This weekend I have … a half-hour, and I need closure.
‘How To With John Wilson’
When to watch: Friday at 11 p.m., on HBO.
“How to Track a Package” is the series finale of this beautiful, distinctive collage, and while I’m heartbroken to lose one of TV’s most evocative and humane shows, at least we can be comforted that it goes out on top. John Wilson captures and nurtures marvelous weirdos, delicately and patiently, until you realize: Oh! Quirks are not extraneous accessories to life; they’re the foundation and totality of it. If you approach everything as if it has meaning — misspelled signs, toilet figurines, the differences between 7-Up and ginger ale — well, then it does.
… a half-hour, and I like teamwork.
‘God. Family. Football.’
When to watch: Now, on Freevee.
Just about any football show could be called “God. Family. Football.,” but this six-part documentary series in particular follows a high school team at a Christian academy in Shreveport, La. The kids all seem sweet, thoughtful and well-adjusted, even as they discuss the sting of absentee fathers and the toll of various injuries. While this obviously walks in the shadow of “Friday Night Lights” and “Last Chance U,” it is going for — and achieves — a sunnier, more Y.A. vibe. (If you want a football show with more to say, try “Algiers, America,” on Hulu.)
… an hour, and I want something gripping.
‘Dark Winds’
When to watch: Sunday at 9 p.m., on AMC, or now on AMC+.
Season 2 of this mesmerizing crime drama finishes this weekend, and it feels like a throwback — but not just because it is set in the 1970s. “Wind” is bold in ways that have mostly been sanded away on other cop shows: It’s more daring in its cinematography, more tense and surprising in its action sequences, and most important, all its secondary, tertiary and even one-off characters feel detailed and richly envisioned. Zahn McClarnon is extraordinary as Joe Leaphorn, a police lieutenant with the requisite sad baggage, but all the performances here are top notch. If you miss the stylistic élan of “Breaking Bad,” watch this. Season 1 comes to Max on Friday, and it’s a perfect six-episode bleak-and-impressive binge.
POST AUTHOR: Margaret Lyons
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