Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is vast. Here are some of the shows, specials, and movies coming to television this week, February 21-27. Details and times are subject to change.
Monday
THE END OF THE GAME 10 p.m. on NBC. An FBI agent (Ryan Michelle Bathe) and a mysterious criminal mastermind (Morena Baccarin) clash materially and verbally in this new thriller series. The plot revolves around a series of major bank robberies in New York. Expect Fireworks: ‘Fast and Furious’ director Justin Lin is an executive producer on the show and directed Monday night’s first episode.
Tuesday
FANNIE LOU HAMER’S AMERICA: A SPECIAL CROPTED IN AMERICA 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). This feature documentary special looks at influential civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer. The program shows Hamer’s legacy as an advocate for suffrage and women’s rights and explains how she went from working as a tenant farmer in Mississippi to organizing grassroots campaigns.
Wednesday
FREDERICK DOUGLASS: IN FIVE SPEECH (2022) 9 p.m. on HBO. David W. Blight’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom,” is the basis for this new documentary, which includes commentary from Blight and researcher Henry Louis Gates Jr. who talks about the crucial place of the abolitionist in American history. . But the documentary also leverages its own medium, highlighting the power of Douglass’s words: It features five actors — Jeffrey Wright, Nicole Beharie, Colman Domingo, Jonathan Majors and Denzel Whitaker – interpreting words from five Douglass speeches from several different decades. A sixth actor, André Holland, narrates.
Thursday
ARE THEY NOT HOLY BODIES (2013) 5:15 p.m. on Showtime 2. Filmmaker David Lowery had proven himself a skilled director of moody dramas last year when he released the Arthurian romance ‘The Green Knight’. Lowery’s reputation is partly due to this dark quasi-western. In it, Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck play Bob and Ruth, a couple involved in a shooting. The fight results in one death and a sheriff’s deputy (Ben Foster) is injured. Bob goes to jail and Ruth gives birth to their daughter. Later, Bob escapes and returns to Ruth. But he is wanted and things get complicated.
Friday
QUEEN & SLIM (2019) 7:35 p.m. and 10:20 p.m. on FXM. The outlaw romance “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” (above) and Melina Matsoukas’ “Queen & Slim” feature couples whose lives are transformed, quickly, by violence. The story of Queen and Slim (played by Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya) opens with an awkward first date that leads to a deadly encounter with an aggressive white cop (Sturgill Simpson). They become fugitives on the run, and “Queen & Slim” turns into a road movie and a love story. What lingers, writes AO Scott in his review for The Times, “are tensions of anger, ardour, grief and sweetness, and the silent wonderment of witnessing the birth of a legend”.
Saturday
FREE GUYS (2021) 8 p.m. on HBO. This action-comedy was a box office hit during the time of the pandemic. Now, it can be a Saturday night home watch diversion. A sugary sci-fi adventure with hints of “The Truman Show” and “The Matrix” (but filtered by the director of “Night at the Museum”), “Free Guy” features Ryan Reynolds as Guy, a Everyman who learns that he is a secondary character in a video game. When he meets a gamer named Millie (Jodie Comer), Guy is drawn into a mission to stop the CEO of the studio that created the game (Taika Waititi) from committing evil acts. The film is “perky if predictable,” wrote Maya Phillips in her review for The Times.
53RD ANNUAL NAACP IMAGE AWARDS 8 p.m. on BET. One of the joys of the NAACP’s annual Image Awards show is that it allows for confrontations that you don’t see at the Oscars, Emmys, or Grammys. The ceremony recognizes movies, TV shows and music. Some of the categories for this year’s edition are fairly typical: Halle Berry, Andra Day, Jennifer Hudson, Tessa Thompson and Zendaya are all up for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, while “Encanto”, “Luca”, ” Raya and the Last Dragon,” “Sing 2” and “Vivo” will compete for Best Animated Feature. But other categories break genre boundaries: Artist of the Year nominees include Jennifer Hudson , Lil Nas X, Megan Thee Stallion, Regina King and Tiffany Haddish.
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Sunday
28TH ANNUAL KERNING ACTORS GUILD AWARDS 8 p.m. on TBS and TNT. Lady Gaga was one of the snubbed surprises at the Oscars this year, but she’ll be up for a Best Actress statuette at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (for her role in ‘House of Gucci’), alongside Jessica Chastain ( “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”), Jennifer Hudson (“Respect”) and Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”). Best Performance in a Film Award will be a competition between Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”), Andrew Garfield (“Tick, Tick…Boom!”), Will Smith (” King Richard”) and Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”). And on the TV side, ensembles from “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Morning Show,” “Squid Game,” “Succession,” and “Yellowstone” will compete for Best Cast.
SUPER PUMP 10 p.m. on Showtime. The first season of this new Showtime anthology series is based on “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber,” a 2019 nonfiction book by New York Times tech journalist Mike Isaac that chronicles the rise of the company transport. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of Uber who served as the company’s chief executive from 2010 to 2017, when he stepped down after the company’s troubling traits – including a workplace culture that fueled sexual harassment and discrimination – surfaced. The show’s cast also includes Kyle Chandler, Kerry Bishé, and Uma Thurman.