Best-bets for Aug. 29: Bright skies, dark trouble

1) “Reef Break,” 9 and 10 p.m., ABC. As summer slogs to its end, we need something like this – a double shot of scripted hours in a blue-sky setting. Poppy Montgomery (shown here) is Cat, a former thief who solves crimes on the island where she grew up. In the first hour, Petra — the surfer who has long hated her — has been kidnapped; Cat tries to free her. In the second, the island is celebrating her birthday. Soon, things go wrong: Cat is ill and, ABC says, is facing her most dangerous situation yet. Read more…

1) “Reef Break,” 9 and 10 p.m., ABC. As summer slogs to its end, we need something like this – a double shot of scripted hours in a blue-sky setting. Poppy Montgomery (shown here) is Cat, a former thief who solves crimes on the island where she grew up. In the first hour, Petra — the surfer who has long hated her — has been kidnapped; Cat tries to free her. In the second, the island is celebrating her birthday. Soon, things go wrong: Cat is ill and, ABC says, is facing her most dangerous situation yet.

2) “Queen of the South” season-finale, 10 p.m., NBC. Here’s another new, scripted hour in a blue-sky world. Over four years, we’ve seen Teresa Mendoza rise from a bystander to the savvy head of a drug operation. Last week, she took out some mercenaries and expanded her domain; now she’s ready to close a deal that would take down an enemy … but then an unexpected visitor arrives.

3) “The Big Bang Theory,” 8 p.m., CBS. In a delightful rerun, Sheldon and Amy face an ethical crisis: One of the guys (Sean Astin) competing with them for a Nobel Prize once plagiarized a college thesis. Should they tell on him? The result is both intelligent and very funny.

4) Football, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN. The first college-football weekend starts early, with UCLA at Cincinnati. There were a couple games last Saturday, but now there’s a three-day swarm. National telecasts today are on CBS Sports Network (Florida A&M at Central Florida, 7:30 p.m.), Fox Sports 1 (South Dakota State at Minnesota, 9) and ESPN, with Utah at Brigham Young at 10:15 p.m. ET, after this one. Last year, UCLA, a two-touchdown favorite, lost at home. That started a 3-9 season; Cincinnati went 11-2.

5) “The Queen” (2006), 11:27 a.m. and 7:01 p.m., Starz; “Bridge of Spies” (2015), 8 and 11 p.m. ET, BBC America. Two master filmmakers handle true stories with subtlety and skill. Each film drew six Oscar nominations including best picture, winning one. Stephen Frears’ “Queen” won for Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II; Steven Spielberg’s “Bridge” won for Mark Rylance as a Soviet spy being swapped.

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