“Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It” airs on PBS. And a new sitcom debuts on CBS.
Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Oct. 4-10. Details and times are subject to change.
Monday
COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER (1980) 8 p.m. on TCM. TCM is offering a country music biopic double feature on Monday night. First up is “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” the 1980 hit about the life of Loretta Lynn that won an Oscar for its star, Sissy Spacek, and helped turn Lynn’s rags-to-riches journey — from a cabin in Kentucky to the stage of the Grand Ole Opry — into folklore. On the B-side, at 10:15, is the black-and-white musical YOUR CHEATIN’ HEART (1964), about the life and early death of Hank Williams, played by George Hamilton.
Tuesday
AMERICAN MASTERS: RITA MORENO: JUST A GIRL WHO DECIDED TO GO FOR IT (2021) 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). If you wanted to make a documentary about a Hollywood figure, you’d be hard pressed to find a subject whose career offers more angles to cover than Rita Moreno. An EGOT winner who became a star after her Oscar-winning performance in “West Side Story” (1961), Moreno was (and is) outspoken about her Puerto Rican identity, and has demonstrated a dedication to social activism. This film, directed by Mariem Pérez Riera, explores all of these angles — the glory and the challenges of Moreno’s life — through extensive interviews with Moreno, with input from fellow artists including Lin-Manuel Miranda and Gloria Estefan. “It is not your average paean because Moreno, a trailblazing Puerto Rican actress whose career spans more than seven decades, is not your average star,” Beatrice Loayza wrote in her review for The New York Times. “Moreno is given full rein of her story,” Loayza added, “which doubles as a case study in the highs and lows of showbiz for a woman of color.”
BET HIP HOP AWARDS 2021 9 p.m. on BET. Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion will be both collaborators and competitors at this year’s BET Hip Hop Awards: They’re tied for the most nominations, with nine each, and some of those are shared. That’s thanks to “WAP,” their 2020 exercise in pull-out-all-the-stops raunch, which is up for the song of the year, best collaboration and best hip-hop video. The two are also both up for the artist of the year prize, for which they will compete with Drake, J. Cole, Lil Baby and Tyler, the Creator.
Wednesday
HIGH LIFE (2019) 9 p.m. on Showtime 2. If one were presented with only a poster for “High Life,” with Robert Pattinson’s eyes gazing back at them through the visor of a spacesuit, they would probably assume that the film is a sci-fi spectacle. Unless, that is, they saw the name of the director: Claire Denis. Denis, the French filmmaker known for sensual, understated movies like “Beau Travail” (1999) and “35 Shots of Rum” (2008), set “High Life” in space but skipped the laser beams and aliens. The film centers on Monte (Pattinson), one of a handful of criminals sent on a mission to a distant black hole under the supervision of a mysterious doctor (Juliette Binoche), who uses them for experiments. “Their journey ostensibly has something to do with the earth’s looming environmental catastrophe, but mostly plays out as an excuse for Denis to explore the farther, darker side of her imagination,” Manohla Dargis wrote in her review for The Times.
Thursday
GHOSTS 9 p.m on CBS. The premise of this new CBS sitcom could just as easily be the setup for a season of “American Horror Story.” It follows a couple (played by Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar) who buy a dilapidated country house with the intention of turning it into a bed-and-breakfast. It turns out to be haunted, as these onscreen houses often are. But if you see one of these ghosts in the mirror, they’re more likely to make a sarcastic comment about your vanity than to harm you — it’s a sassy group of disturbed spirits.
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO (2011) 11 p.m. on BBC America. Daniel Craig is set to return to U.S. theaters this weekend in “No Time to Die,” his final romp as James Bond. With that gig finished, Craig should have more time to take non-Bond roles like the character he played in David Fincher’s “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” an adaptation of the Swedish writer Stieg Larsson’s novel about a disgraced journalist charged with investigating the 40-year-old disappearance of a teenager.
Friday
GREAT PERFORMANCES AT THE MET 8 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The opera stars Ailyn Pérez, Nadine Sierra and Isabel Leonard perform at perhaps the most diva-ish venue imaginable — the Palace of Versailles — in this latest entry of the “Great Performances at the Met” series. Recorded in May at the Royal Opera of Versailles, the program includes works by Mozart, Offenbach and Bizet, and nods at the three singers’ shared Latin American heritage with songs including “Bésame Mucho” and “Cielito Lindo.” The pianist Vlad Iftinca and the classical guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas accompany the three singers.
Saturday
CARRIE (2013) 8 p.m. on AMC. Two generations of Stephen King’s “Carrie” will be shown on AMC on Saturday night. First comes the 2013 version, which casts Chloë Grace Moretz in the titular role of a bullied high schooler and Julianne Moore as her abusive, militantly religious mother. Directed by Kimberly Peirce, this version brings King’s novel, first published in 1974, into the 21st century; it lives, of course, in the blood-red shadow of Brian De Palma’s classic CARRIE (1976), with Sissy Spacek, which AMC is showing afterward, at 10:15.
Sunday
DIANA 9 p.m. on CNN. This new, six-part documentary series looks at the life and legacy of Diana, Princess of Wales. The first episode focuses on her upbringing in Norfolk, England, which was privileged but challenging: Her parents separated, then divorced, when she was a child. Subsequent episodes, which will air weekly, explore her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales, and the legacy she left after her death in 1997.
Source: Television - nytimes.com
