Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for Feb. 4: epic start for Black History month slate

1) “Malcolm X” (1992), 4:30 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. During Black History Month, TCM is stuffing Saturdays with key films. That starts with Denzel Washington(shown here) in Spike Lee’s richly crafted epic. It’s followed by the comedy “Cooley High” (1975) at 8 and the moving drama “Sounder” (1972) at 10. There’s more ahead, led by “A Soldier’s Story” on Feb. 11 and “In the Heat of the Night” and “To Sleep With Anger” on Feb. 18. Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 2: “Flatch” leaves, Reba returns

1) “Welcome to Flatch,” 9:01 p.m., Fox. Here’s the season-finale – and, alas, maybe the series-finale – for this erratic show, which is sometimes funny and always interesting. Tonight, Barb (shown here) and Kelly are determined to prove the town should be the permanent home of the Butter Bust Museum. Also, the pastor has been distracted lately; his assistant, Mandy, is in charge of blessing the town’s animals. At 9:30, “Call Me Kat” has a Smoky Mountains road trip. Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 1: schooltime music and comedy

1) “Schoolhouse Rock! 50th Anniversary Singalong,” 8 p.m., ABC. It’s the fifth round of “Singalong,” which became a pandemic hit. This time, clever songs about grammar, government, math and more are sung by stars. Derek Hough does “Figure 8”; his sister Julianne does “Interplanet Janet.” Others include Black-Eyed Peas, Ne-Yo, Muppets (shown here), Broadway stars and even Shaquille O’Neal, backed by the Boys and Girls Club for “Conjunction Junction.” Read more…

Best-bets for Jan. 31: Hip hop soars; dramas stumble

1) “Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World” opener, 9-10 p.m., PBS. On Aug. 11, 1973, a Jamaican-born teen, dubbed DJ Kool Herc (shown here, later), used turntables and mega-speakers to make his sister’s party festive; hip hop was born. It would be six more years before rap records took off; by then, other hip hop facets – break-dancing, graffiti and DJ’s — had soared. This opener of a four-part film follows the early years of a genre that’s now in its 50th year. Read more…

Best-bets for Jan. 30: watching, leaping and beyond

1) “The Watchful Eye” debut, 9 and 10 p.m., Freeform. A young nanny (shown here) starts work, surrounded by secrets, suspicions and despair. She was hired by a guy whose wealthy wife killed herself; the wife’s mother and sister view him warily. But this is a story in which no one can be trusted – including the nanny and her boyfriend. Acted with subtle skill, it adds hints of the supernatural; consider it a gothic flip on “Only Murders in the Building.” Read more…

Best-bets for Jan. 29: football, firefighters, figure-skaters

1) Football. So far, the pro play-offs have been short of surprises. Now the two conference leaders – each with a 15-3 record – host championship games, with the winners going to the Super Bowl two weeks later. At 3 p.m. ET on Fox, the Philadelphia Eagles host the San Francisco 49ers (15-4); at 6:30 on CBS, the Kansas City Chiefs host the Cincinnati Bengals (shown here, 14-4).
Read more…

Best-bets for Jan. 28: Fun on (or near) ice

1) “Planet Earth: Frozen Planet II” (shown here), 8 p.m., BBC America. A third of our planet remains mostly frozen, David Attenborough tells us here. Parts of the Arctic are fierce – 200-mile-an-hour winds whipping temperatures of 94-below-zero Fahrenheit. But moving south a tad, there’s spectacular footage of frozen forests, cascading waterfalls, wolves and bison colliding. This is great filmmaking, in a day filled with reruns of other BBC nature gems, Read more…

Best-bets for Jan. 27: skaters, rappers and movies

1) Figure skating, 8-10 p.m., NBC. As always, the female skaters (shown here) dominate TV’s attention. They had their short programs Thursday on the USA Network and now move to NBC for the finals. Meanwhile, the men have their short programs from 5-7 p.m. today on USA, with the finals from 3-6 p.m. Sunday on NBC. Other finals are Saturday — free dance, 2-4:30 p.m., NBC; pairs, 8-10 p.m., USA. Read more…

Best-bets for Jan. 26: Lyonne leads a big streamer stretch

1) “Poker Face” debut, Peacock. Rian Johnson, writer-director of the “Knives Out” gems, links with Natasha Lyonne for a superb series. She’s terrific as Charlie, with an innate sense of when people are lying. In the opener (shown here), she’s living in a Las Vegas trailer, when casino boss (Adrien Brody) tries to harness that skill; she’s soon on the run, solving self-contained mysteries slong the way. Except for one flaw – scenes that flash back a few days, without telling viewers – this is a fresh and entertaining show. Read more…