TV picks for Oct. 20-22: 'Walking Dead,' 'She Loves Me,' 'Tracey Ullman's Show,' George Michael

October 19, 2017 at 9:20PM
Joan Marcus credit Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi in "Great Performance: She Loves Me."
Laura Benanti and Zachary Levi in “Great Performances: She Loves Me.” (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Love is in the air

You may know Laura Benanti for her killer impression of Melania Trump on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" and Zachary Levi for the TV series "Chuck," but "Great Performances: She Loves Me" lets them show off their musical chops. The tunes in this whimsical Broadway musical by Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick ("Fiddler on the Roof") are less than hummable, but the put-on-a-show enthusiasm of its stars will plaster a smile on your face.

8 p.m. Friday, TPT, Ch. 2

Something completely different

Viewers need only the tiniest bit of familiarity with Angela Merkel and Judi Dench to appreciate how splendidly they're sent up in "Tracey Ullman's Show," which returns for a second season of fast-paced, positively silly sketch comedy. Ullman continues to be a force of nature, committing herself fully to each uniquely shaped character. Now if only the series would scrap its wholly unnecessary laugh track.

10 p.m. Friday, HBO

Gotta have faith

The supermodels from the groundbreaking "Freedom! '90!" video reunite to pay tribute to one of pop's most angelic voices in "George Michael: Freedom," a documentary focusing on the later years of the singer, who died last year.

8 p.m. Saturday, Showtime

Bloody Sunday

If any TV show could use a few musical numbers, it'd be "The Walking Dead," the relentlessly violent hit that keeps finding innovative ways to churn viewers' stomachs. This new season promises more jam-packed action, which hopefully will come at us so rapidly there won't be time to dwell on the eyeball dangling from the latest victim's socket.

8 p.m. Sunday, AMC

Neal Justin

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2012 file photo, British singer George Michael sings in concert to raise money for AIDS charity Sidaction, in Paris, France. A British coroner said Tuesday, March 7, 2017, that George Michael died of natural causes as the result of heart disease and a fatty liver. Darren Salter, senior coroner for Oxfordshire, says a post-mortem has found that the singer died of "dilated cardiomyopathy with myocarditis and fatty liver." Michael died at his home in southern England, on Dec
Michael (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Season 2 of ìTracey Ullmanís Show,î: Tracey Ullman.
photo: Rory Lindsay
Ullman (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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