Mike Hughes

Best-bets for Aug. 15: Call “Saul,” one last time

1) “Better Call Saul” series finale, 9 p.m., AMC, rerunning at 10:38. A great series concludes. Since this is a prequel, we know where part of it is headed. We know Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk, shown here), re-dubbed “Saul,” will be the scheming lawyer working with the “Breaking Bad” guys. But in the flashforward scenes after that, he’s bottomed out. His wife has left (a flashforward showed her new life in Florida); he calls himself “Gene” and has done a cruel theft. We’ll see how or if he survives. Read more…

There’s another “Alien” oddity: a happy Asta

When you hang around with an outer-space alien, you can expect some changes in your life.
Now Asta Twelvetrees has experienced huge ones. In the next “Resident Alien” episode (10 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 17), she even feels joy.
“I was a little shocked with the ‘Happy Asta’ segment,” said Sara Tomko, who plays her. “I had to talk to Chris (Sheridan, the showrunner), like, ‘What does Asta look like when she’s happy?’”
Don’t worry; that phase won’t last long. Nothing does in the Harry Vanderspeigle world. Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 14: Four seasons end, one begins

1) “Masterpiece: Grantchester” season-finale, 9 p.m., PBS. It’s been a terrific season, a quick rebound from the drab “Masterpiece: Endeavour.” Alongside some solid mysteries, there have been personal crises for Geordie (lost in an alcoholic funk) and Will (shown here, center, last season), who dallied with a temptress while overlooking Geordie’s good-hearted niece Bonnie. Last week, Geordie’s wife let him return home; now come more key moments, including another murder of a homeless man. Read more…

Lifetime line-up: Heche, “Bad Seed,” true-crime, more

Anne Heche’s next film – an intense one – is ready to air on Sept. 17.
An Aug. 5 crash left Heche (shown here) in a coma and she was later pronounced dead. he’d aslready finished “Girl in Room 13,” which has been edited and is ready to go. “She did a phenomenal job,” said director Elizabeth Rohm.
Heche plays the mother of a young woman (Larissa Dias) who has disappeared. It’s a fictional story, done with Polaris, which tracks human trafficking.
That’s part of a flurry of movies Lifetime and the Lifetime Movie Network discussed today (Aug. 11) with the Television Critics Association. They include: Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 13: Movies have Diana, DeBose, “Desire”

1) “The Princess” debut, 8 p.m., HBO. This feels like a wonderfully mismatched triple-feature. HBO’s new Diana (shown here) documentary is surrounded by Oscar-winning performances in terrific 2021 films. At 5:30 p.m., Will Smith is an unstoppable tennis dad in “King Richard”; at 10, Ariana DeBose is a potent Anita in Steven Speilberg’s superb “West Side Story.” Read more…

Week’s top-10 for Aug. 15: dragons, da Vinci & reality

1) “House of the Dragon” debut, 9 p.m. Sunday, HBO, rerunning at 10:10. Towering over everything else is this “Game of Thrones” prequel (shown here). HBO spent a reported $200 million on the 10-episode season, which started filming 16 months ago. Set 200 years before “Thrones,” the show has newcomer Emma D’Arcy as the princess and dragonrider. Sci-fi fans will spot Matt Smith of ”Doctor Who” and Olivia Cooke of “Ready Player One.” Read more…

It’s the end of the “Breaking Bad” world

Vince Gilligan was getting ready to close his “Breaking Bad” world … again.,
He’d already done this once, wrapping up “Breaking Bad” in 2013. He killed the main character and saved his colleague, drawing lots of praise and some dismay.
Now he’s at it again. At 9 p.m. Monday (Aug. 15) on AMC — rerunning at 10:38 — the acclaimed “Better Call Saul” (shown here) has its series finale. Did he feel pressure to do it right?
“If we don’t win the Nobel Prize for winning this, I’ll be highly disappointed,” he joked to the Television Critics Association. Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 12: feel-good night from Chen, chefs

1) “Secret Celebrity Renovation,” 8 p.m., CBS. Nathan Chen (shown here) grew up in Salt Lake City, the son of a research scientist and a medical translator. His own interests were elsewhere – piano, ballet, gymnastics and, especially, figure-skating. He’s won three world championships and Olympic gold and holds the all-time best under the current scoring system. Now he returns home to help create a skaters’ lounge in the Salt Lake City Sports Complex. Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 11: baseball’s field of memories

1) Baseball, 7 p.m. ET, Fox. Baseball (shown here) may be slow and stodgy, but it has acres of history. The National League began in the wild-West era; that was 1876, the year Custer and Hickok were killed, Earp became sheriff and Bell made the first phone call. Now two of the original eight teams – Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds – meet on the Iowa diamond created for “Field of Dreams.” They’re about 40 games below .500 (combined), but bring a living history. Read more…

Best-bets for Aug. 10: “Dance” ends, “Alien” returns

1) “So You Think You Can Dance” finale, 9 p.m., Fox. Two gifted dancers (shown here with host Cat Deely), trained in opposite styles, remain. Keaton Kerrmode, 20, is a husky guy who was a 190-pound running back and safety in small-town Indiana; he’s a contemporary dancer. Alexis Warr, 21, trained in the Utah dance studio where Derek Hough began, then backed him on tour. She hopes to be the show’s first ballroom champ. Read more…