Daily Best Bets

1) “Masterpiece: Van der Valk” debut, 9 p.m., PBS. The season’s first scripted show is a winner – a smart and well-crafted mystery with fresh settings. All the key people are British, including the novelist who created the characters and the actors who play them, led by Marc Warren (shown here). Still, this is set in Amsterdam, providing a fresh look … and a lot of bicycles. The opener starts with a wild bike chase, then shows the main crime. It pauses for humor (as Van der Valk meets his new aide), then eyes art, politics and romance. Read more…

1) “Coastal Elites,” 8-9:30 p.m., HBO, rerunning at 11:20. In the right hands, a pandemic can seem fun. Paul Rudnick (“Sister Act,” “Addams Family Values”) wrote monologues about social-distanced live; five gifted actors then did them in a social-distance way. Kaitlyn Dever plays an idealistic youmg nurse from Wyoming; Bette Midler plays an angry old New Yorker. Dan Levy plays a neurotic actor, Issa Raye plays a rich kid and Sarah Paulson (shown here) plays the star of the internet’s “Mindful Meditations.” Read more…

1) 9/11 documentaries, all day, History. On the 19th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks (shown her, here’s a 21-hour marathon. That includes two new hours, looking at the final two planes – one hitting the Pentagon, the other crashing in a Pennsylvania field. The rest are reruns, starting with efforts to rebuild on the site (7 a.m.) and to find the flag that was hoisted there (8). Especially moving are “Escape From the Tower” and “102 Minutes that Changed America,” at 4 and 6 p.m Read more…

1) Football season-opener, 8:20 p.m ET., NBC. This is just what we need now – the full-scale fun and fury of pro football. It starts with Patrick Mahomes (shown here) and the champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Houston Texans, which almost stopped them en route to last year’s Super Bowl. All of the other teams play Sunday (including the Rams and Cowboys at night on NBC) or in an ESPN doubleheader Monday. And on Saturday, we have the first full – well, semi-full – day of college football. Read more…

1) “Nova” season-opener, 8-10 p.m., PBS. Here is PBS at its best – taking an impenetrable subject and making it easy to understand – and even compelling, almost in a science-fiction way. The subject, gene-editing, is explained by animation and more. We meet Jennifer Douda, the Berkeley biochemist who linkeed with  Emmanuelle Charpentier (they’re shown here, right to left) to find ways genes can be altered … and David Sanchez, 17, stricken by sickle-cell disorder. Could this be prevented? What are the ethical traps? These are compelling questions, beautifully posed. Read more…

1) “Transplant,” 10 p.m., NBC. In a terrific opener last week, we slowly learned the basics: Bashir was a doctor who treated rebels in Syria, then fled to Canada with his little sister. Rejected by hospitals, he was working in a restaurant when tragedy struck. He saved the hospital’s medical chief, who then hired him. In another strong episode tonight, Bashir (shown here) finds more problems: The makeshift methods he used in Aleppo are viewed harshly in this by-the-book workplace; also a friend is undocumented and homeless. Read more…

1) “American Ninja Warrior” (shown here in previous year) season-opener, 8-10 p.m., NBC. This summertime hit has turned into a fall show. It’s getting a late start, but will sprawl across autumn, when NBC needs temporary help. That’s what “Big Brother” and “Love Island” do for CBS. Like those two, “Ninja” has a “bubble,” keeping everyone in one place. Instead of tryouts around the country, it does everything at America’s Center in St. Louis. Some 150 people start by tackling the six-obstacle qualifier. Read more…

1) “Power Book II: Ghost” debut, 9 p.m., Starz. The “Power” series was a ratings winner for Starz – tough, taut and often lethal. Even the main character – a drug boss known as Ghost – was killed; his son Tariq did it, but Ghost’s wife Tasha was charged. Now Tariq is in college (shown here), stretching for ways to make money and get his mom free. Meanwhile, there’s a new drug boss, played by Mary J. Blige. Read more…

1) College football season-openers, cable. The first football Saturday is a modest one, with a bigger line-up coming next week. For now, ESPN packs in three games – Eastern Kentucky at Marshall at 1 p.m. ET; Southern Methodist at Texas Tech at 4:30; and Arkansas at Memphis at 8. It also has two games on its ESPN3 streaming service. The CBS Sports Network had the first game, Thursday; today, it has Army (shown here last season) hosting Middle Tennessee — with a crowd consisting only of cadets – at 1:30 p.m. ET. Read more…

1) “New York Times Presents,” 10 p.m., FX and Hulu. The death of Breonna Taylor (shown here) has drawn intense focus. Here’s a long look, with friends, neighbors, officials, boyfriend Kenneth Walker and her mom. Key comments are from David James, a Black ex-cop and a Louisville councilman. Banging on the door without identifying as police “is the most dangerous thing you can do,” he says. Most neighbors say the cops didn’t identify themselves; one disagrees. Walker fired a shot; a police barrage then killed Taylor. Read more…