Month: February 2021

1) “Nature,” 8 p.m., PBS. The Big Bend National Park (shown here) sprawls over 800,000 acres of West Texas, including 118 miles alomg the Mexican border. Much of it is desert, which may explain why this is one of our least-visited parks. Filmmakers, however, got great footage – towering bluebonnet flowers … beavers cavorting in the Rio Grande … a bear climbing a tree to steal a woodpecker’s cache … and, especially, bighorn sheep: In 1973, seven of them were brought in; now more than 1,000 roam the park. Read more…

1) “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” 8 p.m., NBC. Some weeks, this show is is bright, bouncy and fun. Its color palette is cheery; so are the pop songs that Zoey imagines people singing. But it also takes serious detours; last week, Simon (John Clarence Stewart, shown here) pointed to the systemic racism in his company. Now come the aftershocks. It’s a great hour, with all the songs by Black writers, performed superbly by Black (Stewart, Alex Newell as Mo) and brown (Kapil Talwalkar as Tobin) actors. Read more…

1) “9-1-1: Lone Star,” 9:01 p.m., Fox. Romance, it seems, can be tricky. We see that right away, when a wedding reception takes some nasty (and kind of funny) twists. Then we see it in three relationships – Owen and his ex-wife (Rob Lowe and Lisa Edelstein, shown here) … their son and his boyfriend … and Marjan and a surprise visitor (Mena Massoud, who had the title role in the 2019 “Aladdin” movie). One of the stories has an ending that perplexes the characters and the viewers, but this is still a worthy Valentine Week episode. 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. Read more…

1) “A Wild Year on Earth,” 8 p.m., BBC America. This third episode begins in May, amid fierce changes. North America is in its tornado season, Indonesia starts four months of monsoon rain (up to 30 inches in a day) and South Africa goes dry. We get awesome wildlife footage, from tree frogs in Sri Lanka to mustangs (shown here, but not in a scene from the film) in the U.S., plus cuttlefish, with their grabby, eight-armed lust. There are stunning scenes, including humans celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge and beyond. Read more…

1) “In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl,” 9 and 10 p.m., PBS. There’s some great music here, but PBS doesn’t get the idea of front-loading the popular stuff. It has the classical hour first, the pop one second. Each hour has a weak conversation section early; each holds its big moments until late. The first hour ends with Copland and Beethoven. The second wraps with Katy Perry’s “Fireworks” (backed by fireworks) and John Williams (shown here in another concert) conducting his “Star Wars” music, before a sea of light sabers. Read more…