Apple TV Plus debuts “Home Before Dark.” Actress Brooklynn Prince stars as Hilde Lisko, a precocious girl who doesn’t let the fact that she’s in fourth grade stop her from writing and distributing her own newspaper. She’s inspired by her intrepid reporter dad, Matthew (Jim Sturgess), who gets fired from his newspaper job in Brooklyn and moves the family to a spooky town.
Hilde proceeds to unearth dirt on an old town secret, one that even Dad prefers buried.
“Dark” is a pretty tough sell. It might work better as a story aimed at tweens, but it covers darker territory and adult themes. And there’s nothing this adult finds more cloying than precocious child reporters. Particularly those who provide the show’s voice-over narration.
— Amazon Prime adapts “Tales From the Loop,” from an illustrated book by Simon Stalenhag. Set in a remote town above a mysterious laboratory where experiments are conducted on the very forces of the universe, “Loop” keeps viewers off guard. The entrances to the lab reflect the Brutalist architecture of the 1970s, but people seem to live in houses right out of the 1940s. Robots with happy faces dot the landscape, evoking the atmosphere of the 1999 animated feature “Iron Giant.”
The story follows adolescents trying to make sense of their parents’ work and the odd lapses in gravity and other natural forces that occur around them. For a place where “anything can happen,” there isn’t much joy to go around. It’s as if someone reimagined “Stranger Things” and drained it of its goofy adolescent wonder, camaraderie and humor.
— Disney Plus returns to one of Uncle Walt’s great strengths, the friendly and accessible nature documentary that asks young viewers to identify with little rascals that just happen to be pachyderms and porpoises.
Two films debut today. “Elephant” follows a close-knit clan, or herd, over the course of a year as it navigates changes as the rainy season gives way to parched conditions. “Dolphin Reef” follows a similar pattern, identifying with one spunky young character as he is slowly weaned from his mother.
Both films feature soaring “Lion King”-like music and eschew the “expert” narration of David Attenborough productions. Meghan Markle (“Suits”) narrates “Elephant,” and Natalie Portman offers the voiceover for “Reef.” It’s fitting that these films debut at this time of quarantine and home schooling. Both narrators seem to be trying just a tad too hard to sound like the “fun mom” or the harried aunt trying to keep the kids distracted.
— On a very different note, Netflix premieres “Coffee & Kareem” an absurd mashup of buddy cop movies and awkward dating comedies. Ed Helms plays police officer James Coffee, and Taraji P. Henson plays his new girlfriend, Vanessa. Her adolescent son, Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh), does not take well to their relationship. His inept efforts to strike back exposes himself and James to an onslaught of bumbling street gangs and other over-the-top bad guys.
— Is your remote on Cruise control? Tom Cruise stars in the 1986 thriller “Top Gun” (8 p.m., AMC, TV-PG), the 1989 antiwar drama “Born on the Fourth of July” (6:30 p.m., Starz Encore), director Steven Spielberg’s 2005 adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” (9:35 p.m., HBO Signature) and as part of a large ensemble in director Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s novel “The Outsiders” (10:30 p.m., AMC, TV-PG).
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— A data breach from a familiar foe on “The Blacklist” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— Wo Fat’s wife kidnaps Danny on the series finale of “Hawaii Five-0” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
— “Somewhere South” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) focuses on porridge and African American cuisine.
— Erin and Anthony trust a sketchy source on “Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
— In quarantine, nobody can see you if you slip on your Hammer pants to watch the 1990 Kid ‘n Play comedy “House Party” (7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Vice, TV-14) for the 14th time.
SERIES NOTES
Feeling used on “MacGyver” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14) … “WWE Friday Night SmackDown” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … Comfortable footwear on “Shark Tank” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … Banding together on “Charmed” (8 p.m., CW, TV-PG) … “Dateline” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC) … In the family way on “Dynasty” (9 p.m., CW, TV-14).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Miley Cyrus and Lewis Capaldi on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Woody Harrelson, Kieran Culkin and Bobby Flay visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Kathy Bates and Billy Eichner appear on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).
