Best-bets for Aug. 29: murder and rage in fiction and fact

1) “Justified: City Primeval” finale, 10 p.m., FX. This started as a light, bright tale, then turned brutal. Now the manic Mansell is pitted against Raylan (Timothy Olyphant, shown here), the stoic U.S. marshal who is sleeping with Mansell’s lawyer. Both men have been hauled away by mobsters, while cops are framing someone else for Manseill’s murders. It’s a complicated story that seems to end early, then re-starts, then DOES end early, leaving room for some warm surprises. Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 28: finales for “Claim” and “Mars”

1) “Claim to Fame” finale, 8 and 9 p.m., ABC. There have been plenty of wrong guesses this year, most aimed at Chris (shown here, left). Despite obvious clues – teen idol, puppy love, Utah, many-colored dreamcoat — people guessed he was related to Elvis Presley, Elton John and Billy Idol. They also linked Karsyn with the wrong race-car driver, Jeff Gordon. Now both remain, with Gabriel (shown here, right) and Monay. One person is ousted the first hour, two more in a fun finale. Read more…

Here’s a party that even outsiders will enjoy

OK, I might not be the target audience for “You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah.”
The movie (shown here) – which debuted today (Aug. 25) on Netflix – is about Jewish girls turning 13. I miss that by one gender, one Testament and two generations.
But I found it to be an enjoyable journey to a different world and to some too-common human frailties. Also, it has a bright look and a relentless barrage of pop music.
This is a family-friendly film and a family project. Adam Sandler produced it and plays the dad. His daughter Sunny (second from left) stars as Stacy and her older sister Sadie plays, logically, her older sister. Adam’s wife Jackie is confined to playing Stacy’s friend’s mom; instead, Adam’s wife is played by Idina Menzel. Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 27: finales for Bear, “Wind” and gymnasts

1) “Running Wild With Bear Grylls,” season-finales, 8 and 9 p.m., National Geographic Channel. For eight seasons, Grylls has taken celebrities to harsh places. Now he has takes Daveed Diggs to a desert and then Tatiana Maslany (“Black Orphan”) to rappel down a mountain. Before that, the rest of the season reruns. Starting at 2 p.m., it will be Rita Ora, Russell Brand, Troy Kotsur, Cynthia Erivo, Benedict Cumberbatch and Bradley Cooper (shown here). Read more…

When, really, does new TV season start?

For TV viewers, there are pressing questions:
1) When will the new season start?
2) Will there actually be a new season?
The second answer is a firm “sort of.” Flattened by the writers’ and actors’ strikes, networks have put together makeshift line-ups. It won’t be pretty, but it will be TV.
And the first one has several answers. Some details (especially from ABC) are missing, but most are here, especially with the dominant role of football (shown here). For the broadcast networks, let’s consider one of these to be the starting date for a rickety season: Read more…

CNN gets a new streaming site

The wobbly relationship between CNN and its new owner may be strengthened a bit.
A new streaming hub, “CNN Max,” was announced today by Warner Bros. Discovery. When it launches Sept. 27, it will be free to people who subscribe to the Max (formerly HBO Max) streamer. Specifics are unclear, but it appears to:
— Help cord-cutters, who might find themselves without a full-time news channel. This will have separate shows, but will cover breaking news and use the regular CNN anchors.
— Be a convenient place to find past productions, including the Oscar-winning “Navalny” (shown here) and two Emmy-winning travel series with Stanley Tucci and with the late Anthony Bourdain. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for Aug. 28: An opening burst of mysteries & football

1) Mysteries, 8-11 p.m. Sunday, PBS. We could call this the start of the fall season; three well-crafted shows return for six-week seasons “Unforgotten” (9 p.m.) uses all six weeks for one murder case – and a dilly. In the opener, the new inspector (shown here) arrives on what’s already the worst day of her life. “Van der Valk” (10) has three two-part stories; the first is tangled and intriguing. “Professor T” (8) has a new story each week, with an enigmatic criminologist. Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 26: College football takes over

1) College football, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC. For most schools, the season starts next weekend. Each year, however, two historically Black colleges gets a one-week jump. This time, South Carolina State (3-8 last year) faces Jackson State, which was 12-0 in the regular-season (with an average score of 38-11), before losing a bowl game. Now its coach (Deion Sanders) and its star quarterback (his son Shedeur, shown here) have switched to Colorado. Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 25: music — country and classical — soars

1) “Great Performances,” 9 p.m., PBS. Each year, PBS wraps up its summer with this elegant Vienna concert. This year, Yannick Nezet-Seguin (shown here at a previous concert) conducts, opening with numbers from “Carmen” – the first show he led at the Metropolitan Opera. Elina Garanca sings beautifully … then returns for two more numbers. Things slow down at times, but close with “Bolero” – beautifully illustrated by silhouette dancers –and, as always, a Strauss waltz. Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 24: roasted vampire and stymied Sheldon

1) “What We Do in the Shadows,” 10 p.m., FX. A week from its season-finale, this offbeat comedy takes a neat detour. Laszlo (shown here in last week’s episode) has been in a funk lately, so Nandor plans a good-natured “roast.” Vampires, alas, aren’t adept at giving (or receiving) gentle jests. Tied into that is the fact that Guillermo is turning into a vampire – secretly, slowly and clumsily. It’s an odd and funny episode. Read more…