GH Remembers Anthony Geary, One More Last Thing, Winter Olympics, Stumbling Through Finals, an Italian Media Scandal

In a very special episode, the long-running daytime drama pays tribute to one of its most famous stars and characters, Anthony Geary, aka Luke Spencer, as an homage to the actor who passed away in December. Though the character of Luke died on the show four years ago, his and Laura’s daughter, Lulu (Alexa Havins Bruening), is still working through her grief, having been in a coma when her dad died. With Laura’s (Genie Francis) help, Lulu brings together Tracy (Jane Elliot), Sonny (Maurice Benard), Carly (Laura Wright), and Elizabeth (Rebecca Herbst) for a long-overdue wake to honor Luke with some of his most memorable moments.

Jennifer Garner is back, and constantly looking over her shoulder, in the second season of the thriller based on Laura Dave’s novel. She’s still got some kickass Alias moves in her arsenal as Hannah Hall, whose husband Owen (Game of Thrones‘ Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) — not his real name — mysteriously vanished in Season 1, in hiding from the mob family he betrayed. When Owen suddenly reappears after five years, Hannah and stepdaughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) are back in the crosshairs. Judy Greer, Fringe‘s John Noble, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Emmy winner Luke Kirby are among the colorful supporting cast. Episodes drop weekly.

As the Milan-Cortina games approach the final weekend, men’s hockey takes the spotlight in the semifinals (10:40 am/ET and 3:10 pm/PT), with the U.S. facing Slovakia and chief rival Canada playing Finland. Medal events include women’s ski cross, men’s aerials and men’s freeski halfpipe in freestyle skiing, men’s 15k mass start in biathlon, women’s 1500m in speed skating, men’s 5000m relay and women’s 1500m in short track speed skating, and men’s bronze medal game in curling. All events can be livestreamed and replayed on Peacock, with coverage through the day on USA Network and NBC. (For details, go to nbcolympics.com/schedule.) NBC’s Primetime in Milan recap airs at 8/7c.

The underdog cheer squad at Heådltston State Junior College could sure use a break, and NBC gives the mockumentary sitcom a leg up with a new episode at a special time following the nightly Olympics recap. We rejoin the crew at a critical juncture, with a deadline looming to submit a skills tape in order to qualify for Daytona. The obstacle (because there’s always an obstacle): the deadline falls during finals, requiring more of a juggling act than usual. But coach Courteney (Jenn Lyon) is undaunted in her “We can, we will, we must” philosophy, though she’s sorely tested on the home front, where husband and football coach Boon (Taran Killam) is busy filming his own mock-doc, tentatively titled Boon Country.

Amanda Knox is far from the only unfortunate victim of the Italian judicial system. In a drama colorfully recreating the 1980s, Portobello (the streamer’s first Italian-language original) tells the stranger-than-fiction story of Enzo Tortora (Fabrizio Gifuni), the celebrated host of Italian TV’s most popular variety show of the time, Portobello. When a resentful low-level mob flunkey implicates him in a crime family’s drug trafficking operation, the disbelieving Tortora becomes, in the public eye (and as HBO‘s tag line puts it) “guilty until proven innocent.”

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

· RuPaul’s Drag Race (8/7c, MTV): Brooke Shields is the guest judge when RuPaul stages the Snatch Game of Love: Island Edition, a twist on the celebrity impersonation game-show spoof.

· This Is UFC (8/7c, CBS): UFC reporter Megan Olivi and Survivor alum Dee Valladares host a special exploring the rise of the UFC, which not so coincidentally has found a new home on Paramount+.

· Dreaming Whilst Black (9/8c, Paramount+ With Showtime): The satirical British comedy returns for a second season, with aspiring filmmaker Kwabena (Adjani Salmon) given the opportunity to direct a “color-blind” historical drama, which sounds too good to be true — and probably is.

· Sun Ra: Do the Impossible (9/8c, PBS): American Masters profiles the poetic jazz visionary and “Godfather of Afrofuturism.”

· Real Time With Bill Maher (10/9c, HBO): The host interviews music legend Paul Anka, with controversial Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico joining the panel discussion. (Talarico made news after Stephen Colbert alleged that CBS had blocked his interview with the politician from airing on the network.)

ON THE STREAM:

· Strip Law (streaming on Netflix): Severance star Adam Scott and Abbott Elementary‘s Janelle James lead the voice cast in an adult animated comedy about a mild-mannered Las Vegas lawyer who teams with a magician to bring wacky cases to court.

· New to the Netflix library: Six seasons of the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly, two animated Addams Family movies, and all four films in The Expendables franchise.

· Watching You (streaming on Hulu): The Bold Type‘s Aisha Dee stars in an erotic thriller as Lina, who races to expose the voyeur who secretly filmed her one-night stand and is using it against her.

· Dead of Winter (streaming on HBO Max): The suspense film makes its streaming debut, starring Emma Thompson as a resourceful Minnesota widow who discovers a woman being held prisoner by an armed couple (Marc Menchaca and Judy Greer) during a blizzard. The movie premieres on HBO Saturday at 8/7c.