Daily Best Bets

1) “The Thing About Pam” opener, 10:01 p.m., NBC. After playing a beloved person (Judy Garland), Renee Zellweger deftly pivots to play a behated (or some such word) one. In small-town Missouri, Pam Hupp injected herself into people’s lives; sometimes, they ended up dead and she ended up with money. It’s a story that has fascinated true-crime buffs; now Zellweger (shown here) buries herself in prosthetics, accent and a richly hate-able persona. Read more…

1) ”The Cleaning Lady,” 9 p.m., Fox. A week from the season-finale, this tangled tale gains speed. Thony (shown here) is a doctor in the Philippines, but can’t get a transplant for her son there. In Las Vegas, she worked as a cleaner … then met some mobsters. One got her to Mexico for the transplant … but was nearly killed and can’t get her back to the U.S.. Then there’s the FBI guy who considers her an informant. It’s a good episode, setting up a better one next week. Read more…

1) “Winning Time: The Rise of the Los Angeles Lakers” debut, 9 p.m., HBO, rerunning at 10 and 11:30. In 1979, pro basketball was sagging; even with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Norm Nixon and a winning team, Los Angeles fans shrugged. Then Jerry Buss – who didn’t have the money – bought the team; he added flair, fun and Laker Girls. He also overruled his crabby coach and drafted Magic Johnson. (Shown here are John C. Reilly and Quincy Isaiah as Buss and Johnson.) It’s a fun story, jauntily told in this scripted mini-series. Read more…

.1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. After its Olympic break, “SNL” was in top form last week. It started with an emotional Ukraine chorus, followed with a sharp John Mullaly monolog, then had neatly offbeat sketches. Now Oscar Isaac – the Guatemalan native who plays Poe Damera (show here) in “Star Wars” films – has his first turn as host. Charli XCX has her second (and first in eight years) as music guest. Read more…

1) “Brain Games: On the Road,” 8-10 p.m., National Geographic. The original series ran for eight seasons and three hosts, showing how our sub-conscious can help or trick us. It was a fun show, worth trying; all the episodes are on Disney+ and three of them rerun here, at 5, 6 and 7 p.m. They’re followed by four half-hours of this spin-off (shown here), which debuted last week. Chuck Nice takes the games into neighborhoods. Read more…

1) Streaming surge. The streaming networks are loading up now. On Wednesday, Disney+ added Steven Spielberg’s masterful “West Side Story” remake; today, two mini-series collide, each telling true stories with audacious people. d on Hulu, “The Dropout” has Amanda Seyfried as Elizabeth Holmes, a tech genius convicted of massive fraud. On Peacock, Kate McKinnon and John Cameron Mitchell (shown here) play Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic in “Joe vs. Carole,” a story made famous in the “Tiger King” documentary. Read more…

1) “The Amazing Race” finale, 8-10 p.m., CBS. The longest race in TV history ends. Filming started two years ago, took an 18-month Covid break, then resumed. Now comes the Greece-Portugal-U.S. finish. Kim and Penn Holderness, internet stars since their “Xmas Jammies” video, are in the running. So are Ryan Ferguson (exonerated after 10 years in prison) and his friend Dusty Harris, Arun Kumar and his daughter Natalia; and flight attendants (shown here) Raquel Moore and Cayla Platt. Read more…

1) State of the Union address, 9 p.m. ET, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS and news networks. For the first time, we had to wait until March to learn what state the union is in. Since 1934, the speech has been in January or February; before that, it was November or December … except for George Washington, on Oct. 25, 1791. (Hey, he was new at this.) Now Joe Biden speaks and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds gives the Republican response. And yes, there are alternatives, including “Naomi” (shown here); see No. 4. Read more…

1) “Better Things,” 10 and 10:46 p.m., FX; repeating at 11:21 and 12:07 and 12:42 and 1:25. This is one of TV’s best shows – once you get used to it. It has subtle, scattered moments in the random life of Sam Fox (Pam Adlon, right, who also writes, directs and produces), her three daughters and mom (they’re shown here) and more. The openers bring a genealogy jolt, a black-out, a dreaded job and more. There’s a crisis coming later, but mostly this is about life’s better and lesser things. Read more…

1) “American Idol” season-opener, 8-10 p.m., ABC. Starting its 20th season (and its fifth on ABC), this is a piece of TV history. It hit No. 1 in the Nielsen ratings for 2005-6, after two years at No. 2. Ryan Seacrest remains as hosts; the judges (shown here) are Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan. This year’s tours reach Nashville, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. Read more…