Hulu, 3:00 a.m. ET
This imaginative sci-fi series, like many before it, taps into time travel – or, at least, the stream of time – as an inspiration for its narrative. But the scientists of Devs see the time continuum as a natural resource to be tapped and perhaps exploited: mining the past, for sound and images captured like Arctic core samples, and predicting the future, up to a point. It’s fascinating. And, in this telling, spooky and more than a little sinister, as is made clear in tonight’s latest installment.
PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
If your local public television member station isn’t devoting Thursday nights these days to the documentaries of Ken Burns, presenting them as a special and eminently worthwhile time-consuming TV treat, you can find the same material every Thursday on PBS streaming sites. Tonight, for example, you can choose among installments of The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (pictured), The War, and National Parks: America’s Best Idea. Check local listings.
MSNBC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Stephen Colbert, introducing MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow on a recent appearance on his CBS Late Show, described her as “America’s premier explainer,” which is a perfect unofficial title for what she does on her nightly cable show. Politically, she falls left of center – but academically, she constructs and deconstructs the day’s events as a born, stellar teacher, in ways so clear and incisive, I find her the best single source of breaking news analysis on television right now. Better than anyone on broadcast TV, or any of the cable networks. For the most part, wherever I write or speak, I try to avoid being political in my TV criticism and recommendations – but this is a time when straight, reliable information is elusive and invaluable, and, in my opinion, it can be found here. And, on the radio, I say with pride, on the NPR show with which I am sometimes associated, Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
CNN, 10:00 p.m. ET
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo revealed this week he has tested positive for the coronavirus – and instead of stopping work as a network news anchor, continues to organize and host Cuomo Prime Time. He does it, though, quarantined in and telecasting from the basement of his home, presiding over TV’s most personal front-line account of the current pandemic. (He talks of the nightly fevers and chills, the chest contractions, the fear of not being able to breathe, as something worse than anything he’s ever endured.) Cuomo Prime Time usually is televised at 9 p.m. ET. Tonight it begins an hour later, at 10 – but only because Cuomo’s fellow CNN colleagues, Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, are presenting a special CNN town meeting on the pandemic at 8. And by the way, though this observation and recommendation is anything but incidental: Around noon ET each weekday, Chris Cuomo’s older brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, holds a televised live press conference about New York’s status regarding the coronavirus. So each weekday, at different hours of the day, these two brothers are contributing mightily to their viewers’ understanding of this current crisis. Surely, that’s unprecedented. Personally, it’s also inspirational.
