‘Reservation Dogs,’ ‘Bachelorette’ Finale, ‘Cheap Old Houses,’ Final Week of ‘Jeopardy’

Breaking new ground for representation of Indigenous talent on and off screen, Reservation Dogs is a droll comedy about small-town Oklahoma teens breaking bad. Katie makes her pick—or does she?—as The Bachelorette wraps its summer run. A popular Instagram feed that tours inexpensive but impressive old properties has inspired a new HGTV series. Joe Buck closes out Jeopardy!’s transitional season amid news of a permanent host.

Reservation Dogs
Shane Brown/FX

Reservation Dogs

Series Premiere

Anyone who’s longed for greener pastures should be able to relate to this offbeat, low-key and very droll comedy, streaming on FX on Hulu, about four Indigenous teens haplessly looking for a quick score in small-town rural Oklahoma. This quietly quirky series nonetheless speaks loudly in its breakthrough in representation of Indigenous talent in front of and behind the camera, including every cast regular and each episode’s writer and director. We first meet this gang of four—Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Elora (Devery Jacobs), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) and Cheese (Lane Factor)—as they hijack a truck filled with gastronomically toxic junk food. Their goal in all of their schemes is to earn enough jack to hit the road to the promised land of California, realizing the dream of a fifth buddy who died a year earlier. Dogs’ distinctive tone is even more evident in the second episode, in which they hang out all day at the local clinic, with Bear nursing wounds and a bruised ego after being jumped by a rival gang. Familiar character actor Zahn McClarnon (Longmire, Westworld) is a hoot as the local policeman who can’t quite live up to his nickname, “Big.”

Katie Thurston in The Bachelorette - Season 17 Announcement
ABC/Craig Sjodin

The Bachelorette

Season Finale

The course of made-for-TV love only runs smooth after judicious editing, which brings us to the finale of Katie’s season, where she’ll pick between Canadian wildlife manager Blake or Justin, the investment sales consultant from Baltimore. Or maybe she won’t. Whatever happens, it will be dissected at length in the After the Final Rose recap that immediately follows, featuring a return appearance from Greg, who’ll explain his sudden departure.

'Cheap Old Houses' Hosts Ethan and Elizabeth Finkelstein
HGTV

Cheap Old Houses

Series Premiere

The popular Instagram account from Ethan and Elizabeth Finkelstein comes to TV, as the couple criss-cross the country seeking out gorgeous architectural gems that are still intact and livable and price for under $150,000. Launching with back-to-back episodes, the Finkelsteins first head first head to upstate New York in the vintage truck Old Blue to scour retro properties, including a restored schoolhouse. Then it’s off to Peoria, where historic preservationist Elizabeth has to convince Ethan that moderate-size home is worth a second look.

CNBC

Super Heists

Series Premiere

A new true-crime series looks back at memorable robberies from the perspective of the master thieves as well as the investigators in hot pursuit. Forensic accounting expert Kelly Richmond Pope and others provide insight. The premiere revisits an infamous 1972 case, in which a crew of Ohio bank robbers spent a weekend inside a California vault looking to steal $30 million from a slush fund rumored to belong to then-President Nixon. The FBI manhunt that ensued was said to be the biggest of its type since the Kennedy assassination.

joe buck
Bob Levey/Getty Images

Jeopardy!

Fox Sports broadcaster Joe Buck is the last of the season’s guest hosts as the distinguished quiz show heads into its summer hiatus amid news reports that executive producer Mike Richards is the presumed front-runner to be permanent host come fall. There will never be another Alex Trebek, but thankfully there will always be a Jeopardy! to play along with and enjoy.

Inside Monday TV:

  • American Ninja Warrior (8/7c, NBC): The Olympics may be over, but athletes still get a chance to shine in this extreme competition, resuming semifinals in L.A., where ninjas must choose in the “Split Decision” round between an upper body and balance obstacle.
  • Housebroken (9/8c, Fox): In the animated comedy about pets off the leash, Coyote (Brian Tyree Henry) entreats domesticated poodle Honey (Lisa Kudrow) to run away with him to Altadena, but is she too pampered to answer this call from the wild?
  • Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland (streaming on Acorn TV): Many of us know the actor from his leading role in Tour of Duty among others, but he’s also an engaging tour guide of his native Ireland in a two-part travelogue as he traverses over 600 miles of rugged coastland, taking in the scenery as well as the local cuisine.