Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for June 22: Love wobbles in Nova Scotia

1) “Sullivan’s Crossing” season-finale, 8 p.m., CW. For four seasons, we’ve seen good-hearted people — Maggie, a former surgeon, and Cal, a former lawyer — fall in love amid Nova Scotian beauty. (They’re shown here in a previous episode.) Then came her long-ago husband Liam, whose divorce papers were misfiled. As a land ceremony nears, she must make a choice. Read more…

Best-bets for June 21: monsters and mysteries

1) “House of the Dragon” (shown here) season-opener, 9 p.m. Sunday, HBO and HBO Max. Here is epic filming — TV on a mega-movie scale. At one point, the show had expected to close its second season with the Battle of the Gullet. Now, instead, it uses that to give the third season a huge start. Dragons, ships and warriors collide in the water between two kingdoms.
Read more…

Best-bets for June 20: great movies, old and new

1) “Bonnie and Clyde” (1969), 5:45 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies; and “Project Hail Mary” (2026), 8 p.m., MGM+. Some 57 years apart, both films blended smart stories, great actors (shown here are Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty as Bonnie and Clyde) and great cinematic skill. That’s also true of “Top Gun: Maverick” (6:50 and 10 p.m., Paramount Network) and the “Godfather” (6 and 9, Showtime) and “Lord of the Rings” (2, 6 and 10, TruTV) films. Read more…

Best-bets for June 19: a potent Juneteenth

1) “The Clash of Nations,” 8-10:05 p.m., History. Two boxing matches (1936 and ’38) were seen as global symbols. Max Schmeling (left) represented “German superiority”; Joe Louis (right) was the rising Black American. This film debuts on Juneteenth (which marks the end of slavery), preceded by films on Jesse Owens (6 p.m.) and the stars who followed Jackie Robinson (4). Read more…

Best-bets for June 18: Elvis, Elsbeth and dinosaurs

1) “Surviving Earth,” 8 p.m.. NBC. A lush, tropical era prevailed for millions of years, we’re told. As this hour begins (232 million years ago) that’s ending. Rains abate as new creatures — early mammals (shown here) and dinosaurs — roam. With great special effects, it’s a fairly good hour, followed by a splendid “Americas” rerun visiting the Amazon. Read more…

Best-bets for June 17: new Homer; random awards

1) “The Simpsons,” Disney+. Yes, a new episode is arriving in June — and for streaming-only. Disney+ is celebrating the fact that it now has all 37 seasons of the show, plus the movie and shorts. This one has Marge (shown here in a previous episode) imagine life with alternate Homers; there will be two more new episodes this summer. Read more…

Best-bets for June 16: big night for documentaries

1) “Becoming Katharine Graham,” 9-11 p.m., PBS. A rich socialite, Graham (shown here) was a friend of Kennedys and Reagans. Then her life transformed at 46; her husband’s death left her in charge of the Washington Post. She steered it through Watergate, the Pentagon Papers and more. It’s a great story and (despite an awful music score) an interesting film. Read more…

Best-bets for June 15: Holocaust hero’s potent story

1) “The Last Twins,” 10p.m., PBS. Judith Richter was a married grad student before spotting a magazine article (shown here) that hinted at her father’s amazing story: In Auschwitz, twins were being studied; older than the others, Emo Spiegel became a big brother and then a protector, walking them to their homelands after liberation. It’s a great story, wrenching at first and then uplifting. Read more…

Best-bets for June 14: good vicar and messy vampire

1) “Grantchester” season-opener, 9 p.m., PBS. For a decade, this has given us some likable villagers (including three crime-solving vicars) and smart stories. Now the 11th and final season starts with a drive-in movie fundraiser, then offers a sharp murder mystery. In eight episodes, this will take the vicar (shown here) and others through times of angst and joy. Read more…