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, Feb. 20-26. Details and times are subject to change.
Monday
RUTHLESS: MONOPOLY’S SECRET HISTORY 9 p.m. on PBS. This documentary follows the true origin story of the popular board game Monopoly, and Parker Brothers’ shady patent of the game. Highlighting the inventor and feminist Lizzie Magie, a community of Quakers and an unemployed Depression-era engineer, viewers will learn about the true creator of Monopoly and how it became a board game staple.
YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (1939) 10:30 p.m. on TCM. Directed by the Academy Award-winning filmmaker John Ford, this biographical drama airing on Presidents’ Day focuses on the early life of President Abraham Lincoln. By delving into the people and experiences that influenced him, the film follows a young Lincoln (Henry Fonda) in his journey from grocer to lawyer and ultimately to his interest in politics. In his 1939 review of the film for The New York Times, Frank S. Nugent described it as “not merely a natural and straightforward biography, but a film which indisputably has the right to be called Americana,” adding that “it isn’t merely part of a life that has been retold, but part of a way of living when government had advanced little beyond the town meeting stage.” In 2003, “Young Mr. Lincoln” was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Tuesday
DON’T LEAVE ME BEHIND: STORIES OF YOUNG UKRAINIAN SURVIVAL 10 p.m. on MTV. Airing three days before the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this documentary focuses on the stories and experiences of Ukrainian teenagers who have been displaced by the war — using the journeys of two specific refugees in Poland as a vehicle to examine the trauma of such displacement, separation from family and the resilience developed to adapt to a new life.
Wednesday
SNOWFALL 10 p.m. on FX. Set in Los Angeles in the 1980s, this series takes inspiration from stories of C.I.A. involvement in the birth of the crack cocaine epidemic. The show follows the increasingly intertwining narratives of Franklin Saint (Damson Idris), a young drug dealer; Teddy McDonald (Carter Hudson), a C.I.A. agent; and El Oso (Sergio Peris-Mencheta), a Mexican wrestler. “‘Snowfall’ is, when it’s on its game, one of the most engrossing shows on TV,” wrote the Times critic Mike Hale in 2021. The sixth and final season is centered around a brewing civil war that threatens to destroy Franklin’s family, and the actions he takes to survive.
Thursday
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951) 4:30 p.m. on TCM. This multiple Oscar-winning film, featuring an array of award-winning actors, follows the story of Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh), a disgraced high school teacher from Mississippi struggling with her mental health, as she moves to New Orleans to seek refuge and start a new life with her sister, Stella (Kim Hunter), and Stella’s abusive husband, Stanley (Marlon Brando). The drama — adapted from Tennessee Williams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name — “throbs with passion and poignancy,” Bosley Crowther wrote in his 1951 review for The Times. Williams collaborated with the film’s director and screenwriter on the screenplay.
Friday
A FEW GOOD MEN (1992) 8 p.m. on BBC America. Adapted by Aaron Sorkin (“To Kill a Mockingbird”) from his 1989 Broadway play of the same name and directed by the Emmy-award winning actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, this legal drama follows the military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise) as he defends two Marines charged with the murder of a colleague at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Inspired by an incident that took place at the naval base in 1986, the film explores the intersection of internal politics and justice in cases involving military personnel. “The screenplay is a good one, directed with care and acted, for the most part, with terrific conviction,” wrote Vincent Canby in his 1992 review of the film for The Times.
N.A.A.C.P. IMAGE AWARDS 8 p.m. on BET. An annual awards ceremony presented by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to honor outstanding performances by people of color in film, television, music and literature, this year’s Image Awards will be the first in-person event in three years. Hosted for the ninth year in a row by the “black-ish” star Anthony Anderson, the event will air live from the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, in California. New categories have been added to this year’s ceremony, including outstanding hairstyling, outstanding makeup and outstanding costume design. Notable nominees include the films “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “The Woman King” and “Till”; and the actors Daniel Kaluuya, Will Smith, Keke Palmer and Letitia Wright.
Sunday
WHEN METAL RULED THE ’80s 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on REELZ. This documentary series from Viacom International Studios UK explores the stories behind the rise of metal, a dominating force in the U.S. and British music scenes in the 1980s. The series begins with the 1970s origins of the metal glam scene, following the genre’s evolution through the formation of groups like KISS and Guns N’ Roses. The first two episodes, one hour each, feature performance footage and interviews with figures such as Marty Friedman, the lead guitarist for thrash metal band Megadeth; Derek Shulman, the record executive who signed Bon Jovi; and Michael James Jackson, a producer for the KISS hit album “Lick It Up.”
