Best-bets for Aug. 24: soccer, spies & snacks

1) “Welcome to Wrexham” debut episodes, 10 and 10:38 p.m., FX; repeat at 11:17 and 11:55. In a crumbling Welsh economy, Wrexham has two points of pride – a professional soccer team and a classic stadium. But the stadium is 215 years old and the team has fallen to the fifth level, just above semi-pro. Then actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (shown here) bought the team; this documentary’s opener, catching the end of the 2020 season, is both warm and bittersweet. Read more…

1) “Welcome to Wrexham” debut episodes, 10 and 10:38 p.m., FX; repeat at 11:17 and 11:55. In a crumbling Welsh economy, Wrexham has two points of pride – a professional soccer team and a classic stadium. But the stadium is 215 years old and the team has fallen to the fifth level, just above semi-pro. Then actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney (shown here) bought the team; this documentary’s opener, catching the end of the 2020 season, is both warm and bittersweet.

2) “Archer” season-opener, 10 p.m., FXX, rerunning at 10:33 and 11:06. For a dozen seasons, this animated show has offered a savvy blend of dark humor and action-adventure. After years of working for his mom (Jessica Walter, who died last year at 80), superspy Archer now has a boss he hates … but must rescue. It’s an entertaining start to a promising season.

3) “MasterChef,” 8 and 9 p.m., Fox. The show has its top 10 home chefs now and gives them a tough challenge: Elevate the qaulity of gas-station food and road-trip snacks. Then survivors face a mystery box created by Gerron Hurt, who was a 25-year-old English teacher when he was the 2018 champion.

4) “The Fugitive” (1993), AMC, or “Beauty and the Beast,” (1991), Disney Channel; 8 p.m. Here are two well-crafted films that drew Academy Award nominations for best picture. “Fugitive” had seven nominations, winning for Tommy Lee Jones in support; “Beauty” had six, winning two Oscars for its music. It’s the only animated film ever nominated for best-picture in a field of five; “Up” and “Toy Story 3” later were in 10-film fields.

5) “Katrina’s Babies,” 9-10:25 p.m., HBO. It was on Aug. 25 of 2005 that Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Florida. In the next few days, it gathered intensity over the Gulf of Mexico, battering Mississippi and Louisiana. This documentary meets the people who were babies around that time and lost chunks of a standard childhood.

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