Between network, cable, and streaming, the modern television landscape is vast. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week from May 15-21. Details and times are subject to change.
Monday
STREET CONNECTIONS: LOCALS ONLY 8 p.m. on DISCOVERY. This new series in the Discovery Channel’s ‘Street Outlaws’ universe follows the street racing duo Farmtruck and AZN, previously introduced in ‘Street Outlaws: OKC’, as they travel across the US in search of the fastest local street racers. The racers will have the chance to race against an experienced Street Outlaw driver (and a $5,000 prize) in an elimination process that spans ten episodes and both coasts.
SUMMER BAKING CHAMPIONSHIP 9 p.m. on FOOD NETWORK. Just in time for barbecue season, this new whimsical cooking competition show, hosted by Jesse Palmer, asks contestants to bring their best warm-weather recipes to the table. For a cash prize of $25,000, ten chefs will compete in a series of summer-themed challenges.
ANGEL CITY 9 p.m. on HBO. This new docuseries explores the infancy and rise of Angel City Football Club, the Los Angeles-based, female-founded soccer team whose early investors include tennis star Serena Williams and World Cup winners Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach.
Wednesday
GRAN TORINO (2008) 11 p.m. on AMC. Academy Award-winning director Clint Eastwood’s “vitality as an artist shows no sign of abating,” Manohla Dargis stated in her review for The New York Times. Set in Detroit, the film follows the unlikely friendship between Walt Kowalski (Eastwood), a cantankerous and bigoted retired factory worker who served in the Korean War and has just buried his wife, and Thao (Bee Vang), Walt’s teenage neighbor from Hmong- lineage. .
Thursday
THE ONE 9 p.m. on TV ONE. Grammy Award-winning gospel singer Kirk Franklin and his wife, Tammy, host a new match dating show that adds a searching element to the matchmaking process. Two Atlanta bachelors meet eligible bachelors and bachelorettes in hopes of finally finding “the one” in a series of adventurous dates. The Franklins are there to give love and life advice all the way.
DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) 9:45 p.m. on TCM. A dramatization of Boris Pasternak’s classic but controversial 1957 novel of the same name, this Oscar-winning historical romance follows a decades-long, star-crossed love affair set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. Bosley Crowther praised director David Lean’s mise-en-scene in his 1965 review for The Times, in scenes ranging from “a snowy Moscow street” to “a country house with glistening ice.” Omar Sharif earned a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance as the titular Doctor Zhivago.
Friday
BELLE COLLECTIVE 8 p.m. on OWN. In the third season of this reality series, six glamorous businesswomen in Jackson, Miss., grapple with issues in their personal and professional lives as they redefine what it means to be black, female, and successful.
GREAT PERFORMANCE: RICHARD III 9 p.m. on PBS. Recorded at Manhattan’s open-air Delacorte Theater during a 2022 “Shakespeare in the Park” performance, the Public Theater’s rendition of Shakespeare’s tragedy is now open to the public. The play’s verse is “exceedingly sharp and the questions are clearly eternal,” described Jesse Green in his review for The Times, praising “Black Panther” star Danai Gurira’s portrayal of the relentless titular character as “unflinchingly energetic” and “vocally thrilling”.
THE SECRETS OF HILLSONG 10 p.m. on FX. This four-part investigative docuseries retraces the rise and fall of Hillsong, the megachurch that counted actors, athletes and musicians before becoming embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal. While not the first documentary to cover Hillsong’s fall from grace, this series features interviews with former pastors Laura and Carl Lentz, speaking for the first time since their public exile from the church.
Saturday
LOVE LOVE YOU, DONNA SUMMER 8 p.m. on HBO. This love letter to the life and legacy of Grammy Award-winning singer Donna Summer is directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano, Summer’s daughter. Drawing on the memories of those closest to her, photographs and home video footage (mostly shot by Summer herself), the film follows the artist from the beginning of her career as a musical theater singer to her rise as the ‘ Queen of Disco’.
Sunday
GHOSTS OF BEIRUT 10 p.m. on SHOWTIME. From the makers of the Israeli spy thriller series ‘Fauda’, this four-part espionage drama is based on the decades-long global manhunt for Imad Mughniyeh, a Lebanese military commander believed to be the mastermind behind a series of high-profile terrorist attacks in the 1980s and 1990s.
