Mother Superiors and Mother’s Day events
Broadcast with minimal publicity, the 2017 thriller “Sometimes the Good Kill” (8 tonight, Lifetime) sets a multiple-murder whodunit in a Catholic abbey where many of the nuns are young and beautiful. Based purely on a 90-second tease floating around YouTube, I have a feeling this might become catnip for lovers of a certain brand of guilty pleasure.
Susie Abromeit (“Chicago Med,” “Jessica Jones”) stars as the fetching Sister Talia, who is charged by the Mother Superior to solve a string of gruesome murders amongst the nuns. Talia appears to have a tragic backstory, including scars on her wrists and a past where she had to “kill to survive.” What’s a good sister to do when she’s fluent in handguns and haunted by memories? “The Singing Nun” this isn’t.
“Kill” is hardly the first lurid tale set in an abbey. One of the most popular American books of the early 19th century had the unforgettable title “Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, or, The Hidden Secrets of a Nun’s Life in a Convent Exposed.” Published in 1836, it reflected, or rather exacerbated, some of the anti-Catholic paranoia of its time. It was staggeringly popular, the best-selling book in American publishing history until “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was released in 1852.
SOMETHING FOR MOMS
TV has a funny relationship with holidays. Christmas and Halloween are observed — sometimes for months at a time. You can’t fault the scheduling gods with forgetting Mother’s Day. There’s plenty of mom-centric programming to sample, from the heartwarming to the “ironic.”
It simply wouldn’t be Mother’s Day if somebody wasn’t airing “Mommie Dearest.” IFC offers a 24-hour marathon of the caustic 1981 Joan Crawford biopic starring Faye Dunaway from 6 a.m. Sunday to 6 a.m. Monday. That’s a lot of wire hangers!
As for other Mother’s Day offerings:
For musical fans, there’s “Mamma Mia!” (9 p.m., HBO2), starring Meryl Streep. Jennifer Lawrence plays a blue-collar mom who builds her own business in the 2015 drama “Joy” (8 p.m., HBO Signature).
The true crime network ID devotes the day to wayward mothers, starting with two episodes of “Momsters” (9 a.m., TV-14), five helpings of “Deadly Women: Mothers Who Kill” (11 a.m., TV-14) and a 14-episode marathon of “Evil Stepmothers” (4 p.m. to 5 a.m., TV-14). For those who prefer scripted horrors, there’s “Mommy’s Prison Secret” (8 p.m., LMN) and “The Other Mother” (10 p.m., LMN).
Nat Geo Wild shares three new episodes of “Animal Moms” (8 p.m., TV-PG). Nia Long stars in “The Single Moms Club” (8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., OWN). Sandra Bullock discovers her mother’s secrets in “Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood” (9 p.m., Pop), and becomes a nurturing figure to a promising football player in “The Blind Side” (9 p.m., CMT).
Martin Lawrence and Anthony Anderson star in “Big Momma’s House” (8 p.m., VH1), and a writer recalls the sacrifices of her Norwegian immigrant mother in the 1948 melodrama “I Remember Mama” (8 p.m., TCM).
On PBS, a composer channels his grief into a work of art in the documentary “Requiem For My Mother” (7 p.m., WTCI; 11 p.m., GPB) creating a major new choral work, a Requiem, the traditional Catholic Mass for the dead in honor of his mother, who instilled him with a love of music.
TONIGHT’S HIGHLIGHTS
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NHL Conference Finals (7 p.m., NBC). Teams to be announced.
› Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Helen Mirren lend their voices to the 2013 animated comedy “Monsters University” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› On two helpings of “My Cat From Hell” (Animal Planet): facing eviction (8 p.m.), couples counseling (9 p.m.).
› Young Eli learns tribal politics on “The Son” (9 p.m., AMC, TV-14).
› Expecting a proposal that does not arrive, a young woman makes a wish and faces the consequences in the 2017 romance “Birthday Wish” (9 p.m., Hallmark).
› Melissa McCarthy hosts “Saturday Night Live” (11:30 p.m., NBC, TV-14), featuring musical guest Haim.
SUNDAY’S SEASON FINALES
› Sam takes desperate measures to save his family on “NCIS: Los Angeles” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
› Henry’s new nightmare on “Once Upon a Time” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› A construction site collapse may not have been an accident on “Chicago Justice” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
› Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS): fears of a resurgent al-Qaida; reforming a Chicago jail.
› Tears and tiaras abound on the 66th annual Miss USA Pageant (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG).
› Henry negotiates with a doomsday cult on “Madam Secretary” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
› Based on a stage drama by Mike Bartlett, “King Charles III” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG) speculates on the royal family after Queen Elizabeth II.
› “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” (9 p.m., CNN) visits Laos.
› Cassie casts a soothing spell over quarrelling guests on “Good Witch” (9 p.m., Hallmark, TV-PG).
› The six-part weekly series “America’s Secret Space Heroes” (9 p.m., Smithsonian) celebrates the engineers, mathematicians, designers and technicians behind America’s trips to the moon and unmanned exploration of deep space.
› A professional networker invites his fabulous friends and clients to an exclusive vacation, where lives and relationships will be challenged on the new series “Invite Only Cabo” (9 p.m., Bravo, TV-14).
› The search for a gangster’s crooked books on “Shades of Blue” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.