Whether you enjoyed Sunday’s Super Bowl or merely endured or even ignored it, the annual rite brings a certain finality to the NFL season and all its thundering music, loud banality and hyperbolic commentary.
Or does it?
Scant days after the Kansas City Chiefs were hailed as a new dynasty, Apple TV+ introduces “The Dynasty: New England Patriots,” a 10-part look at the football franchise that dominated the game in the opening decades of this century.
Look for profiles of and interviews with the team’s tight-lipped and recently deposed head coach, Bill Belichick, as well as observations from team owner Robert Kraft. The seemingly ageless Tom Brady will discuss his relationship with his coach and his teammates, and other Patriots will reveal their feelings about the personal demons that drove tight end Aaron Hernandez from championships to a murder conviction and early death.
Based on a best-selling book by Jeff Benedict, the first two-episodes of “Dynasty” stream tonight, with two more arriving each subsequent Friday. The documentary opens with an event right out of a backstage melodrama. Much like an understudy taking over the role of a fading star in “All About Eve,” “Valley of the Dolls” or “Showgirls,” an unknown Tom Brady replaced injured Drew Bledsoe in 2001, stealing a job he would not relinquish for years.
Apple TV+ also streams its latest animated “Peanuts” special, “Snoopy Presents: Welcome Home, Franklin.”
— If the notion of extending the football season beyond the Super Bowl doesn’t bother you, how about anticipating “100 Days to Indy”? Streaming on Paramount+, this six-part series follows top drivers as they prepare for their big Memorial Day drive.
— Just this week, Paramount+ announced that the streamer was now home to all seven “Mission Impossible” movies produced between 1996 and 2023.
— Speaking of big movies, Peacock becomes the exclusive streaming home to the 2023 biopic epic “Oppenheimer,” directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Cillian Murphy.
— Max will stream “The Color Purple,” the 2023 film adaptation of the stage musical, that like director Steven Spielberg’s 1985 drama, is based on the 1982 novel by Alice Walker.
— Nobody watches sitcoms for the aspirational advice. From Ralph and Ed’s hairbrained schemes on “The Honeymooners” to Kramer’s deadbeat lifestyle on “Seinfeld,” the “show about nothing,” we have learned to suspend disbelief about how such characters survive or support themselves. In fact, we watched them with a begrudging admiration for their cracked resourcefulness.
That’s a far cry from some of the idle, seemingly affluent and strenuously useless characters showcased on Amy Schumer’s vehicle “Life & Beth,” streaming its second season on Hulu.
Beth seems to careen from one self-fixated moment to the next, boring her doctor (David Byrne) with her insecurities to offering a buzzkill at her posh friend’s spa outing. At one point, she’s summoned to help in a crisis by some embittered, pronoun-obsessed bully who lectures her on how much he hates the act of reading and then dares her to even name one book. She can’t.
Over her career, Schumer has proven herself to be funny, smart and self-deprecating, but as Beth, she’s really too damaged to be of much interest. And many of her cohorts seem to be proud of being weak. Michael Cera co-stars as her barely functioning boyfriend.
In addition to Byrne, “Beth” attracts a scrum of guest stars, including Kevin Kane, Yamaneika Saunders, Laura Benanti, Michael Rapaport, LaVar Walker, Sas Goldberg, Arielle Siegel, Rosebud Baker and more. Their presence only adds to the show’s smug and self-satisfied atmosphere.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— An endangered witness sends Hondo into action on “S.W.A.T.” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
— With Bode back behind bars, a superquake rocks Edgewater on “Fire Country” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
— “Great Performances” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) salutes Frank Gehry.
— Jaime infiltrates a human trafficking ring on “Blue Bloods” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
James Mason stars as a wounded IRA soldier pursued by police through the streets of Belfast in director Carol Reed’s atmospheric 1947 drama “Odd Man Out” (3 p.m., TCM, TV-PG).
SERIES NOTES
Celebrities play “Password” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … “WWE Friday Night SmackDown” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) … Skin care for the fair-haired on “Shark Tank” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … “Dateline” (9 p.m., NBC) … “20/20” (9 p.m., ABC).
LATE NIGHT
Jimmy Fallon welcomes Jennifer Lopez, Alan Ritchson and Gary Clark Jr. on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Bernie Sanders, Zosia Mamet and Dan Peters visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC, r) … Taylor Tomlinson hosts Wayne Brady, Maria Bamford and Kevin Smith on “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).
