1) “The Godfather” (1972), 5 p.m., AMC. It’s a slow night for TV series, but a great one for movies. Topping the list is Francis Coppola’s richly crafted mobster epic (shown here with Marlon Brando. It’s No. 2 on the American Film Institute’s all-time list, trailing only “Citizen Kane” … and “Godfather, Part II” (1974) – which follows at 9 p.m. – is No. 32, the only sequel on the 100-movie list. Read more…
1) “Greatest #At Home Videos,” 8 p.m., CBS. As CBS tells it, this is the end – wrapping up a four-week run of videos people made at home, often while isolated. Still, we’ll be surprised if there aren’t more. So far, (a previous moment is shown here), there’s been an endless cascade of bits – sometimes funny, usually fun, occasionally warm – involving people and pets and sheer imagination. And host Cedric the Entertainer keeps asking viewers to send more; we hope this keeps going. Read more…
1) Cake” (FXX) or “Tacoma FD” (truTV), both 10 p.m.. Thursday is supposed to be TV’s funniest night, but not this summer. NBC and Fox shelved their Thursday situation comedies; now CBS has cut its Thursday sitcoms in half (from four to two), to make room for “Big Brother.” At 10 p.m., however, there’s quirky fun: “Cake” has short bits, mostly animated and moslty funny. “Tacoma” is a standard sitcom, with occasional laughs. This week is the OK start of a two-parter, as two long-time friends (shown here) have a dispute that peaks at the Fireman’s Ball. Read more…
1) “Agents of SHIELD” series finale, 9 and 10 p.m., ABC. A hugely ambitious effort – seven seasons and 136 episodes, leaping across planets and across time – concludes. Sybil – who got inside the computer system – and Nathanial are close to eliminating SHIELD from ever existing. Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker, shown here in a previous episode), who was killed in one timeline, is back. So are Piper, Davis, Enoch and Flint, in battles to save the world. Read more…
1) “Greenleaf” series finale, 9 p.m., Oprah Winfrey Network. This passionate series ends with a cascade of emotion. That was triggered at the end of last week’s episode, which reruns at 8; then come the aftershocks, deep and far-reaching. Often, Lynn Whitfield (shown here, earlier in the series) has been bound by the stoic facade of her character (Mae, the matriarch); now she lets loose spectacularly. Problems are confronted, lives are transformed and Charity (Debrorah Joy Winans) sings twice; it’s a great way to end. Read more…
1) “The Titan Games” finale, 8 p.m., NBC. “Titan” (shown here) has already found its winners, male and female, from its three regions. Now they compete, with one of each eliminated. That leaves two men and two women to reach Mount Olympus and go for the championships. Read more…
1) Shark overlap, cable. This is the day “Sharkfest” slides from the National Geographic Channel to Nat Geo Wild, where it will linger for two more weeks. But it’s also when Discovery starts “Shark Week” – an idea it created 32 years ago. At 8 p.m., Discovery returns to the site off the high-leaping “Air Jaws” (shown here). At 9, it claims to have an underwater confrontation between sharks and Mike Tyson. And at 10, it’s in New Zealand, where giant great whites, some 20 feet long, thrive. Read more…
1) “American Sniper” (2014) or “Richard Jewell” (2019), 8 p.m., Syfy or HBO. After spending decades in fiction, Clint Eastwood has directed five straight films based on true stories. That started with the terrific “Sniper,” which drew six Oscar nominations, included best actor (Bradley Cooper, shown here) and best picture. It made $547 million worldwide – which put it more than $500 million ahead of “Jewell,” the story of the security guard who found bombs near the 1996 Olympics. Read more…
1) “Great Performances: In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams.” 9 p.m., PBS. This is feel-good TV – a show that feels especially good when we know what’s happened in the 11 years since it first aired. We see Lin-Manuel Miranda (shown here, left, in his later “Hamilton” triumph), then 28, ready to open “In the Heights” on Broadway. He’d been writing it since his sophomore year in college, where he met Thomas Kail, now directing it. We meet the gifted cast, see its Tony triumph … and know these people will soar again, with “Hamilton.” Read more…
2) “Mom,” 9:01 and 9:30 p.m., CBS. After starting with two terrific characters, this show kept adding great ones in support. Both of these reruns focus on Marjorie (Mimi Kennedy) and Jill (Jaime Pressly). In the first, Marjorie tries to reconnect with the son she lost touch with in her drunken years; in the second, she prepares for her first date since her husband’s death. Also, in the first one, Tammy sees a different side of Jill while working for her; in the second, Bonnie confesses to a long-ago theft Read more…
