FRIDAY’S BEST PICKS
7:30 PM ( ESPN) NBA Basketball Atlantic rivals get down to business tonight in Philadelphia, where Joel Embiid and the 76ers will square off against Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics. The Sixers are hoping new head coach Doc Rivers can work his magic on a team that has made a few key player moves after a disappointing first-round exit from the playoffs this past fall. And the team that eliminated them in a four-game sweep, the Celts, have NBA Finals aspirations after falling short in the Eastern Conference finals last season.
8 PM & The Blacklist Now in its eighth season, this diabolically twisty crime thriller keeps coming up with ways to bring main characters into intense confrontations wherein it seems unlikely more than one player will live to fight another day. That’s certainly been true for this show’s two central characters, master criminal Raymond “Red” Reddington (James Spader) and FBI special agent Elizabeth Keen (Megan Boone). So just because tonight’s new episode finds Liz hellbent on getting revenge on Reddington, nothing fatally irreversible is likely to ensue.
8 PM ( LMN) MOVIE The Wrong Prince Charming When Bridget, a successful entrepreneur, lands a meeting with the Prince of Devonshire about possibly investing heavily in one of her properties, Anna, Bridget’s lawyer, joins her for a royal visit, which is so dazzling that both of the women feel as if they’re in a fairy tale. Anna even starts to imagine a happily ever after with the prince, until she discovers he is far from what he seems in this 2021 thriller. Vivica A. Fox, Crisine Prosperi, James Nitti and Tracy Nelson star.
9 PM ^ In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl Drawn from the performance archives of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, this music series featuring iconic moments with the orchestra at that historic performance venue continues with the episode “Hecho en Mexico (Made in Mexico).” The program features conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil with guest artists including Natalia Lafourcade, Los Angeles Azules with YOLA (Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles) and La Santa Cecilia.
9 PM ( LIFE) Little Women: Atlanta After a hiatus year that has seen massive challenge and change around the world, this hit reality series returns for Season 6, which opens with tonight’s “Kick-Off Special.” To get things started, the women reassemble with host Terra Jolé for a two-hour look back at the previous five seasons. Any sense of nostalgia quickly evaporates, however, as old rivalries re-ignite and some shocking confessions come to light under some tough questioning about their complicated relationships. 10 PM ^ Great Performances A new episode called “The Magic of Horowitz” revisits an iconic musical event: pianist Vladimir Horowitz’s virtuoso 1986 Moscow concert, which was intended to signal a thaw in the Cold War tensions between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. In a bid to match the political scale of this event, Horowitz put together a demanding musical program that included works by such classical masters as Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Liszt, Scriabin and Chopin, all of which held some private meaning to the pianist.
11 PM ( HBO) Painting With John John Lurie — a long-standing cult favorite as a musician, actor, director and painter — wrote, directed and stars in this exhilarating new unscripted series, each episode of which is part meditative tutorial and part cozy fireside chat. Ensconced at his worktable, Lurie shares his reflections on what he has learned from life as he polishes his intricate watercolor techniques. Lurie’s highly ambivalent attitude toward fame comes into play as well in this series, which draws from his paintings, original music and tips for tapping into your own childlike artist.