Best-bets for May 7: “SNL” has a Strange host

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. After two weeks of reruns, “SNL” is ready for the season’s final burst of new shows. Tonight’s host, Benedict Cumberbatch, might not seem like a funny chap in “The Power of the Dog” or the “Doctor Strange” (shown here) movies, the latest of which opened Friday. But he’s British, he was clever in “Sherlock” films and he’s hosted “SNL” twice before. Arcade Fire is the music guest. Read more…

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. After two weeks of reruns, “SNL” is ready for the season’s final burst of new shows. Tonight’s host, Benedict Cumberbatch, might not seem like a funny chap in “The Power of the Dog” or the “Doctor Strange” (shown here) movies, the latest of which opened Friday. But he’s British, he was clever in “Sherlock” films and he’s hosted “SNL” twice before. Arcade Fire is the music guest.

2) “Searching for Italy with Stanly Tucci,” 9 p.m., CNN. The bad news is that CNN has pushed back its rerun of the compelling “Navalny” documentary; originally scheduled for tonight, it’s now set for next Saturday. And the good is that (barring another change) we get a rerun Tucci’s season-opener, an elegant journey through Venice. Then (after a Carlton McCoy visit to Paris at 10), Tucci reruns last season’s trips to Tuscany (11 p.m.), Milan (midnight), Rome (1 a.m.) and Sicily (2).

3) “Dear Evan Hansen: (2021), 8 p.m., HBO. On Broadway, this drew raves and six Tonys, including best musical and actor (Ben Platt). The movie, however, is a mixed blessing. It still has the soaring music, but the plot – a decent guy trapped in a lie he didn’t create – is painful to watch up-close. The decision to let Platt, now 28, continue his teen role was well-meaning, but ill-advised. This breaks a string of great musical adaptations – “In the Heights,” “West Side Story” and “Tick, Tick … Boom!”

4) “NCIS,” 8 p.m., CBS. A top financial advisor has been shot at a naval station. Fortunately, she’d already created a 3-D hologram of herself, which investigators can interview. That’s followed at 9by  another rerun, this one from “NCIS: Los Angeles”: A Navy intelligence officer apparently jumped to his death after taking LSD.

5) Basketball, 3:30 and 8 p.m., ABC. It’s a play-off doubleheader, with the Celtics at the Bucks and then the Grizzlies at the Warriors, Hockey is also in its play-offs, with a 1 p.m. game on ESPN, followed by 4:30, 7 and 9:30 ones on TNT. Baseball, barely getting started, has games at 4:05 and 7:15 on Fox Sports1.

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