Now streaming on Netflix, “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” revives a franchise that debuted some 40 years ago. Eddie Murphy returns to one of his signature roles, this time older and wiser and concerned about threats to his daughter (Taylour Paige). This necessitates teamwork with faces both old (Judge Reinhold from the first film) and new (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).
Among the first buddy-cop action-comedy thrillers, “Beverly Hills Cop” made a fortune and spawned three sequels. But this is the first one to arrive since 1992, more than 30 years ago.
This new “Cop” makes perfect sense for Netflix. The streamer has become a home for Murphy, much like his fellow “SNL” veteran Adam Sandler. Netflix is currently home to many of Murphy’s films from the past generation, including the first two iterations of “Beverly Hills Cop,” “The Nutty Professor,” “Shrek” and “My Name is Dolemite,” his homage to comic Rudy Ray Moore, done specifically for Netflix.
Not unlike Tom Cruise, whose breakout role in “Risky Business” predates “Beverly Hills Cop” by only one year, Murphy remains both a very busy working actor and a seemingly ageless physical specimen. He’s not the brash 20-something he was in the first “Cop,” but compared to what time has done to the original cast of “Ghostbusters,” another 1984 hit, Murphy has emerged relatively unscathed.
— The new docuseries “Down in the Valley” (9 p.m., Starz, TV-MA) explores a demimonde of workers and entertainers in Memphis strip clubs and exotic dancing locales. The series sets out to tell the “real” story of people who sell sexual fantasies for a living, among them a mother hard-pressed to pay her bills, a barber, a former gangster and a voodoo practitioner. Inspired by the scripted Starz series “P-Valley.”
— What becomes of the imaginary friend you outgrow? Netflix imports the animated adventure “The Imaginary” from Japan. Adapted from an award-winning novel of the same name by A.F. Harrold and illustrator Emily Gravett, it follows Amanda and her invisible friend, Rudger. After Rudger finds himself alone, he discovers he’s in the Town of Imaginaries, a place where abandoned special friends get on with their lonely lives. And that’s just the beginning of his problems.
— After the gruesome violence and gritty realism of “Taxi Driver,” Martin Scorsese directed a 1977 homage to glamorous 1940s MGM musicals, “New York, New York” (8 p.m., TCM), starring Robert De Niro as a saxophonist in love with a big band singer (Liza Minnelli). Considered a box office and critical failure, the film’s title song did become a signature number for Frank Sinatra, a star from the era it tried to capture.
Scorsese was not the only golden boy from the 1970s to have his career derailed by a return to period movie glamour. While “New York, New York” was considered an expensive dud, Peter Bogdanovich’s 1975 Cole Porter musical “At Long Last Love” was dismissed as a travesty and even made some “worst movies of all time” lists.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— A serial killer who once taunted Baez is released on “Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
A circle of wealthy socialites gossips about a naive wife and mother (Norma Shearer) whose husband (unseen, like all the men in this film) is carrying on an affair with a scheming shopgirl (Joan Crawford) in the 1939 adaptation of Clare Boothe Luce’s stage comedy “The Women” (5:45 p.m., TCM, TV-PG). Directed by George Cukor, the film is said to include more than 130 speaking roles and features some of the most memorable dialogue ever written.
SERIES NOTES
RuPaul hosts “Lingo” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … On two episodes of “Night Court” (NBC, r, TV-PG): defending a Broadway producer with a bad reputation (8 p.m.); an office crush (8:30 p.m.) … “WWE Friday Night SmackDown” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … “Jeopardy! Masters” (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
A prison transport accident frees some desperadoes on “S.W.A.T.” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … “Dateline” (9 p.m., NBC) … “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC).
LATE NIGHT
Billie Eilish appears on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS, r) … Zac Efron, Jasmine Crockett and Gracie Abrams appear on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (11:35 p.m., ABC, r).
Ayo Edebiri, Luke Wilson and Michael Marcagi visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts Utkarsh Ambudkar, Patty Guggenheim and Betsy Sodaro on “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).
