Mike Hughes on TV

1) “Patience,” 8 p.m. PBS. After a so-so start to its second season, this show finally has the sort of smart hour that filled the first year. An autistic girl may have seen her father killed; Patience Evans, also autistic, struggles to help. It’s a neatly complex story and a subtly perfect, Emmy-worthy performance by Ella Maisy Purvis (shown here) as Patience. Read more…

1) “Disney Celebrates America,” all day, ABC. There are special editions of “Good Morning America” (7-10 a.m.), “Sports Center” (5-7 p.m.) and more. And at 8, Ryan Seacrest hosts from Nashville, with country stars (Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Clint Black, Brothers Osborne, Little Big Town), plus Boyz II Men, Nick Jonas and fireworks (shown here from a previous event). Read more…

1) “A Capitol Fourth,” 8 p.m., PBS stations. The 4th of July party starts a day early. Most networks (including PBS) will have big, 250th-birthday events Saturday. That nudges this concert to tonight on most (but not all) PBS stations, many rerunning it at 9:30. There’s music (including Trace Adkins) from the Capitol lawn and fireworks (shown here at the Capitol in a previous year) at Mount Vernon. Read more…

1) “The Americas: A Wild 250th,” 9 p.m., NBC. Lately, NBC has been rerunning the gorgeous “Americas” documentary series here. But now it pauses for a new hour: Two days before the 250th birthday, it focuses on creatures — bald eagles (the scene shown here is not from the film), bison, sea lions, etc. — that may symbolize the U.S. That follows a new “Surviving Earth” at 8. Read more…

1) “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022), 8-11 p.m., CBS. As July 4 nears, networks give us big-budget crowd-pleasers that put Americans in fighter planes. On Thursday, ABC has “Independence Day,” which has lots of flaws and little to do with the holiday. But today, CBS gives us Tom Cruise (shown here) in a film that’s solidly written, slickly made and kind of exciting. Read more…