1) “Better Things” series-finale, 10 p.m. today, FX, rerunning at 11. A great show ends in its fashion – odd, disjointed and intermittently brilliant. If you’re not familiar with it, just relax and let it wash over you. It starts and ends with clever music videos; in between are snippets from the fictional life of Sam Fox – a lot like the real life of writer-director-star Pamela Adlon (shown here in a previous episode). A couple of long toilet scenes could have been skipped, but the rest offers bursts of warmth, humor and human quirks.
2) NFL draft, 8-11:30 p.m. ET Thursday, ABC and ESPN; also, 7-11:30 p.m. Friday, ABC and ESPN2, noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, ESPN. Baseball has begun, basketball has started its playoffs, but for three days football gets the attention. ABC emphasizes the people, ESPN spends more time with statistics, both have lots of clips. Reesc Davis anchors; he’s joined the first day (Round 1) and second (Rounds 2-3) by Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard and the third (4-7) by Mel Kiper and more.
3) “I Love That for You” debut, 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Showtime. Vanessa Bayer spent her freshman year of high school, battling leukemia. Two decades later, she was flashing her humor and her mega-smile on “Saturday Night Live.” Now Bayer offers a fictional version, playing a former cancer kid who dreams of being on a home-shopping network. This manages to satirize those networks, while admiring their spunk. It’s in a strong night, alongside “The First Lady” and “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”
4) “Better Call Saul,” 9 p.m. today, AMC, rerunning at 10:06. This final season is clearly a winner. After the shoot-out in last week’s season-opener, Nacho Varga is hiding out in a crumbling motel. Meanwhile, we see the start of Kim’s scheme to ruin her old law partner, Howard Hamlin; it starts with manipulating some mom-and-pop embezzlers. Be patient with both stories; the final scenes – another shoot-out, then some masterful bullying by Kim (Rhea Seehorn) – are beautifully crafted.
5) “New Amsterdam,” 10 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. Last week left people in limbo, after a hard-drinking night. Wilder, who is deaf, may have summoned a date online … Trevor may have convinced Iggy to cheat on his husband … Mia may have considered jumping in the river. All are missing, as is Casey. Bloom has tried to salvage her friendship with Case and her romance with Leyla, who could be deported. Also, Max tried to propose to Helen, but she fell asleep. Now she’s collapsed, adding to the crises.
6) “Nature” season-finale, 8 p.m. Wednesday, PBS. The 40th season, a good one, ends with spectacular views of Portugal. Savage winds and the world’s biggest waves (up to 100 feet) have left shipwrecks, which sea creatures use as homes. The coast has one of the largest seahorse populations. One island ranges from monk seals (only about 30 left) to 5,000 wolf spiders – the mother lugging giant eggs for 40 days. On land, we see wildfires and wild horses, plus cork tress that hold massive stork nests.
7) “Magnum P.I.” return, 9 p.m. Friday, CBS. The Friday crime shows – a CBS staple for years – have been disrupted lately. This is the first “Magnum” in three weeks and the second new one ion six weeks. It borrows an idea that worked for “Godfather,” “X-Files,” “Law & Order” and more: A guy wakes up with blood and can’t remember if he committed a crime. Also, there are fatherhood glimpses: Rick and Suzy await the birth of their first child; T.C. is startled to meet the grandmother of his foster son Cade.
8) White Houe Correspondents Dinner, 7-11 p.m. ET Saturday, CNN. It’s been three years (due to Covid) since this was held and six years (due to, well, Trump) since it had a president there. But Joe Biden has said he’ll attend, barring an emergency, and Trevor Noah, the witty “Daily Show” host, will be the emcee. In its prime, this has had clever jabs pointed toward – and coming from – the president and others. There are a lot of preliminaries, so the best parts tend to come near the end.
9) “Outlander” season-finale (Starz) and “Ridley Road” debut (PBS), both 9 p.m. Sunday. One show wraps its sixth season with Claire being arrested and charged with murder; the other opens its four-week story with confusion. A two-minute opener is actually a flashforward, but that isn’t explained. Ignore it and you have an interesting tale, adapted from a novel. Fleeing an arranged marriage, a young Jewish woman in 1962 London meets Colin Jordan, a real-life figure in the rise of neo-Nazis.
10) ALSO: There really was a time when people thought “The Godfather” would never be made. Mobsters (and Frank Sinatra) opposed it; others thought it would fail. Instead, it was an Oscar-winner (as was its sequel), trailing only “Citizen Kane” on the American Film Institute’s best-movies list. That story is told in “The Offer,” an appealing 10-parter that starts Thursday on Paramount+; also, the film and sequel are on the Paramount Network, at 7 and 11 p.m. Saturday and 4 and 8 p.m. Sunday.