Glendyn Ivin/Prime Video
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
Sigourney Weaver stars and is executive producer of a visually lush but tonally grim adaptation of Holly Ringland’s novel set largely on the aptly named Thornfield, an Australian flower farm that serves as a refuge for abused or orphaned women. Weaver is June Hart, the flinty proprietor, but the first three (of seven) chapters, premiering this week, belong to young Alyla Browne as her 9-year-old granddaughter Alice, rendered mute by abuse and tragedy and disoriented when, after a mysterious fire kills her parents, she awakens amid the nurturing women of Thornfield. Alice is understandably curious about the grandmother she never knew and other aspects of a family past that June seems determined to keep a secret. The fallout continues next week, when Fear the Walking Dead’s Alycia Debnam-Carey assumes the title role as a young adult who flees Thornfield’s mysteries to seek a fresh start in the outside world.
Nigel Scotland/CBS
Secret Celebrity Renovation
Two of the network’s more recognizable personalities pay it forward to important people from their lives as the upbeat renovation show returns for a new season with back-to-back episodes. First, The Amazing Race and Tough as Nails host/executive producer Phil Keoghan returns to his old stomping grounds of Antigua to surprise a former neighbor with upgrades to the local hospice center where she volunteers. In his down time, Keoghan takes host Nischelle Turner (Entertainment Tonight) on a tour of the island. Next, Fire Country star/creator Max Thieriot stays true to this hit show’s mission by treating his childhood friend, now a firefighter in Occidental, California, with home improvements. “Boston Rob” Mariano, the show’s resident contractor, joins the actor on a visit to the local fire station for training drills.
Courtesy of Netflix
The Big Nailed It Baking Challenge
Guaranteed to put a smile on your face—and if you sampled their creations, a few inches on your waistline—the hilarious baking competition expands its usual field to welcome 10 amateurs into the kitchen to try, and often fail, to impress head judge Jacques Torres while effervescent host Nicole Byer provides color commentary alongside celebrity guests. Baking expert Erin Jeanne McDowell and cake artist Robert Lucas help advise the hapless chefs in what amounts to a boot-camp trial by fire. Every time one of their multi-tiered experiments topples, the laughs outweigh the groans.
A&E
Witness to Murder: Digital Evidence
With 20/20 and Dateline NBC in summer repeat mode, true-crime fans have a few new series to feed their obsession. Witness leans into the new technologies that help the pros solve crimes. In the opener, digital forensics explode the alibi of one of the last people to see a 24-year-old Arkansas jogger before her murder. Followed by the premiere of Women on Death Row, which profiles convicted women by reviewing their trial and the appeals process. The first subject, Shawna Forde, is on Arizona’s death row, convicted for the 2009 murders of Raul Flores and his 9-year-old Brisenia, for which she claims she’s innocent.
Starz
Minx
The saucy period comedy takes a six-month time jump to July 1973, with the groundbreaking erotic women’s magazine making enough of a trendy splash to attract the attention of Rolling Stone magazine. An ace reporter (Chuck’s Joshua Gomez) wants an exclusive with Joyce (Ophelia Lovibond), but she fears a hatchet job and tries to keep a low profile, while cocky publisher Doug (Jake Johnson) hogs the spotlight and hopes to steer the conversation toward his high-aiming new science magazine, edited by no less than the visionary Carl Sagan. Followed by a new episode of Heels (10/9c), where the Duffy Wrestling League tries to carry on despite financial pressures and the absence of Ace (Alexander Ludwig).
INSIDE FRIDAY TV:
- Family Law (8/7c, The CW): Tensions erupt when Daniel (Zach Smadu) is quoted in a magazine suggesting that his dad boss Harry (Victor Garber) is past his prime. Try telling him that while he and daughter Abby (Jewel Staite) represent a widow whose stepdaughter wants her cut out of the will for having met her dad while working as an “escort.”
- CMT Summer Sessions (9/8c, CMT): “Next Thing You Know” singer Jordan Davis takes center stage for a lakeside concert in Franklin, Tennessee.
- The Marriage Pact (streaming on The Roku Channel): Intimacy/relationship expert Shan Boodram hosts a reality show, shot in Columbia, featuring five sets of friends who once pledged that they’d marry if they were still both single at a certain age. The time has come, but are they ready?
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