Daily Best Bets

1) “Savage Kingdom” (shown here) season-finale, 9-11 p.m., National Geographic. So a mom comes home and finds her kids are missing. So is the dad, who was supposed to watch them; instead, his no-account brother is there. Soon, she and the kids are leaving, looking for her sister and a new domain. That story – about a lioness – is one of several in the finale of this three-week, six-hour series. Others involve a cheetah, an outcast hyena and the leader of a pack of wild dogs. “Kingdom” is beautifully filmed, but, well, savage. Read more…

1) Republican convention, 8-11 p.m. ET, PBS; 10 p.m., ABC, CBS and NBC; all night, news channels. Now the presidential race hits full-speed. Last Thursday, Joe Biden gave his nomination-acceptance speech; tonight, Donald Trump has his turn. There will be warm-up speakers, of course. Scheduled (subject to change) are senators (Mitch McConnell, Tom Cotton), congressmen (Kevin McCarthy, Jeff Van Drew), a cabinet member (Ben Carson) and others, from Trump’s daughter Ivanka to the Rev. Franklin Graham (shown here), son of the late evangelist Billy Graham. Read more…

1) “United We Fall” season-finale, 8 p.m., ABC. This pleasant-enough comedy has has a rough ride. ABC planned to run the eight episodes this spring; when COVID shutdowns hit, it considered promoting the show to the fall … then, instead, dumped it in the summer. All of this back-and-forth has been for an OK show, with Will Sasso, Christina Vidal and Jane Curtin as struggling parents and his mom. Tonight, they plan a celebration (shown here) to renew their vows; naturally, there’s a snowstorm and more. Read more…

1) “Dead Pixels,” 8 and 8:30 p.m., CW. In real life, we hear a chorus of rage whenever Hollywood tries something new. Female ghostbusters? Gay superhero? The attacks begin. We might imagine that these are foul internet trolls, but now they get a human dimension: Last week’s fun opener (rerunning at 8:30) introduced likable young people who happen to obsess on one videogame (shown here). Now they get word that Vince Vaughn will star in the movie version. Rage ensudes; so does humor. Read more…

1) Republican convention, 8-11 p.m. ET, PBS; 10 p.m., ABC, CBS and NBC; all night, news channels. There may be a fairly quiet start today (with official business in Charlotte, N.C.) and a high-decibel finish Thursday (with Donald Trump at the White House. The program starts at 9 p.m. ET today and 8:30 p.m. on other days and will bealot like the 2016 convention (shown here), but with fewer balloons, fewer people and less … well, everything. Speakers scheduled include Melania Trump on Tuesday and Mike Pence on Wednesday, plus Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Joni Ernst, Kevin McCarthy, Kristi Noem and others. Read more…

1) “NOS4A2” season-finale, 10 p.m., AMC and BBC America. Here’s the confrontation we’ve waited two years for. Vic (the terrific Ashleigh Cummings) hops on her motorcycle and heads off to rescue her son, shatter the twisted Christmasland (shown here) and confront Charlie Manx. All of that is tough, high-octane … and over fairly quickly. Then Vic must cope with real life, in what may well be the show’s final hour. Read more…

1) “Love in the Time of Corona,” 8 and 8:30 p.m., Freeform; concludes Sunday. Here are dramas of human isolation – filmed in isolated conditions. Some stories cast families – Leslie Odom Jr. and his wife Nicolette Robinson, Gil Bellows and his wife and daughter – or friends (Tommy Dorfman and Rainey Qualey, shown here). Others use videochats or clever balcony scenes. We see the subtle effects of proximity – friends who could be more, a secret break-up, a forced separation, etc. The results are predictable, but skillfully written and acted. Read more…

1) “The King and I,” 9 p.m., PBS. After four days of convention coverage, PBS can relax and rerun a classic musical revival. “King” is too long (two hours, 40 minutes) and too stiff, offering a fictional version of the real Englishwoman who, in the 1860s, taught the children of the King of Siam. But Kelli O’Hara (shown here with Ken Watanabe) is superb and this is stuffed with Rodgers-and-Hammerstein hits – “Getting to Know You,” “Hello, Young Lovers,” “Something Wonderful,” “I Whistle a Happy Tune” and “Shall We Dance?” Read more…

1) Democratic convention, 8-11 p.m. ET, PBS; 10 p.m. ET, ABC, CBS, NBC; all night, news channels. The next two Thursdays should be required viewing – Joe Biden tonight, Donald Trump next week, the future at stake. In a late addition, Democrats are adding music by the Chicks (formerly Dixie Chicks). Subject to change, from 9-11 p.m., the spealers will be Cory Booker (shown here), Pete Buttigieg, the Chicks, Gavin Newsom, Kesha Lance Bottoms, Tammy Baldwin, Tammy Duckworth, Chris Coons, Andrew Yang and Biden. Read more…

1) “Tough as Nails,” 9 p.m., CBS. Half of the 12 people have already been ousted from the individual contest, including a farmer, a welder and an ironworker. (They stick around, as part of the team competition.) That leaves a sheriff’s deputy, a Marine veteran, a drywaller, a fisherman, a forester and Young An (shown here), a firefighter. An should be in his element, as the teams head to a fire training facility. There, they must save a victim, extinguish a fire …. then rappel from the top of a four-story building. Read more…