Fox Sports 1, 12:00 p.m. ET
Two games are played today in the knockout stage of this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup. The United States team takes on Spain at noon ET, with the loser out of the tournament, and the winner advancing to face France on Friday. Then, at 3 p.m. ET, comes another Round of 16 game featuring a squad from North America: Canada, facing Sweden. Both games are televised live on Fox Sports 1.
Cinemax, 9:00 p.m. ET
Killing Eve, the fabulous BBC America series created by Fleabag star and creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge, is based on a highly unusual premise and dynamic. A female investigator (played by Sandra Oh) becomes obsessed with tracking down a woman (played by Jodie Comer) who has left several bodies in her wake around the globe, and trying to pin her to those murders – while, at the same time, becoming increasingly fascinated by and emotionally attracted to her. Two female leads – one quarry, one hunter, both interchangeably dangerous and unpredictable – is indeed an unusual premise. But not unique. In 1987, the same general outline was laid out in this character-driven crime drama, with Debra Winger as the investigator and Theresa Russell as the chameleonic killer. Russell’s not really up to the demands of the part, and Black Widow is no Killing Eve – but it’s a fun exercise in “compare and contrast.”
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
In this era, when so much is available to watch on streaming TV and elsewhere yet so little from previous decades is seen, the appearance of a silent film – in prime time, on high-profile TCM – warms my heart. Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, TCM presents The Kid, a 1921 film produced, written and directed by Charlie Chaplin, who also stars. He plays his iconic character of The Tramp, who in this full-length film – Chaplin’s first, after a string of shorts – finds and cares for a baby, who grows up as the Tramp’s streetwise, loving “adopted” son. The kid in the title is played by Jackie Coogan, who, 43 years later, would be featured on ABC’s The Addams Family series as Uncle Fester. With The Kid, try this experiment: choose someone younger who claims to not like black and white movies, and to have no interest in a silent one, and sit down with them to watch The Kid. As it starts, hand them a sealed envelope, which they can open only after the movie is over. In it, place a few dollars (for their time) and a note, which reads: “I knew you’d cry.”
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
MINISERIES PREMIERE: This six-part miniseries comes from Russell T. Davies, who put the Why back into Doctor Who. So you know Years and Years will be smart, about its characters and plots as well as its technology. And it is. It’s the first TV show that plays like Black Mirror since… well, since Black Mirror. And its premise is brilliantly simple, as well as simply brilliant: It takes an extended, This Is Us-type family (based, in this case, in Manchester, England), and follows them for years and years, as a baby is born and grows up. Russell’s inspired twist, which turns Years and Years from nostalgic drama to dystopian nightmare, is that he isn’t looking backward. He’s looking ahead. Years and Years starts now – now, as in 2019 – and moves startlingly, inexorably forward. Politically, that means the rise of a British politician, played coldly yet playfully by Emma Thompson. Her character is full of vitriol and shocking proposals, such as demanding that British citizens pass a certain level on an IQ test before being allowed to vote. And while that may sound almost comic, what happens in the first installment alone of Years and Years is much more tragic – closer to The Day After or a biblical apocalypse than a sci-fi romp. And while your personal politics may determine whether you see Years and Years as a playful hypothetical or an outright horror story, some of the details Davies slips intoYears and Years are unforgettably disturbing. I’m already haunted by the images and idea of a sullen teenager who shuts out her parents conversationally, and emotionally, by wearing, displaying and hiding behind a 3-D version of a Snapchat cartoon face (pictured). It’s so instantly annoying, I’m afraid that it, like the things Paddy Chayefsky imagined in Network, soon will come to pass in real life.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: This is the start of the third and final season of Noah Hawley’s breathtakingly original take on a slender slice of the Marvel Comics universe. To describe it at all is to risk falling down a rabbit hole – and that’s something to be avoided, even though Lewis Carroll’s
Alice is a primary inspiration here (in a later episode this season, there’s even a tea party, featuring one of the primary characters as an obviously Mad Hatter).
In my review of this final season on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I likened
Legion to a TV experience so rich and lush, so daring in sound and images as well as editing and ideas, that its closest and only major small-screen precendents are David Lynch’s original
Twin Peaks and, before that, Patrick McGoohan’s original miniseries
The Prisoner. If you’re new to
Legion, find and stream the previous two seasons before diving in to these new ones. (It’s available on Hulu, Amazon Prime, iTunes, and elsewhere.) But if you’re up to date, strap in and hold on. The first dozen minutes of Season 3 tonight introduce a new character – the time-traveling Switch, played by Lauren Tsai (pictured) – in a way, and with an invigorating unpredictability, that’s just short of astounding.
National Geographic, 9:00 p.m. ET
Yesterday, when writing about opening night of this four-night National Geographic Channel look at the wonders of Yellowstone National Park, I used up my best geyser pun. (And my worst, because they’re the same thing.) I’d stretch for another Yellowstone-related pun related to tonight’s continuation, but I suspect some of you just couldn’t bear it…