What to Watch This Week: August 11 to August 16

From confounding medical mysteries to teen entertainment faves, we round up the top 10 shows to watch this week

From confounding medical mysteries to teen entertainment faves, we round up the top 10 shows to watch this week

1. Best. Pool. Ever. — Sunday, August 11, 6 p.m. & 9 p.m., HGTV I Series Premiere

The weather is hot and the water is cool, which makes this a great week to debut a new fun-in-the-sun-centric series. We’re having serious pool envy after seeing some of the lavish backyard and commercial offerings on display in this incoming show, including the premiere’s two-level swimmin’ hole that’s perfect for lounging in while grilling up Beyond burgers (or relaxing in the hidden grotto spa). Also on display? A tropical pool with a slide and hidden underwater cave, along with a futuristic Las Vegas pool that’s sporting a killer swim-up bar. The weeks to come will offer such extravagances as a see-through pool atop a skyscraper, an indoor pool with a suspended glass dining area and a lakeside pool with its own helipad.

2. Teen Choice 2019 — Sunday, August 11, 8 p.m., Fox

Fling off the sandals, dig your toes into the sand and pop a cold beverage because the annual awards show that doles out giant surfboards instead of stuffy little statuettes is back for another round. The shindig comes to us from Hermosa Beach in sunny California, with two hours’ worth of speeches and commemorations in store to satisfy all the fanboy and fangirl hearts out there. As in previous years, the festivities are the culmination of viewer voting across several mediums, including television, film, music and sports. That means there’s a good chance that one of your idols could show up at some point, whether it’s a tennis star, a legendary country singer or a certain god of thunder who recently struck gold at the box office. On that note, this year the top dog in terms of nominations is Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel blockbuster that just became the highest-grossing film of all time (besting previous champ Avatar). It boasts nine nominations, including Choice Action Movie and nods for many of its stars, including Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson and Zoe Saldana.

3. Prince Philip: The Plot to Make a King — Monday, August 12, 10 p.m., KCTS

Using archival photos, interviews with the Royal Family and unpublished memoirs, this documentary tells of how Prince Philip’s uncle, Lord Mountbatten, sneakily played matchmaker to secure the lad’s spot alongside Elizabeth.

4. Lodge 49 — Monday, August 12, 7:10 p.m. & 9:30 p.m., AMC I Season Premiere

year after the introduction of an esoteric series centering on a motley crew from a Southern California beach town, Lodge 49 creator Jim Gavin and executive producer Peter Ocko have all but given up trying to explain what their show is about. “I will admit that this year, we basically pleaded with marketing to, rather than sell what the show is, sell the vibe of the show,” says Gavin. “It’s a lot easier to do that, than to try and explain what the show is about.” When it comes to Lodge 49, does it even matter? For those who have already embarked on this journey with unemployed surfer “Dud” (Wyatt Russell), his twin sister Liz (Sonya Cassidy) and plumbing salesman Ernie (Brent Jennings), defining genre is hardly a priority. Curious interlopers who missed the first season can still easily drop in and discover that just watching these friends and foes get through the day is oddly entertaining, whether or not you understand the “mystery” that drives some of the plot. “I think the show is, in the largest sense, a refuge,” says Gavin. “Our greatest asset is our being able to just hang out with our characters.”

5. Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready — Tuesday, August 13, Netflix I Series Premiere

Budding superstar Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip) uses her newfound cachet to refract a tiny ray of the spotlight onto some lesser-known female comics, hosting a standup anthology of half-hour sets by up-and-comers April Macie, Flame Monroe, Chaunté Wayans and more.

6. Why Women Kill — Tuesday, August 13, CBS All Access I Series Premiere

Infidelity. It’s Why Women Kill — at least as portrayed in the storylines of a darkly comedic drama that begins streaming this week on CBS All Access. The 10-episode series from Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives, Devious Maids) looks at infidelity through the lives and experiences of three women living in different decades, each with a spouse who has been unfaithful. There is Beth Ann (Ginnifer Goodwin, Once Upon a Time), a 1960s housewife whose world revolves around white-collar husband Rob (Sam Jaeger, Parenthood); Simone (Lucy Liu, Elementary), a socialite in the 1980s whose extravagance masks inner doubt about her relationship with Karl (Jack Davenport, Smash); and Taylor (Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Barry), a driven lawyer in 2019 whose “open marriage” to Eli (Reid Scott, Veep) starts to sour. The series examines how through the decades the roles of women may have changed but their reactions to betrayal have not.

7. Card Sharks — Wednesday, August 14, 7 p.m., City; 9 p.m., ABC I Season Finale

The deck has been cut, the cards have been dealt. Now it’s up to the contestants to play their best hands in hopes of betting, guessing and/or lucking their way into the final grand prize of the season. As ever, snarktastic host Joel McHale is the pit boss in this game of chance and skill.

8. Elementary — Thursday, August 15, 10 p.m., Global & CBS I Series Finale

It’s been nine memorable seasons of crime-solving, undeniable chemistry between leads Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller, and a slew of unforgettable guest stars. But as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. And so too does this Sherlock Holmes saga with a final instalment aptly titled “The Last Bow.”

9. Diagnosis — Friday, August 16, Netflix I Series Premiere

Yale professor Dr. Lisa Sanders adapts her popular New York Times medical column into a docu-series, profiling people afflicted with mystery ailments that have left doctors at a loss. By combining medical expertise with a little social-media crowdsourcing, Sanders hopes to uncover the answers they so desperately need.

10. Mindhunter — Friday, August 16, Netflix I Season Premiere

These days, we’re all obsessed with true crime, serial killers and the cocktail of trauma, nature and nurture that combine to make a person capable of taking another human being’s life. But audiences and cops weren’t always so interested in the minds of murderers, as the first season of this David Fincher- and Charlize Theron-produced series taught us. That 10-episode run introduced viewers to fresh-faced federal agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff), a character based on real-life FBI agent John E. Douglas; he, along with Robert K. Ressler, rewrote the book on criminal profiling back in the 1970s.