Daily Best Bets

1) “Charmed” season-opener, 8 p.m., CW. This show could have shattered when Madeleine Mantock (who played Macy) left. Harry lost his lover, Mel and Maggie lost their sister, the “power of three” was broken. But now comes a terrific hour that seems to make the show better than ever. We meet a mechanic and graffiti artist (shown here), smart, sturdy and self-reliant. This hour wastes too much time in denial, but sweeps “Charmed” in some intriguing directions. Read more…

1) “B Positive” season-finale, 9 p.m., CBS. One of TV’s best – and most undernoticed – comedies wraps its second season. As Gina, Annaleigh Ashford brings a Lucy-like touch, mixing intelligence with a random/vague outlook. On Broadway, Ashford has had two Tony nominations and a win (shown here); on TV, the Emmys and others have ignored her. This season, Gina bought the retirement home where she used to work; tonight, she considers selling it. Read more…

1) “Survivor” opener (shown here), 8-10 p.m., CBS. It’s the 42nd edition, ranging from a 19-year-old Ivy League student to a 58-year-old retired firefighter. There are 18 people in all, some coming from light-hearted jobs – a waitress, a pageant coach, a fitness consultant. Others include a therapist, a veterinarian, a data scientist and a Yale Law School grad, working as a clerk for a judge. Read more…

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…