What to Watch This Week: July 31 to August 4

From Netflix shows to documentaries to reality TV, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

 

1. Ballers – Sunday, July 30, 9 p.m., Midnight & 3 a.m., HBO Canada

When Spencer finds himself in Las Vegas on business, Joe tells him not to let it descend into straight-up sexual debauchery, and while Spencer does succeed on that front, he instead finds himself falling back into a familiar route with Chloe (Serinda Swan), one of his exes, who now works for Wayne (Steve Guttenberg). As a result of Spencer’s absence, Joe ends up having to deal with a client who’s making some poor wardrobe choices, and his frustration about the situation causes him to accidentally sour his relationship with running back Kisan (Kris Lofton), which results in Jason ending up with the gig as his new agent.

Elsewhere, Ricky gets involved in an odds-defying game of dice, while Julie informs Charles that he’s a terrible public speaker—boy, is he!—and schools him on the fine art of public oration.

 

2. The Bachelorette – Monday, July 31, 8 p.m., City & ABC

Rachel Lindsay may have made history by becoming the first person of colour to headline any show in The Bachelor universe, but the antics that have gone down in this 13th season have mirrored plenty of the shenanigans we’ve seen in the past. Between the testosterone-fuelled bids for the woman’s attention, sad spelling bees in order to find out who was more than meets the eye and more celebrity guest-star appearances than we can keep track of, this has been a pretty emotional and jam-packed love quest.

Now it’s the men’s turn to tell their side of the story in the traditional “Men Tell All” episode, in which the fellas sit down with host Chris Harrison and discuss their edits, what really went down behind the scenes and who potentially still has beef.

 

3. Princess Diana: Tragedy or Treason? – Monday, July 31, 5 p.m. & 8:03 p.m., TLC

As we approach the 20th anniversary of her death, Princess Diana has been a popular subject among TV networks, with a slew of specials having already aired or set to air in August (not to mention Ryan Murphy choosing Diana and Prince Charles for the next chapter of his FX anthology drama Feud).

As you might expect, TLC is taking a more sensationalist approach than the competition, with a three-hour documentary boasting new info about the strained relationships that drove Diana from the Royal Family, and examining several theories that question whether the car accident that took her life was indeed an accident.

The filmmakers also offer up exclusive clips from biographer Andrew Morton’s interviews with the Princess, fresh insights from her friends, bodyguard, reporters and Royal historians, as well as a chat with former Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Richard Belzer, who apparently moonlights as a “conspiracy theorist author.”

 

4. Intervention – Monday, July 31, 6 p.m. & 10:01 p.m., A&E | Season Premiere

The Interventionists return to help a new crop of addicts wrestle their demons; this season, that’ll include Katherine, a rape victim who numbs her pain with “a deadly mix of drugs, alcohol and prostitution”; and Tanisha, a girl who had everything to live for, until her mom brought heroin into the picture. Tonight’s premiere is followed at 7 p.m. & 11:01 p.m. by The Dope Man, a new special about the unlikely journey of ex-con turned addiction crusader Tim Ryan.

 

5. Maz Jobrani: Immigrant – Tuesday, August 8, Netflix

In the past, comedian Maz Jobrani—seen most recently as part of the cast of the CBS sitcom Superior Donuts—has performed standup comedy material focusing largely on being Iranian and living in America. For his new Netflix special, however, he’s focusing on the immigrant experience as a whole.

“I was doing a joke about how my grandmother used to put her cash in her bra at the Laugh Factory in L.A.,” Jobrani recently said in an interview with Vox. “There were these two girls in the audience that were Latina, and they were laughing. And that’s when I realized, ‘Oh my God, their grandmother also put her cash in her bra.’ And I realized that immigrants have a lot in common, and that even if you’re not an immigrant you have friends that are, so I stopped saying ‘Iranian’ and started saying that this was an ‘immigrant experience.’”

This, at least in part, explains where his new standup special—which was filmed at the prestigious Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.—got its title. And even though the Trump administration has certainly provided Jobrani with plenty of immigrant-themed material which he can gleefully mock, he still makes some time to riff on some other subject matter as well, including the perils of modern-day parenting.

 

6. The Lowe Files – Wednesday, 7 p.m. & 11:03 p.m., A&E

Rob Lowe is known for many things. His big-screen roles. His ongoing and memorable TV stints, from The West Wing and Brothers and Sisters to Parks and Recreation and Californication. The random fact that, like Dick Clark before him, he never, ever seems to age.

