Best-bets for Feb. 13: wild year, romantic weekend

1) “A Wild Year on Earth,” 8 p.m., BBC America. In July and August, Greenland’s icebergs crumble, the great migrations begin and brown bears await their salmon feast. There are nasty creatures, from sidewinder snakes in the desert to mosquitoes on a rhino’s back – soon swooped up by birds. This series (shown here in a previous episode) has stunning footage; tonight, it ranges from nomadic Mongolians on horseback to a sly fox on an Alaskan island. He leaps out of hiding to snatch birds that were flying low to avoid sea gulls. Read more…

1) “A Wild Year on Earth,” 8 p.m., BBC America. In July and August, Greenland’s icebergs crumble, the great migrations begin and brown bears await their salmon feast. There are nasty creatures, from sidewinder snakes in the desert to mosquitoes on a rhino’s back – soon swooped up by birds. This series (shown here in a previous episode) has stunning footage; tonight, it ranges from nomadic Mongolians on horseback to a sly fox on an Alaskan island. He leaps out of hiding to snatch birds that were flying low to avoid sea gulls.

2) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. We expect Regina King to be dead-serious. In each of the past three years, she’s won either an Emmy (“Seven Seconds,” “Watchmen”) or an Oscar (“If Beale Street Could Talk”). Now she can be funny, in her first turn as “SNL” host; Nathaniel Rateliff, a folk/blues singer-songwriter, is the music guest.

3) Basketball, 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC, with pre-game at 8. Now that the Super Bowl is done, basketball and hockey get the spotlight. (For a while, anyway; baseball starts spring training on Wednesday.) Tonight, Golden State – coming back after an injury-plagued year – hosts the Brooklyn Nets.

4) “Roman Holiday” (1953), 8 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. This gem won Academy Awards for Audrey Hepburn’s radiant performance, Edith Head’s costumes and Dalton Trumbo’s script (which used someone else’s name, because of blacklisting). That’s part of TCM’s Valentine weekend, followed at 10:15 p.m. ET by “Pillow Talk” (1959), a Rock Hudson/Doris Day film with a clever, Oscar-winning script. Romance buffs can also go to Hallmark, including the new “Playing Cupid” at 9 p.m.

5) “Death Saved My Life,” 8-10 p.m., Lifetime. On the flip side of romance is this story of a woman who faked her death when her husband hired a hitman. It starts a string of five Saturdays with true-crime tales. This one stars Meagan Good, with her real-life sister La’Myisa playing her sister.

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