whatever he likes. Honestly, this doesn’t seem like a stretch for Gervais. Friday, March 8, Netflix.
Saturday Night Live. Luther star Idris Elba, People’s Sexiest Man Alive, guest-hosts for the first time. 11:29 p.m. Saturday, March 9, NBC.