Best-bets for Feb. 7: Super Bowl, super Latifah

1) Super Bowl, 6:30 p.m., CBS. On one side is Tom Brady, 43, standing in the pocket and firing passes. After nine Super Bowls with the New England Patriots (winning six of them), he’s with the Tampa Bay Bucs. On the other is Patrick Mahomes (shown here), 25, maybe scrambling. His offensive line, splintered by injuries, faces a great Buc defense; still, he’s a master of throwing quickly and on the run. Now he tries for his second straight Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs. At halftime, The Weeknd performs. Read more…

1) Super Bowl, 6:30 p.m., CBS. On one side is Tom Brady, 43, standing in the pocket and firing passes. After nine Super Bowls with the New England Patriots (winning six of them), he’s with the Tampa Bay Bucs. On the other is Patrick Mahomes (shown here), 25, maybe scrambling. His offensive line, splintered by injuries, faces a great Buc defense; still, he’s a master of throwing quickly and on the run. Now he tries for his second straight Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs. At halftime, The Weeknd performs.
2) “The Equalizer” debut, post-game (listed at 10 p.m., but possibly10:30 or so), CBS. It was 38 years ago that a post-game “A-Team” drew huge ratings. Ever since, such shows have drawn attention; now comes the best one since “Wonder Years,” 33 years ago. Re-booting a notion that previously starred Edward Woodward (on TV) and Denzel Washington (in movies), it now has Queen Latifah as a former CIA agent, helping the little guy. The result is smartly written and beautifully filmed and acted.
3) Super preview, CBS, “That Other Pregame Show” starts at 11:30 a.m., with “Road to the Super Bowl” – the slickly edited creation of NFL Films – at noon, At 1 p.m., “Tony Goes to the Super Bowl” has Tony Romo talking to Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson. Then the marathon pre-game show starts at 2 p.m. At 6, CBS moves to the field for the National Anthem (Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan), “America the Beautiful” (H.E.R.) and a poem (Amanda Gorman).
4) “Miss Scarlet and the Duke,” 8 p.m., PBS. Think of this as Mystery Lite, with a beautiful detective and a handsome cop solving cases in Victorian England. Tonight’s solution falls together quite easily, partially redeemed by the verbal dueling between the leads. Things remain light at 9 p.m., with “All Creatures Great and Small,” when a local fair provides mild fun and an ethical dilemma. Then PBS turn serious with the mid-section of “The Long Song” at 10; slavery suddenly ends in Jamaica.
5) More super-alternatives. There are lots of reruns, some of them worthy – “The Simpsons” (8 and 8:30 p.m., Fox) and ”Batwoman” (8 p.m., CW). The movies are led by the beautifully crafted “A Star is Born” (2018), at 7 and 10 p.m. on TBS, and Walter Matthau’s Oscar-winning work in “The Fortune Cookie” (1966), at 8 p.m. on Turner Classic Movies. The Disney Channel adds fun musicals – “High School Musical” at 12:05 p.m., its sequel at 1:55 and “Descemdemts” films at 3:50, 5:55 and 8.

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