Daily Best Bets

1) “In the Heights” (2021), 8 p.m., HBO, repeating at 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Before triumphing with “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda composed and starred in this splendid musical about life in a Latinx musical. Wisely, he let others take over the movie. Anthony Ramos (shown here) stars (with Miranda getting one song) and John M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians”) directed. The result is one of the best movies in years. Warm moments mingle with vibrant numbers that suggest the great movie-musicals of old. Read more…

1) “Now Hear This: Beethoven’s Ghost,” 9 p.m., PBS. In most “Now Hear This” hours, violinist Scott Yoo (shown here) blends music, commentary and a travelog. Now comes a terrific detour: As five musicians record Beethoven’s music, the composer’s ghost (perfectly played by John Hans Tester) roams … wjth Freud’s ghost trying some instant analysis. The music – especially from Yoo and pianist Anna Polonsky – soars. Read more…

1) “B Positive,” 9:30 p.m., CBS. Already a good show, this has had a drastic makeover for its second season. At the core is Gina, a good-hearted (if sometimes daft) soul, brilliantly played by Annaleigh Ashford. She inherited a fortune … and bought the retirement home where she works. That lets the show add a flock of newcomers. It already had two Tony-winners, Ashford and Linda Lavin (they’re shown here); now it adds two more, Ben Vereen and Priscilla Lopez, plus Jane Seymour and Hector Elizondo. Read more…

1) “Nature,” 9 p.m. PBS. The osprey is an amazing creation. With a six-foot wingspan, yet weighing only three pounds, it’s a fierce flying machine. It’s the one bird that can dive down, completely submerge and emerge with a fish (shown here). In this beautifully filmed hour, a male commutes 4,000 miles to a Connecticut reunion with his annual summer mate. They raise three fledglings, while he also chases off two bald eagles (much bigger than he is) and even scatters an entire cormorant colony. Read more…

1) World Series, 8:09 p.m. ET, Fox, with preview at 7:30. The baseball classic begins, with all the big winners already gone. The Giants (107 wins in 162 games) and Rays (100 wins) lost in their first round; the Dodgers (106) lost in the league championship. That leaves Houston (95) and Atlanta (88, shown here with Eddie Rosario’s scoring slide) … and fits history: From 2010 to 2015, the World Series champion was never the season’s top winner. Two champs lately had a sub-90 season – the Giants (88 wins) in 2014 and Cardinals (83) in 2006. Read more…

1) “4400”(shown here) debut, 9 p.m., CW. For a lawyer returning from maternity leave, this is a messy start: En route to work, she’s yanked up and dumped in a field, one of 4,400 perplexed souls there. For her, it’s suddenly 16 years later; for others, the time gap varies. This reboots a cable series, now focusing on Black characters. Like NBC’s “La Brea,” it’s a great concept, but has wildly overdrawn characters. But CW, unlike NBC, tends to finish what it starts; we might stick with this for a while. Read more…

1) “SEAL Team,” 10:30 p.m., CBS,but 10 p.m. PT. It’s changeover time for this military drama. Last week, the show finished a taut two-parter in North Korea; next week, it’s supposed to have its final new CBS episode, before jumping to Paramount+. First comes this emotional hour: The team visits the 9/11 memorial (shown here) in New York, causing each person to flash back to 20 years ago. Read more…

(Here are the five TV best-bets for Saturday, Oct. 23; feel free to use in any form – all or some, print and/or web)

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Jason Sudeikis finally returns as host, with Brandi Carlile as music guest. Sudeikis was with “SNL” for two years as a writer and eight as an actor. After leaving in 2013, he sometimes returned to play Mitt Romney or Joe Biden. He made comedy movies, had two children with then-fiance Olivia Wilde, did “Last Man on Earth,” then soared after co-creating “Ted Lasso” (shown here). The Apple TV+ show won seven Emmys, including best actor (Sudeikis) and best comedy. Read more…

1) “SWAT,” 8 p.m., CBS. This was suppose to be a changeover night. CBS would debut a reality show, “The Activist,” at 8 p.m.; “SWAT” (shown here) would then move to Sundays to replace “SEAL Team,” which goes to Paramount+. Then people pointed out that the new show – activists competing for attention on social media and beyond – was a terrible idea; CBS pulled it for retooling. For now, “SWAT” stays on Fridays; tonight, vigilantes make it harder to catch a violent band of armed robbers. Read more…

1) “The Blacklist” season-opener, 8 p.m., NBC. This intense drama peaked as its eighth season ended: Red (James Spader, shown here in a previous episode) told Liz (Megan Boone, who was leaving the show) to shoot him and then read a letter revealing his secrets. Instead, a gunman killed her; Red killed him and fled. Now we jump ahead two years. Red vanished, the task force folded, but a new threat brings them back together. Read more…