What he’s not known for, however, is the reality TV circuit. But that’s about to change with the premiere of this new series. In it, Lowe and his two sons, Matthew and John Owen, head out on the road to traverse America and explore some of the land’s most famous unsolved mysteries. Over the course of nine episodes, they’ll completely immerse themselves in these stories in order to get the full experience, documenting it with cameras along the way.

From an alien base located 2,000 feet underwater in California to a spooky and abandoned New England reformatory for boys, no place is too sacred or too scary for these guys to check out. Of course at the heart of it all is also a story of a dad and his two sons who long ago bonded over these types of tales; only now, they get to make a TV show about it.

 

7. Snowfall – Wednesday, August 9, 7 p.m., 8 p.m. & 10 p.m., FX Canada

There are more than a few fireworks at Jerome’s Fourth of July BBQ when Franklin’s inability to make a decision causes major damage. Meanwhile, Teddy and Alejandro find themselves stranded, while Lucia’s family decides to vet Gustavo to see if he’s the real deal.

 

8. Full Frontal With Samantha Bee – Wednesday, August 9, 10:30 p.m., Comedy

Having just earned an impressive seven Emmy nominations, it’s clear that Full Frontal has secured full acceptance from Emmy voters. So if you’re not a Samantha Bee viewer yet, stop reading this and start watching it already!

 

9. Saving Hope – Thursday, August 10, 9 p.m., CTV | Series Finale

When viewers first met Dr. Alex Reid (Erica Durance) and Dr. Charlie Harris (Michael Shanks) back in 2012, it seemed like these two star-crossed M.D.’s were destined to be together. What else could you predict for a relationship in which he spent the entire first season in a coma while she sat faithfully by his side?

Of course, the lovebirds have been anything but blissful ever since Charlie woke up from that fateful coma—mostly due to the fact that he now sees and talks to spirits. (This last season in particular, these ghosts have seriously impacted his job, his friendships, his relationship with Alex and even his own sanity.) Meanwhile, a slew of other memorable and loveable doctors and patients have walked the halls of Hope Zion, helping make it one of the most adored Canadian series of all time. Unfortunately, that all comes to a close this week with the series finale.

While some secondary characters, like Maggie, have already moved on to their happy endings, and others, like Shahir, are focusing on themselves and their families for a change, we always knew this last episode would come down to the troubled couple that started it all: Alex and Charlie.

In a twist reminiscent of the premiere, these two find themselves on the scene following a horrific accident involving a bus full of teenagers and mass casualties. As they wait for backup, they’re forced to confront their personal demons and their feelings for one another, making some hard decisions once and for all. Can the Hope Zion family overcome this latest tragedy and cross over to the next chapter of their lives? We haven’t lost hope.

 

10. Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later – Friday, August 11, Netflix

Here’s an interesting premise for a sequel to a sequel: “Hey, let’s all promise that 10 years from today, we’ll meet again and see what kind of people we’ve blossomed into.”

So said Ben, Bradley Cooper’s character in cult-hit comedy Wet Hot American Summer, and we’re guessing that Cooper’s probably not laughing at the irony that he’s got such a busy schedule nowadays that he’s had to break his promise. Thankfully, he’s one of very few cast members from the original film who doesn’t appear in the long-awaited Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later.

One of the reasons we’ve been waiting so long for it, of course, is that writers David Wain and Michael Showalter ended up going in a different direction first, choosing instead to deliver the prequel series, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp. Even then, though, they were already toying with the idea of a sequel. “When the dust settles, we’ll think about whether there’s more to do on it,” Wain told Rolling Stone in 2015. “I think this world is somehow just endlessly interesting to me. Summer camp was a true defining experience in my own personal life, and so I’m not surprised that there tends to be more places to go there.”

In the eight-episode sequel, the former counsellors of Camp Firewood attend a reunion at their old stomping grounds, only to learn that Beth (Janeane Garofalo) is selling the place. Beyond that, all we really know about the goings-on of the series is what we’ve seen in the trailer. Thankfully, that’s enough to know that fans will be laughing like crazy very soon.

Stars of the latest Summer include Alyssa Milano, Paul Scheer, Elizabeth Banks, Ken Marino, Amy Poehler, Marguerite Moreau, Michael Ian Black and more.