Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 24: music — country, opera and up there

1) “Up Here” debut, Hulu. Robert Lopez has already triumphed as a composer for Broadway (“Avenue Q,” “Book of Mormon”) and — with his wife, lyricist Kristen Anderson Lopez — for movies (“Frozen,” “Coco”). Now they link with director Tommy Kail (“Hamilton”) for a gem. We see young lovers (Mae Whitman and Carlos Valdez, shown here) and hear the lingering voices in their heads. It’s a delightful musical in eight parts, all available at once. Read more…

Best-bets for March 23: Basketball’s back, but so are soaps

1) Basketball. The second weekend of the college tournament begins, with only one game that fulfills predictions. That’s at 9:45 p.m. ET on CBS, when Gonzaga and UCLA (shown here), seeded No. 2 and 3 in their region; collide; at 7:15 on CBS, that region has Connecticut (No. 4) and Arkansas (No. 8). Elsewhere, TBS has Kansas State (No. 3) and Michigan State (No. 7) at 6:30 and Tennessee (No. 4) and Florida Atlantic (No. 9) at 9. Read more…

Best-bets for March 22: Cops, crooks and the departed

1) “Chicago P.D.,” 10 p.m., NBC. Here is “P.D.” at its best – with an intense, time-factor story that skirts the edge of ethics. Voight (shown here) guesses a juror has been intimidated. Can his team find a solution, without disrupting the trial and risking someone’s life? Two late scenes defy credibility: Why is Voight going in alone? How did he (a trial witness) meet the juror in a restroom? Still, it’s tautly constructed and Sara Bues is subtly perfect as the prosecutor. Read more…

Best-bets for March 21: masterful Fauci, batkids, more

1) “American Masters: Dr. Tony Fauci,” 8-10 p.m., PBS. For most of its 280 episodes, “Masters” has focused on arts and entertainment, not immunologists. But here is a slowly engaging look at Fauci (shown here), 82, who was the U.S. infectious-disease chief for 38 years. We see a gentle guy who laughs often – despite verbal assaults – and listens to his critics. In a great segment, he chats with the AIDS activists – now his friends – who fervently fought him 30 years ago. Read more…

Best-bets for March 20: “Bachelor,” “Bob,” “Blood”

1) “The Bachelor,” 8-10 p.m., ABC. It’s “fantasy suite” time, when Zach Shallcross invites the final three women to each spend a night with him. This season started with lots of women from serious fields – four nurses, a nursing student, two other health-care people and a therapist. Now most are gone, but Kaity Biggar, 27, a Canadian travel nurse, remains. So do Ariel Frenkel (shown here, center, with Biggar and Shallcross), 28, and Gabi Elnicki, 25, who are marketing and account executives. Read more…

Best-bets for March 19: PBS and “Hank” lead drama surge

1) “Sanditon” season-opener, 9 p.m., PBS. There’s lots of work left to do – and only six episodes in this final season. Sweet Charlotte has just returned from a visit to her home town, where she got engaged to a local guy. (They’re show here.) But what about the widower’s unspoken love for her? And his daughter and Georgiana, courted because of their wealth? All of that – and much more — will be settled in these crowded (and well-crafted) hours, part of a busy drama night for PBS. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for March 20: “Succession” returns, others debut

1) “Succession,” 9 p.m., HBO. A much-praised drama (shown here) starts its fourth and final season, 15 months after the third ended. Each year has been nominated for the best-drama Emmy and the second and third seasons won. There have been 11 other wins, including three straight for Jesse Armstrong’s scripts. Throughout, family members have vied for control of the media conglomerate. Now, instead, there are plans for a sale to a tech visionary; lives are in flux. Read more…

Best-bets for March 18: sports stars and despicable laughs

1) “Despicable Me 3” (2017), 8 p.m., NBC. Facing that cascade of sports events, NBC offers a comedy refuge. First is this animated film; Steve Carell voices a former villain (shown here with minions), now in an Anti-Villain League duo with his wife, voiced by Kristin Wiig. That’s followed by “Saturday Night Live” reruns at 10 p.m. (Colin Farrell in 2004, with the Scissor Sisters) and 11:29. Read more…

Best-bets for March 17: break-ups, basketball and opera

1) “Grand Crew,” 8:30 p.m., NBC. Broken relationships are scattered all over this episode. Noah (Echo Kellem, left) has been in a funk since his girlfriend was deported … His sister Nicky has a romance that takes some big (and funny) turns … Anthony is nudged back into the dating scene … And Fay, celibate since her divorce, wants a bad-boy type. There are some good moments, especially when Nicky explodes. Read more…

Best-bets for March 16: Tourney begins, “Trouble” returns

1) Basketball tournament begins, 12:15 p.m. ET, CBS. The NCAA tourney begins with Maryland (shown here) and West Virginia. That’s followed quickly by games at 12:40 p.m. on TruTV, 1:40 on TNT and 2 on TBS. Each channel has four games today and Friday, wiping out other shows. For CBS stations, that means soap operas lose their spots for a couple days; so do some afternoon talk shows and such. Read more…