Best-bets for May 22: Roe vs. a “stomping on” world

1) “AKA Jane Roe,” 9-11 p.m., FX. Norma McCorvey (shown here) spent her life in the spotlight. She was “Jane Roe” in Roe vs. Wade … then was outspoken on both the pro- and anti-abortion sides. In this film (shot shortly before her death in 2017), she flips again and says she went anti for the money. Still, neither side will feel much joy. Deep pain ripples through a woman who says her role “was to be stomped on and spit on.” Her one joy was a lesbian romance … which the evangelists convinced her to shed. Read more…

1) “AKA Jane Roe,” 9-11 p.m., FX. Norma McCorvey (shown here) spent her life in the spotlight. She was “Jane Roe” in Roe vs. Wade … then was outspoken on both the pro- and anti-abortion sides. In this film (shot shortly before her death in 2017), she flips again and says she went anti for the money. Still, neither side will feel much joy. Deep pain ripples through a woman who says her role “was to be stomped on and spit on.” Her one joy was a lesbian romance … which the evangelists convinced her to shed.

2) “Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet,” any time, Apple TV+. This witty half-hour easily wins the prize for TV’s best piece of social-distance fiction. After a long stretch of game-designing from home, Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao) is too hyper, Ian (Rob McElhenney, who wrote the episode) is too mellow and C.W. (F. Murray Abraham) is still trying to figure out the Internet. It all leads to a splendid visual gag.

3) “Celebrity Escape Room,” 8 p.m., NBC. Here’s an instant rerun of the fun hour that launched Thursday’s “Red Nose Day” fundraiser. Jack Black is the gamemaster, as four people – Ben Stiller, Adam Scott and “Friends” friends Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow – ponder clues in a 1980s high school setting.

4) “American Masters,” 9-11 p.m., PBS. Sammy Davis Jr. never spent a day in school; his writing skills, he said, never got past 3rd grade. Instead, he performed. At 3, he won $10 in a talent contest; at 8, he stared in an Ethel Waters short film. A gifted dancer, singer and actor, he had, Billy Crystal says in this rerun, an abundance “of talent and insecurity.” He also faced attacks from one side because of his mixed marriage and from another when he campaigned for (and hugged) Richard Nixon.

5) “Blue Bloods,” 10 p.m., CBS. Two giants of CBS history are face-to-face in this rerun. The police commissioner (Tom Selleck, 75) must decide whether to protect an old friend (Ed Asner, 90) whose home has been invaded.

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