Various Networks, 11:30 a.m. ET
The U.S. women’s soccer team, having won all three of its games to dominate Group F in the group stage, doesn’t play again until Monday, when it faces Spain in its Round of 16 knockout stage opener. Meanwhile, this weekend has other teams playing in the same round. Germany defeated Nigeria yesterday 3-0, and Norway, after battling Australia to a 1-1 tie at the end of regulation play, won after a 4-1 margin of victory on penalty picks (pictured). And today, England faces Cameroon at 11:30 a.m. ET on FS1, after which France battles Brazil at 3 p.m. ET on Fox.
BBC America, 8:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: Last week’s episode left Luther (Idris Elba), and especially the people Luther cared about, in a horribly precarious situation – with Benny, Mark and Alice held at gunpoint, threatened with imminent death, and with Luther too far away to do anything but beg by phone, pleading for their lives. What happened to close last week’s episode was shocking – and whatever follows tonight, in the opening minutes of this season finale, will propel whatever occurs in the rest of this final Luther episode of 2019.
CNN, 9:00 p.m. ET
There are going to be tons of TV specials as we land on the actual golden anniversary of the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission in July 1969. But tonight, CNN embarks a little early, getting a head start and presenting a new documentary with what it claims is “newly discovered cinematic footage.” I guess CNN could have called it “newly unearthed,” but that seems technically inaccurate. And “newly unmooned” – well, that just sounds wrong…
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
Season 1 of Big Little Lies was all about discovering the secret – which, at the literal end of the miniseries, turned out to be who was killed, how the killing took place, and the identity of the killer. When David E. Kelley’s story adaptation proved so popular that it generated an order for a sequel, and the miniseries became a series, this new Season 2 has been all about those big little lies leaking out. And leaking, at first, from the mouths of babes. But now, the secrets, and the suspicions, are spreading, especially to the murder victim’s visiting mother, played with steely, quiet, threatening reserve by Meryl Streep.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
Last week’s series premiere of City on a Hill spent most of its time showing how such disparate characters as a crooked white FBI agent in Boston and a newly arrived crusading African-American district attorney (played, respectively, by Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge), could team up to solve a politically volatile murder and robbery case. In tonight’s episode, the show, and the characters, get down to business. This opens up City on a Hill to other actors as well, including Sarah Shahi, who co-starred on The L Word and Person of Interest and was especially good opposite Damian Lewis in Life, an excellent but little-seen series from 2007. Here, she plays a legal investigator who’s a bit brassier, and more Bostonian, than anyone she’s played before – and stands out so quickly and with initially so little to do, it’s hoped her role in City on a Hill expands. And, if not, she can leverage her scenes here to finally get the starring TV role she deserves.
National Geographic, 10:00 p.m. ET
SPECIAL PREMIERE: Tonight through Wednesday, the National Geographic Channel once again is setting aside some time, and setting up some live cameras, to televise the rebirth of spring – okay, so it’s actually the first week of summer – as the natural elements and animals of Yellowstone National Park spring to life. Well, some spring. Others bloom or prowl. Still others erupt. And I know, especially when it comes to Old Faithful erupting, some of you geyser into that…
For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET
I said this last week about Last Week Tonight, and it still applies: Neither John Oliver nor his show has let me down yet… which is a lot more than I can say about the current events he summarizes and satirizes.