The Goodwin Games

Monday, 8:30 p.m. (Fox)

In Fox’s promising sitcom The Goodwin Games, three estranged siblings reunite after their father (Beau Bridges) dies, only to learn that he has set up a series of competitions to determine which one of them will win his fortune. This questionable approach…

Family Tree

Sunday, 10:30 p.m. (HBO)

Christopher Guest earned a place in my pantheon by pioneering the mockumentary with his script for 1984’s This Is Spinal Tap. Since then, as a writer-director, he’s perfected the style in one big-screen gem after another: Waiting For Guffman, Best In Show, A…

Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous

Thursday, 10:30 p.m. (MTV)

Viral-video star Bo Burnham is well cast as a would-be viral-video star in Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous. He plays Zach Stone, a motormouth high school dork obsessed with his post-graduation plan: making a reality show about his…

American Idol

Wednesday & Thursday, 8 p.m. (Fox)

The American Idol season is heading into its final stretch, but it’s not the must-see tv of yore. Ratings are dropping, rival singing competitions are coming on strong, and the last half-dozen winners have been nondescript. We’ve been around the block…

All The President’s Men Revisited

Sunday, 9 p.m. (Discovery)

You couldn’t ask for a better reevaluation of the Watergate scandal than All The President’s Men Revisited. Robert Redford narrates the story of President Richard Nixon’s downfall, drawing on interviews with the journalists who broke the story (Bob Woodward, Carl…

Defiance

Monday, 9 p.m. (Syfy)

Syfy boasts that Defiance marks the first conversion of tv and online gaming. The drama will unfold as both a series and a multiplatform videogame, with connections between the two mediums. That’s an intriguing gimmick—but luckily there’s nothing gimmicky about the tv premiere, which…

How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life)

Wednesday, 9:30 p.m. (ABC)

How To Live With Your Parents (For The Rest Of Your Life) is the rare sitcom where everyone in the cast is a great comedian, down to the child actor. Polly (Sarah Chalke)…

Masterpiece Classic’s “Mr. Selfridge”

Sunday, 9 p.m. (PBS)

Jeremy Piven provides Masterpiece Classic with a jolt of American energy, rousing the series from its recent Downton Abbey lethargy. In the eight-part “Mr. Selfridge,” Piven plays the real-life Harry Gordon Selfridge, a brash Chicago huckster who pioneered the modern department…

Phil Spector

Sunday, 9 p.m. (HBO)

Phil Spector has a startling premise: that the freaky music producer might be a human being. Against the backdrop of his 2007 trial for murder, writer-director David Mamet tries to figure out what makes Spector tick. The movie forces viewers to confront their…

Bates Motel

Monday, 10 p.m. (A&E)

One has misgivings about a prequel series based on Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror masterpiece about a misfit’s murderous fixation on his mother. But the eccentric Bates Motel gives you reason for hope, starting with the actress cast as the mother: Vera Farmiga…