Your TV GPS, an overview of the coming TV week, appears every Monday morning on BostonGlobe.comToday’s column covers the period from September 9th to 15th.
With a last-minute rescue worthy of an episode of “Survivor,” Emmy-winning husbands and wife Eugene Levy and Dan Levy make history as the first father-son duo to co-host the Emmys. 76th Primetime Emmy Awards will be broadcast live from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on ABC at 8 p.m.
As television’s dominance over cinema continues to grow, the year is set to feature high-profile stars such as Jodie Foster, Selena Gomez and Meryl Streep. Also nominated and expected are TV contemporaries Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis – “Only Murder in the Building” co-stars and Emmy contenders Martin Short and Steve Martin – as well as Jeremy Allen White, Carol Burnett, Gary Oldman, Idris Elba, Jon Hamm and Robert Downey Jr.
In this highly competitive year, strong favorites are entering the race with multiple nominations. The drama “Shogun” leads with 25 nominations. The comedy “The Bear” follows with 23 nominations, breaking the record for most nominations for a comedy series, set by “30 Rock,” which received 22 nominations in 2009. Of all the networks, the financially strong Netflix has a total of 107 nominations.
What other profitable viewing opportunities have we noticed this week?
1. Only two competitors face each other in the Presidential debate The show will air live on ABC at 9 p.m. Tuesday, direct from the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have never met before, which will add extra tension to the confrontation. As with the decisive debate between Trump and President Joe Biden on CNN in June, the microphones will only be turned on when it is the candidate’s turn to speak. The moderators will be David Muir, anchor and editor in chief of “World News Tonight,” and Linsey Davis, anchor of “ABC News Live Prime.”
2. The fourth season of the Peabody Award winner “My brilliant friend”, about two friends growing up in Naples, Italy and drifting apart in adulthood, will premiere tonight at 9 p.m. on HBO. The drama is based on Italian novelist Elena Ferrante’s masterful Neapolitan Quartet, considered one of the best books of the 21st century, and will be the final season of the colorful, intellectual and emotionally charged series.
3. The True Crime tip of the week is “The Real Murders on Elm Street” Airs Monday at 9pm on ID and Max. Horror villain and child murderer Freddy Krueger from Wes Craven’s Nightmare on Elm Street series won’t be showing his razor-sharp claws, but you can expect real terror. The six-part crime docuseries will travel through small towns and suburbs across America, revisiting heinous crimes committed on peaceful-sounding Elm Street. The premiere shows the murder of a mother and her two children in the “safety” of their own home. In another episode, a house on Elm Street catches fire and the hapless firefighters find two bodies pierced by swords inside. Covering one local disaster per episode, the gripping series challenges audiences’ notions of what is safe in the heartland of America.
4. Wild and crazy journalists Colin Jost and Michael Che take a break from their duties at the “Saturday Night Live” Weekend Update to “Colin Jost and Michael Che present: New York After Dark.” The live comedy special with special stand-up guests premieres Thursday at 9 p.m. on Peacock.
5. The irresistible Nepo senior Jeff Bridges continues to produce some of the best work of his long career. Exhibit A: “The Old Man” Season two. The latest season premieres Thursday at 10 p.m. on FX and streams the next day on Hulu. In the eight-part series, inspired by Thomas Perry’s 2017 thriller, Afghan tribal leader Faraz Hamzad (Navid Negahban) kidnaps Emily Chase (Alia Shawkat). In response, cancer and COVID survivor Bridges springs into action as former CIA agent Dan Chase, joining John Lithgow’s former FBI Deputy Director Harold Harper to free the prisoner from flying bullets. In its first season, the series and its star won Best Television Drama and Best Actor – Television at the 2023 AARP Movies for Grownups Awards.
Thelma Adams is a critic and novelist.
