Meet the Real ‘Bloody Hundredth’ as ‘Masters of the Air’ Flies to Victory, ‘Manhunt’ for Lincoln’s Assassin, Lindsay Lohan’s ‘Irish Wish,’ Wes Anderson’s Dahl Anthology

The European battles of World War II are coming to an end in the finale of the stirring docudrama about the bomber pilots of the Eighth Air Force. But before triumph, there’s still peril, when “Rosie” Rosenthal (Nate Mann) is downed on his 52^nd and last mission, where he becomes eyewitness to the inhumanity of the Holocaust. For best buds and POWs “Buck” Cleven (Austin Butler) and “Bucky” Egan (Callum Turner), a forced march ahead of the Allies’ arrival brings its own challenges, and possibilities for escape.

To accompany the Masters finale, an hourlong documentary, narrated by executive producer Tom Hanks and featuring Steven Spielberg, honors the pilots of the “Bloody Hundredth,” so named because of the fearsome number of casualties suffered by their unit. The special includes archival footage and interviews with several of the men featured in the series, most notably navigator Harry Crosby (who admits to having been “a flop as a pilot”) and Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal. They and others testify to the rigors and terrors of executing missions in their “flying fortresses,” all with the goal of eradicating the Nazi domination of Europe.

Anthony Boyle, so memorable as navigator Harry Crosby in Masters, makes another strong impression as the much less heroic John Wilkes Booth, on the run and in hiding after assassinating President Lincoln (Hamish Linklater). The real focus of this seven-part historical docudrama, based on James Swanson’s Edgar Award-winning book, is on Lincoln’s friend and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (Outlander’s Tobias Menzies), who leads the investigation and risks his health in a relentless pursuit to unearth the Confederate conspiracy behind Booth’s actions and to preserve Lincoln’s post-war ideals. Launches with two episodes.

Romcom regular Lindsay Lohan stars in a fantastical variation on My Best Friend’s Wedding that doubles as a feel-good St. Patrick’s Day weekend curtain-raiser. She’s Maddie, a good sport heading to Ireland to be bridesmaid for her best friend, who’s marrying the guy Maddie let get away. When she makes a wish that she was the bride instead, movie magic catapults Maddie into a fantasy in which she’s heading toward the aisle with her beloved Paul (Alexander Vlahos). Funny thing, though, that she finds herself drawn to the rakish wedding photographer (You’s Ed Speelers). Will she ever wake up?

Writer-director Wes Anderson won his first Oscar this year for the enchanting live-action short film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. Turns out that was just the beginning. Netflix re-releases the film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Ralph Fiennes, as part of an anthology of four Dahl stories, with co-stars Ben Kingsley and Dev Patel joined by Rupert Friend and others for whimsical versions of The Swan, The Ratcatcher and Poison.

Series regular Bridget Moynahan directs a busy episode in which her character of Trial Bureau head Erin investigates with Anthony (Steve Schirripa) after she’s the alleged target of a shooting, while brother Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) reconnects with an endangered teen from a past case and younger brother Jamie (Will Estes) senses something fishy when an investigative web series asks grandpa Henry (Len Cariou) for an interview. The real shocker involves Commissioner dad Frank’s (Tom Selleck) discovery that an NYPD officer is the son of the man who murdered his cop son Joe 15 years ago. This episode caps a full night of original episodes of Friday’s procedurals, including S.W.A.T. (8/7c) tracking three female fugitives after a prison transport van overturns, and Fire Country (9/8c) battling a toxic chemical spill that goes up in flames.

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

• RuPaul’s Drag Race (8/7c, MTV): The remaining queens conduct comical seminars on Drag Awareness to an audience of apathetic suits in this week’s challenge, with Fire Island’s Joel Kim Booster as guest judge.
• True Crime Watch: ABC’s 20/20 (9/8c) examines the disappearance of four women along Texas Interstate 45 in 1997, and how a survivor’s hypnosis session helped find the killer. On Dateline NBC (9/8c), detectives zero in on an unlikely suspect after a 25-year-old Georgia mom is shot in broad daylight by a disguised murderer.
• America’s Backyard Gold (9/8, Discovery Channel): There’s gold in them thar … backyards. Mining vet David Turin shows everyday folks how to seek treasure close to home without expensive equipment. Starting in California, where heavy storms and floods have exposed new riches, Turin finds nuggets in rivers and uses a metal detector to unearth gold worth millions.
• Crimes of Fashion: Killer Clutch (9/8c, Hallmark Mystery): The newly rebranded channel presents a thriller in which an American psychologist (Brooke D’Orsay) is hired by a fashion designer in Paris to investigate a backstage murder with a hot local detective (Gilles Marini).
• Great Performances at the Met: Dead Man Walking (9/8c, PBS): The memoir by Sister Helen Prejean, about her crusade for the soul of a condemned murderer, becomes an opera by Jake Heggie with a libretto by the late Terrence McNally. Joyce DiDonato stars as Sister Helen in director Ivo van Hove’s production, with Ryan McKinny as the death row inmate.

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