Between network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Dec. 5 -11. Details and times are subject to change.
Monday
HIS DARK MATERIALS 9 p.m. on HBO. Following the trilogy structure of the Philip Pullman novels on which it is based, the fantasy series “His Dark Materials” is slated to end after its new, third season, which debuts on Monday. The first season introduced Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), a runaway living in an authoritarian fantasy world who is pulled into a quest that involves multiple realities. The second season ended on the brink of a war. Reviewing the first season for The New York Times, James Poniewozik wrote that the show conjures a spectacle without losing sight of the weightier ideas of the source material. It “has a more rebellious, questioning outlook — adolescent, in a good way — than some other fantasy sagas,” he wrote. “Where the Harry Potter series and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ presumed that the ruling institutions were essentially good, if vulnerable to corruption, ‘His Dark Materials’ suggests that its theocracy is rotten all the way up.”
Tuesday
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS 9 p.m. on NBC. Kenan Thompson returns for a second consecutive year to host the People’s Choice Awards. The show casts a large net, handing out prizes in movies, TV, music and general pop-culture categories. It’s a looser affair than the Oscars, Grammys or Emmys: “Social celebrity of 2022” is one honor here, and nominees for the top movies category include “Jurassic World Dominion,” which you’re probably unlikely to find in the running for best picture at the Academy Awards.
CASABLANCA (1942) 10:15 p.m. on TCM. The perennial best-of-list classic “Casablanca” premiered in New York on Nov. 26, 1942, but decades later, its story of wartime love and displacement still has plenty to say. New Yorkers can pair an 80th-anniversary viewing with a trip to the Neue Galerie in Manhattan, where a showcase of memorabilia spotlights the Central European exiles who made the movie.
Wednesday
TITANIC (1997) 8 p.m. on Paramount Network. James Cameron is set to return to theaters next week with the sci-fi sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water.” For a refresher on Cameron’s special ability to create a spectacle, revisit his “Titanic,” with Kate Winslet (who is also in “Avatar: The Way of Water”) and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Thursday
LITTLE WOMEN (2019) 3 p.m. on FXM. Greta Gerwig adapted Louisa May Alcott’s 19th-century novel “Little Women” for a new generation with this film version, in which Gerwig moves between the four March Sisters — played here by Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan and Eliza Scanlen — as adults and as younger versions of themselves, creating something of a before and after coming-of-age story. In his review for The Times, A.O. Scott said that this adaptation can appeal to both fans of Alcott’s book and newcomers. “Without resorting to self-conscious anachronism or fussy antiquarianism,” Scott wrote, “Gerwig has fashioned a story that feels at once entirely true to its 19th-century origins and utterly modern.”
OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001) 5:15 p.m. on TNT. When the director Steven Soderbergh released this blockbuster heist movie remake in 2001, the review in The Times by the critic Elvis Mitchell referred to the film’s cast as “a Who’s Who of People magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive.” George Clooney and Brad Pitt were in it. Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and Andy Garcia, too. And of course, don’t forget Carl Reiner. These days, “Ocean’s Eleven,” which places a group of thieves in a Las Vegas casino-robbing plot, makes for a taut 2000s time capsule. TNT will show it on Thursday in a marathon alongside its contemporary sequels — though the more interesting pairing might involve watching this version with the 1960 original, which has Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin in its cast, and airs Friday on TCM at 3:45 p.m.
CMA COUNTRY CHRISTMAS 9 p.m. on ABC. The country-pop singer-songwriter Carly Pearce will host the 13th edition of this annual Christmastime special. The lineup of performers includes Maren Morris, the War and Treaty, Molly Tuttle and Steven Curtis Chapman.
Friday
ELLA WISHES YOU A SWINGING CHRISTMAS WITH VANESSA WILLIAMS 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). The singer Vanessa Williams and the American Pops Orchestra pay tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and her classic album of jazzy Christmas music in this hourlong special. The program originally aired in 2020, the 60th anniversary of the album, but, like the album it celebrates, it has evergreen appeal as a seasonal treat.
Saturday
AMSTERDAM (2022) 7:45 p.m. on HBO. Christian Bale, Margot Robbie and John David Washington play three friends pulled into an over-the-top murder conspiracy in 1930s Europe in this crackpot mystery from David O. Russell (“American Hustle”). The plot kicks off with a dead man, and an autopsy that leaves questions unanswered. What follows is “a handsome period romp,” Manohla Dargis wrote in her review for The Times, “a 1930s screwball pastiche filled with mugging performers who charm and seduce as they run around chasing down a mystery, playing detective, tripping over their feet and navigating an international conspiracy that is best enjoyed if you don’t pay it too much attention.”
Sunday
NATIONAL CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING: CELEBRATING 100 YEARS 8 p.m. on CBS. The annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Washington dates back to the presidency of Calvin Coolidge. The 2022 ceremony, which took place Nov. 30 and will be broadcast on Sunday, two weeks before the holiday, includes performances by LL Cool J, Shania Twain, Yolanda Adams, Ariana DeBose, the United States Marine Band and more.
MASTER OF GLASS: THE ART OF DALE CHIHULY 9 p.m. on Smithsonian Channel. With colorful, dizzying glass works often installed far outside the walls of museums, the artist Dale Chihuly, 81, has for decades been one of the most recognizable artists of his generation. His life has also included well-documented physical and mental struggles. This program looks at Chihuly’s career.
