ESPN, 8:00 a.m. ET
The men’s semifinals at Wimbledon this year feature the two top seeds prepared to advance to the finals, but with some very determined lower-rated seeds between them and the big game. No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic (pictured) has been dominant throughout the tournament, not even losing a set thus far. But his opponent today, eighth-seeded Juan del Potro, has been similarly successful this far, and hasn’t lost a set at Wimbledon yet either. By the time their first set is over this morning, so will one of those streaks. The other game played today pits No. 2 seed Andy Murray, trying to win his first Wimbledon championship for home-country Great Britain, against No. 24 seed Jerzy Janowicz, who has a dramatic story of his own. No other men’s tennis player from Poland has ever made it this far at Wimbledon – and Janowicz also is the youngest player on the current tour to reach a Grand Slam semifinal. Murray looks better on paper, but he barely made it past his previous match, dropping the first two sets before gutting out a tough win.
AMC, 1:00 p.m. ET
The Walking Dead walk down memory lane – and it’s a slow, zombie-like walk – continues today with Season 2, repeated in its entirety, beginning with the gang’s exodus from Atlanta. If you’re looking for an entertaining way to spend the day waching TV, here’s a gripping one.
NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
Already, this new NBC series, which premiered Monday, is awash in symbolism and irony. Its premiere, opposite the second episode of CBS’s summer hit Under the Dome, drew only an estimated 3.2 million viewers. Both new series are scripted shows about a suddenly isolated group of people – a small town in Dome, contestants in a reality show in Siberia (actually filmed on location in Manitoba, Canada). Dome, by Stephen King, grabbed viewers immediately. Siberia, scheduled against it, not so much. One irony is that, as “fake” reality shows go, Siberia was more watchable than many real ones, at least as it set up its premise. But the real irony is that NBC is showing a same-week repeat of this series premiere on Friday nights, during the summer, on a holiday weekend. If that isn’t the TV equivalent of Siberia, I don’t know what is.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Here’s a rare, exciting mini-marathon for cinemaphiles and Francophiles alike. Film critic turned filmmaker Francois Truffaut made his initial reputation with this 1959 movie, an unblinking, only occasional sentimental look at French street kid Antoine Doinel, played by young, dynamic Jean-Pierre Leaud. And Truffaut returned to the story of Antoine Doinel several times, and all those Truffaut-Leaud collaborations are presented tonight, in order, by TCM. First, at 9:45 p.m. ET, comes the 1962 short Antoine and Colette, co-starring the gorgeous Marie-France Pisier as Colette. Then, at 10:30 p.m. ET, comes 1969’s Stolen Kisses, made a full decade after The 400 Blows, with Antoine now an army veteran flirting with an older woman (Delphine Seyrig). 1970’s Bed and Board, at 12:15 a.m. ET, continues the exploits of Antoine, as does 1979’s Love on the Run (at 2 a.m. ET), made 20 years after the first Truffaut-Leaud teaming – and co-starring, once again, Marie-France Pisier.
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
Just as Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais wrapped up their British comedy series The Office with a subsequent telemovie special, so they revisit their Life’s Too Short series, starring Warwick Davis, with one last made-for-TV stand-alone special. Warwick, as always, plays an exaggerated version of himself, and tonight’s clever finale, guest starring Val Kilmer, is a lot of fun even if you are unfamiliar with Life’s Too Short, and the trip of British TV guest-star vets also poking fun at their own images. Merchant and Gervais appear in one scene, with Warwick and Kilmer, but most of this is Warwick’s show all the way – and, like The Office finale, he manages to be both hilarious and touching.