Who expects a heartwarming feature from a horror movie star? Ashley Bell (“The Last Exorcism”) directs and appears in “Love & Bananas” (9 p.m., Starz, TV-14), about efforts to free Asian elephants from captivity and cruelty. Along with conservationist Sangdeaun Lek Chailert of the Save Elephant Foundation, she travels through Thailand and Cambodia delivering a blind 70-year-old pachyderm to a sanctuary.
While delivering her precious cargo, Chailert informs Bell and the audience about the plight of most elephants, who are ripped from their environment and relegated to grunt work or performing in circuses, even as their natural habitat is devastated by human encroachment and wars.
— “Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story” (10 p.m., BET, Paramount, TV-14) recalls the 2012 shooting of a 17-year-old whose death helped spark the Black Lives Matter movement. The story remains powerfully relevant given that Martin was shot by George Zimmerman, a man who was on neighborhood watch and claimed to be acting in self-defense.
The Zimmerman-Martin story raised the issue of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, which was recently invoked by a shooter to justify his killing of another man in a Florida parking lot. The dead man’s family has hired the Martin family’s lawyer.
— On a similar note, the “POV” documentary “Whose Streets?” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) also looks at Black Lives Matter protests in Ferguson, Missouri, that were provoked by the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by police. The film documents the riots that engulfed that city as well as the lives of the activists in the years since Brown’s death.
— With another Shark Week in the books, Discovery launches the fourth season of “Diesel Brothers” (10 p.m., TV-14), following Heavy D, Diesel Dave, and the DieselSellerz crew as they look for and buy broken-down trucks and turn them into unique and desirable vehicles. Among their first projects is a monster school bus.
— Far from the high-octane “Diesel Brothers” world of tattooed dudes with tricked-out trucks, “Coastal Railways With Julie Walters” offers viewers and armchair travelers a glimpse at some of the more gorgeous rail excursions in the United Kingdom, starting with a ride from Scotland to Cornwall on Scotland’s West Highland Railway. The four-episode series is now streaming on Acorn. Viewers may know Walters as Mrs. Weasley in the “Harry Potter” films and from her roles in “Brooklyn” and “Billy Elliot.”
— Netflix begins streaming the French-language period spy-comedy-drama “A Very Secret Service” (TV-MA), set in the early 1960s, a time when France’s self-image was in flux, a period marked by failed efforts to cling to colonies that inspired the young to break from tradition and embrace a “New Wave” of cultural attitudes. The series takes a stylish “Mad Men” approach to a period best known to American viewers from the two film adaptations of “The Day of the Jackal,” by Frederick Forsyth.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— The top 10 men perform on “So You Think You Can Dance” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
— Darius and Grace are put to the test on “Salvation” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
— Plum continues to explore the Jennifer movement on “Dietland” (9 p.m., AMC, TV-14).
— A victim’s sordid secret life comes to light on “Elementary” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
Nuclear testing unleashes a plague of giant insects in the 1954 shocker “Them!” (8 p.m., TCM), starring James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon and James Arness. Among the many Hollywood features to exploit fears of the Atomic Age, not to mention monster-sized bugs.
SERIES NOTES
Christy collaborates on “Mom” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … New obstacles emerge on “American Ninja Warrior” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) … Old faces return on “The Bachelorette” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14) … Illusionists audition on “Penn & Teller: Fool Us” (8 p.m., CW, TV-PG) … Mistaken identity on “Life in Pieces” (8:30 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG).
A psychic’s death is not foretold on “9-1-1” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) … On two helpings of “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” (CW, TV-14), Gary Anthony Williams (9 p.m.) Jonathan Mangum (9:30 p.m., r) … A courtship unfolds pageant-style on “The Proposal” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14) … “Dateline” (10 p.m., NBC).
LATE NIGHT
Andrea Mitchell visits “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” (11 p.m., Comedy Central) … Jeff Garlin, Hayley Atwell and Declan McKenna appear on “Conan” (11 p.m., TBS, r) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Mila Kunis, Zachary Quinto and Taylor Bennett on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Armie Hammer, Brandon Flowers and Taylor Gordon visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) … Mandy Moore, Jenna Dewan and Lisa Best appear on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” (12:35 a.m., CBS).
(Kevin McDonough can be reached at [email protected].)
