NBA Finals Begin, National Spelling Bee Finals, New Night for ‘Blacklist,’ ‘The Other Two’s Disney Adventure

The well-rested Denver Nuggets takes on the Miami Heat, who barely survived a surge in the playoffs from the Boston Celtics, as the NBA Finals begin. Continuity is a plus in the broadcasting booth, with Mike Breen calling his 18th finals, the most for a play-by-play announcer, joined by analysts Jeff Van Gundy (his 17th) and Mark Jackson (his 15th), with Lisa Salters reporting.

Every year, we are beyond i-m-p-r-e-s-s-e-d by the acumen of the young spelling masters who participate in this national competition. The final round, always a nail-biter, takes place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

With back-to-back episodes, the long-running caper moves to Thursdays for the rest of its 10th and final season. In the first, Red (James Spader) tries to convince skeptical Congressman Hudson (Toby Leonard Moore) of the Task Force’s worth by delivering three criminal cases that are more challenging than they look. In the second, Cooper (Harry Lennix) and Senator Panabaker (Deirdre Lovejoy) await a judge’s decision on the Task Force’s future.

The show-biz satire aims for a mighty target in an especially timely episode when quasi-rising star Cary (Drew Tarver) is approached by no less than Disney to provide the voice for a groundbreaking and “unapologetically gay” animated character. So what if Globby the Glob looks like a blob of “sexless green snot?” Execs proclaim it to be “a proud queer sack of mucus,” and the publicity machine is off and running. His sister Brooke (Heléne Yorke) is on a vastly different trajectory, emerging from her post-breakup funk with a goal to raise the bar for dating. Bring on the loathsome tech billionaires!

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Bringing Up Baby (8/7c, Turner Classic Movies): The great Katharine Hepburn is TCM’s Star of the Month, with tributes every Thursday through June starting with the hilarious 1938 screwball comedy co-starring Cary Grant. Other 1930s highlights include Sylvia Scarlett (11:30/10:30c), Mary of Scotland (1:15 am/12:15c) and the aviatrix drama Christopher Strong (5 am/4c), directed by Dorothy Arzner.
• The Dead Files (9/8c, Travel Channel): The 15^th season opens with homicide detective Steve DiSchiavi and medium Amy Allan (in her final season) heading to Florida’s Everglades to investigate a series of deaths in a family’s neighborhood and the possible spirit of a witch.
• Eli Roth Presents: The Legion of Exorcists (10/9c, Travel Channel): Dramatic re-creations enliven the accounts of six spiritual warriors, including religious leaders and demonologists, who ward off evil from human possessions and cursed objects. The opener involves a doll who might give Chucky nightmares.

ON THE STREAM:

• 100 Years of Warner Bros. (streaming on Max): The final two chapters of the studio’s century-long history covers the superhero blockbuster boom of the 1980s and a new century bringing Harry Potter to the big screen and The Big Bang Theory to the airwaves.
• iCarly (streaming on Paramount+): Miranda Cosgrove is back for a third season of the sitcom’s reboot, while the musical spinoff prequel Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies airs its final episode.
• Queen Sugar (streaming on Hulu): For those who missed it on OWN, the seventh and final season of Ava DuVurnay’s family drama is now available for streaming.
• The Architect (streaming on Viaplay): Elli Harboe (Succession) stars in a short-form Norwegian satire as an intern at an architecture firm who calls an abandoned parking garage home because of Oslo’s housing crisis.