Daily Best Bets

Best-bets for March 6: CBS giants link

1) “Blue Bloods.,” 10 p.m., CBS. Two key figures in CBS history link tonight. Ed Asner (shown here) arrived a half-century ago in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”; Tom Selleck came 10 years later in “Magnum, P.I.” Combined, those shows spent five years in the Nielsen top-10, 11 years in the top-20. Selleck won an Emmy; Asner won seven, five of them in “MTM” and its “Lou Grant” spin-off. Now Asner, 90, plays the victim of a home invasion; Selleck, 75, plays his friend, the police commissioner. Read more…

Best-bets for March 5: FX has lots of better things

1) “Better Things” season-opener, 10-11:14 p.m., FX. With subtlety and skill, this has the day-to-day lives of Sam (Pamela Adlon, shown here at right), her three daughters and her mother. Now the girls are back from visiting their dad, with fresh requests. One wants a pet; another wants a quinceanera … which you don’t expect in a Jewish family. Sam persists, while working through her own mid-life crisis and her mom’s late-life crises. As always, the result is an appealing mixture of humor, warmth and dismay. Read more…

Best-bets for March 4: Two 20s-struggles tales collide

1) “The Twenties” debut, 10 and 10:30 p.m, BET. When Lena Waithe hit her 30s, everything clicked. She got a role in “Master of None,” winning an Emmy for an episode she wrote; she wrote and produced Showtime’s “The Chi” and the movie “Queen & Slim.” Now, at 35, Waithe goes back to her early struggles, when she was an assistant to the “Girlfriends” producer. “Twenties” focuses on three friends (shown here), struggling in Hollywood. It’s sometimes a drama, occasionally a comedy, always loosely likable. Read more…

Best-bets for March 3: Super Tuesday or super soapy

1) “Empire” return, 9 p.m., Fox. For six seasons, “Empire” has had an odd mix – great music and messy, over-the top soap opera. For this final season, it aired 10 episodes, then took an 11-week break; now it’s back for its last 10. Fox says only that there’s a “shocking revelation” tonight; there usually is. It implies that a death shakes the Lyon family; also, Andre (Trai Byers, shown here, center) makes an important decision. Read more…

Best-bets for March 2: “Breeders,” “Bob,” “Bachelor”

1) “Breeders” debut, 10-11:14 p.m., FX, rerunning at 11:14. Paul and Ally (Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard, shown here) are your basic Britishers, with decent jobs, a nice home and two noisy children. And at times, they teeter close to madness. In the first of these two hilarious episodes, they can’t get the kids or themselves to sleep; in the second, they scheme to get the kids into the best school. They also confront his clueless parents, her careless dad (Michael McKean) and Paul’s failure to pursue his childhood dreams. Read more…

Best-bets for March 1: “Dispatches” debuts, “Big Shots” returns

1) “Dispatches From Elsewhere” debut, 10 p.m., AMC. Peter leads an unchallenging (and unfulfilling) life, with no significant human contact. He visits a therapist weekly because it’s free and he should talk to someone; still, he has nothing to tell her. Then he’s lured into a bizarre adventure. This is an odd tale, compelling and confounding. Jason Segel (shown here), who skillfully directed and co-wrote the opener, stars alongside Oscar-winner Sally Field, rapper/actor Andre Benjamin and trans actress Eve Lindley. Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 29: Splendid “Seven” concludes

1) “Seven Worlds, One Planet” finale, 9 p.m. ET, BBC America and IFC; 9 p.m., AMC and Sundance; also, 12:30 a.m. ET, BBC America. Most nature shows start in Africa; this gorgeous seven-parter ends there. We see chimps fashioning hammers to crack nuts … And a cheetah team (shown here) with a well-plotted attack … And tiny birds living on giraffes, to feast on fleas and ticks. There’s also grim news about poachers and about reduced habitat; David Attenborough, 93, meets the only two survivors from a rhino sub-species. Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 28: Country classics, movie greats

1) “Country Music: Live at Ryman.” 9-11 p.m., PBS (check local listings). Here’s a rerun of a superb concert. Last fall, it preceded Ken Burns’ “Country Music” series, offering great moments. There’s jet-paced instrumental work from Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart (shown here), Vince Gill and more, plus deep emotion – a Johnny Cash song by his daughter Roseanne … a Hank Williams one by his granddaughter Holly … “I Will Always Love You” by Gill … and “Crazy,” sung with stunning power by Rhiannon Giddens. Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 27: Lots of drama, on comedy’s big night

1) “Grey’s Anatomy,” 9 p.m., ABC. For four straight weeks, ABC says, this has been Thursday’s most-watched show … if you stick to ages 18-49 and include three days of delayed viewing. The network’s entire night – “Station 19” at 8 p.m., “A Million Little Things” at 10 – does well with young adults. This “Grey’s” should continue that: During a blizzard, Dr. DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti, shown here in a previous episode) volunteers for a life-threatening task, startling Meredith and his sister Carina Read more…

Best-bets for Feb. 26: “Trouble” is good, “Party” isn’t

1) “Good Trouble,” 10 p.m., Freeform. What began as a romp – two foster sisters, starting their big-city lives – has become intense … and surprisingly well-played. Tonight, that starts in the lush penthouse where Callie lives with her boyfriend (shown here in a previous episode); a crisis arrives. Also, Mariana probes the e-mail that alleges reverse-sexism at work … Malika is squeezed by family pain … Gael shares his anguish … and Alice finds a brew of sex, comedy and competition. That sounds like a lot, but the writing and the young actors show subtle skill. Read more…