HBO kicks off the Memorial Day weekend on a musical note. “Gaga Chromatica Ball” (8 p.m. Saturday, TV-14) was taped in front of a live Dodger Stadium audience exceeding 52,000 people during the Los Angeles leg of Lady Gaga’s 2022 tour.
The concert includes quiet and intimate numbers on the piano as well as exhaustively choreographed extravaganzas featuring dozens of dancers, accompanying talent, elaborate and expensive sets.
This concert special also streams on Max, as does the 2018 remake of the legendary Hollywood backstage musical “A Star Is Born.” This fourth version of the film, starring and directed by Bradley Cooper, resulted in a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Lady Gaga for her role as an up-and-coming singer who eventually eclipses her more famous but self-destructive sponsor/lover (Cooper) and a win for Best Original Song for “Shallow.”
In addition to her Oscar for “Star,” Gaga won a Grammy, Golden Globe and BAFTA, all in the same year, an unprecedented feat. “Shallow,” has become one of the best-selling singles ever and is featured in the “Chromatica” set list along with some of her most popular hits, including “Stupid Love,” “Bad Romance,” “Just Dance,” “Poker Face,” “Rain on Me” and more.
Also streaming on Max and offering a more vintage concert experience, the 1984 musical documentary “Stop Making Sense” captures the Talking Heads over four nights at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles. Directed by the late Jonathan Demme and long considered to be one of the greatest concert movies ever made, “Stop” offers an interesting contrast to “Chromatica,” showing a much less elaborate stage show and an intimate spectacle closer to cabaret and suggesting some of the Weimar-era Dada influences featured in the 1972 musical “Cabaret,” directed by Bob Fosse. The set list includes songs from the Heads’ earliest art school incarnation (“Psycho Killer”) to the ambitious polyrhythms featured in songs like “Burning Down the House.”
Max also streams the 2022 biographical documentary “Moonage Daydream” containing a wealth of unreleased concert footage following David Bowie from his incarnation as Ziggy Stardust in the early 1970s to the work he was undertaking at the time of his death in 2016.
— An annual tradition now in its 35th year, “National Memorial Day Concert 2024” (8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., Sunday, PBS, check local listings) honors the service and sacrifice of American veterans and active-duty men and women and military families. Special attention will be paid this year to surviving veterans of World War II, many who have approached and passed the century mark. As they have for some time, actors Joe Mantegna and Gary Sinise will preside and participate in dramatic readings. Other presenters and participants include Bryan Cranston, Jena Malone, BD Wong and Mary McCormack.
In addition to performances of patriotic, classical country, pop and Broadway tunes, the concert will relate stories of personal heroism and sacrifice, including that of Army veteran John “Jack” Moran, who recalls his small part in efforts to bring the war to Germany over the course of 1944-45 and put an end to Hitler’s regime in May 1945. Marine Corp. Veteran Kirstie Ennis recalls her own personal struggles to find a new path in life after losing her legs in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Vietnam veteran Allen Hoe recalls his own sorrow when his son, First Lt. Nainoa K. Hoe, was killed in Iraq.
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Regional MLB baseball action (7 p.m., Fox).
— A man’s past emerges when his wife falls from a pleasure craft in the 2024 shocker “Cruise Ship Murder” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).
— A couple try to blend their families in Montana in the 2023 romance “Big Sky River: The Bridle Path” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— The Indiana Pacers host the Boston Celtics in NBA action (8:30 p.m., ABC).
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Live coverage of the 108th running of the Indianapolis 500 (12:30 p.m., NBC). This Memorial Day tradition also streams on Peacock, which begins coverage of pit crew preparation and anticipation beginning at 9 a.m.
— NASCAR action unfolds at the Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m., Fox).
— Scheduled on two hours of “60 Minutes” (CBS): Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Isle of Man (7 p.m.); whales, monkeys and sloths (8 p.m.).
— Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, BD Wong and Jeff Goldblum return in the 2018 franchise sequel “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” (8 p.m., NBC).
— Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Dawson (“Hogan’s Heroes,” “Family Feud”) star in the prescient 1987 thriller “The Running Man” (7:45 p.m., Sundance, TV-14), set in a police state that uses violent game shows and “reality TV” as a means of distraction and control.
— On two episodes of “Elsbeth” (CBS, r, TV-14): a celebrity matchmaker expires (9 p.m.); a tennis star dies on the court (10 p.m.).
— The bloody saga continues on “Interview With the Vampire” (9 p.m., AMC, TV-MA).
— The tale of a Communist spy embedded in the ranks of the South Vietnamese army during and after the 1975 fall of Saigon, “The Sympathizer” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA), concludes.
— “The Jinx: The Lives and Deaths of Robert Durst” (10 p.m., Sunday, HBO, TV-MA) wraps up its second season of revelations.
CULT CHOICE
Viewers of the recent Apple TV+ series “Masters of the Air” might enjoy the 2018 documentary “The Cold Blue” (9 p.m. Sunday, TCM). Like “Masters,” it follows members of the Eighth Army Air Force who flew dangerous missions over Nazi-occupied Europe in their B-17 aircraft. “Cold Blue” includes footage, long considered lost, from director William Wyler’s 1944 documentary “The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress” (8 p.m., Sunday, TCM, TV-G).
SATURDAY SERIES
Dante’s ex-partner is kidnapped on “The Equalizer” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14) … “The Wall” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … “NBA Countdown” (8 p.m., ABC) anticipates the big game … “48 Hours” (9 p.m. and 10 p.m., CBS, r) … “Weakest Link” (9 p.m., NBC, r) … A vintage helping of “Saturday Night Live” (10 p.m. and 11:30 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
SUNDAY SERIES
Three repeat episodes of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (8 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
