1) “American Masters.” 9 p.m., PBS. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (shown here) filled every room. Tall (6-5) and bombastic, he kept talking and writing. He said things that resonated or backfired. A Harvard professor with a hard-scrabble past, he advised Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson. This fascinating portrait has comments ranging from Joe Biden to Henry Kissinger.
2) Basketball. CBS’ Friday police-and-fire shows again step aside for the college tournament. It’s Marquette-North Carolina State at 7:09 p.m. ET and Duke-Houston at about 9:39. (Duke Houston, incidentally, would be a fine name for a cowboy hero.) TBS has Purdue-Gonzaga at 7:39 and Creighton-Tennessee at about 10:09.
3) Religious epics. There will be lots of choices Saturday and Sunday, but two channels start now. Franco Zeffirelli’s acclaimed “Jesus of Nazareth” is 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. ET on the digital Movies.UpTV has a “Ten Commandments” reboot (2005) at 1 p.m. ET, “Mary, Mother of Jesus”(1999) at 5, a Dennis Quaid gospel concert at 7 and “The Passion of the Christ” (2004) at 8.
4) “Renegade Nell,” Disney+. Englishmen seem fascinated by “highwaymen” who rob the bejeweled elite. They rangedfrom sturdy (Robin Hood) to silly (Dick Turpin), depicted in a brash comedy series on Apple TV+. Now here’s an eight-parter about a young woman who accidentally becomes a feared outlaw.
5) More streaming. Hulu’s “Paint” has Owen Wilson as a quirky public-TV star. Netflix’s “The Wages of Fear” remakes a French adventure. And two films are based on real people overcoming the odds. The documentary “Madu” (Disney+) follows a young ballet dancer, leaving his Nigerian home. The scripted “The Beautiful Game” views a homeless soccer team.
— Mike Hughes, TV America