1) “State of the Union” opener, 10 p.m., Sundance. You wanna spend part of Valentine’s Day watching a fractured marriage? Maybe not; there are plenty of romantic choices, including (shown here), the splendid “Shakespeare in Love” (details below). But “State of the Union” is special; written by novelist Nick Hornby, it has wit, depth and skilled actors. Like the first season, this has ten 10-minute episodes, airing each weekday for two weeks; each shows the couple in a coffeeshop, waiting to see a marriage counselor. He (Brendan Gleeson) resists a changing world; she (Patricia Clarkson) embraces it.
2) “The Bachelor,” 8-10 p.m., ABC. This is closer to Valentine fare. First, Clayton Echard, 28, must choose between Genevieve Paris, 26, a bartender, and Shanae Ankney, 29, a recruiter. Then he takes the 11 survivors to Croatia where … well, they have gladiator games.
3) Movies. Then again, you can watch romantic movies. Hallmark has one every two hours, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; three (noon, 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.) even have “Valentine” in the title. Turner Classic Movies also has lots of old films, including a 1936 “Romeo and Juliet” at 5:45 p.m. Then come two classics – the Streisand/Redford “The Way We Were” (1973) at 8 p.m. on TCM and the Oscar-winning gem “Shakespeare in Love” (1998) at 10:30 on Pop.
4) Olympics. NBC has live coverage of the “big air” snowboard finals – the women in primetime (8-11:30 p.m.) and the men latenight (12:05-2 a.m.). Also live are the men’s freestyle ski finals, during primetime (8-11 p.m) on USA, plus hockey. A women’s semi-final game is 8 a.m. on USA; men’s playoff games are 11 p.m. on USA and CNBC. There’s much more, all day on USA and 2-5 p.m. on NBC.
5) “Agatha Raisin: A Spoonful of Poison,” any time, www.acorn.tv. This has built a colorful collection of supporting characters to help Agatha, who went from big-city party person to village detective. It needs all of them for stories like this, a loopy jam-festival tale that gets nowhere until the killer conveniently confesses. Even with a weak story, “Agatha” is bright and somewhat fun. Also arriving on Acorn is “Aftertaste,” an Australian comedy.