‘Best Medicine’ and ‘High Potential’ Finales, Brit’s-Eye View of the Revolution, an ‘Untold’ Chess Story

Best Medicine

The usually docile town of Port Wenn, Maine, is in an uproar in the Season 1 finale of the quirky dramedy based on the British series Doc Martin. Excepting shady businessman Glendon Roth (Patch Darragh), the townspeople are outraged to learn that the representatives of a Norwegian “sister city” have hoodwinked them and plan to set up a disruptive offshore salmon farm. “There’s no (taking) sides in medicine,” insists Dr. Martin Best (Josh Charles), who’s no fan of the interlopers but does his duty when one of the Norwegians goes into labor, raising concerns after an unusual delivery. Martin has plenty on his mind, fending off the attentions of an ex, fertility specialist Eden Montgomery (Eliza Coupe), while risking exposure of his blood phobia if he tries to foil the Norwegians’ plot. A climactic and very sweet surprise party reminds us why a return to Port Wenn can’t come too soon.

High Potential

The hit procedural wraps its second season with romantic complications for Detective Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), when his on-again girlfriend and ex-fiancée Lucia (This Is Us alum Susan Kelechi Watson) is embroiled in a murder at the high-end hotel she manages. While he works the case with Morgan (Kaitlin Olson), she has another showdown with the formidable Willa Quinn, who suggests Morgan’s obsession with the missing Roman is putting her family at risk.

Lucy Worsley Investigates: The American Revolution

Many PBS viewers have likely devoured Ken Burns‘ epic 12-hour exploration of The American Revolution, which premiered in November. While it’s been said that history is written by the victors, British historian Lucy Worlsey challenges that notion by examining the Revolutionary War from the perspective of the English, whose policies inspired the colonists to rebel. Her timely two-part docuseries (concluding next Tuesday), anticipating America’s 250th birthday this year, opens with Worsley visiting New York’s City Hall Park and the New York Historical Society, where she views artifacts symbolizing the rupture between the New and Old Worlds. Her research reveals how King George’s punitive taxes and the Stamp Act of 1765 sparked the conflict, with the Boston Massacre and Boston Tea Party as early indications of the fighting to come.

Untold: Chess Mates

And you thought The Queen’s Gambit was riveting. A new edition of the sports anthology focuses on the mental arena of chess championships, where controversy broke out in 2022 when world champion player Magnus Carlsen accused American upstart Hans Niemann of cheating after an upset loss at the Sinquefield Cup. Niemann admitted to having cheated in the past while playing online, but never during an over-the-board competition. Rumors, some outrageous, flew as Neimann sued to restore his reputation.

Daredevil: Born Again

New York’s villainous mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) revels in his strongman image, even staging a charity boxing match (against a foe named Matterhorn) to prove to his public what a raging bull he is. His nemesis, the vigilante Daredevil (Charlie Cox), smells a trap, and he’s right to warn the psycho assassin Bullseye (Wilson Bethel), “I can’t let you make a martyr out of him.” Life in the big city won’t be the same after this grisly publicity stunt.

INSIDE TUESDAY TV:

· Will Trent (8/7c, ABC): Will (Ramón Rodríguez) is trapped with Nico (Cora Lu Tran) and Angie (Erika Christensen) in a hostage situation within a hospital, while their partners try to defuse the situation from outside.

· NCIS (8/7c, CBS): The team goes on a treasure hunt after a dying Navy captain offers a clue aboard a museum ship.

· Finding Your Roots (8/7c, PBS): Henry Louis Gates, Jr. reveals secrets from the family trees of actress Danielle Deadwyler (currently seen in HBO‘s Rooster) and musician Rhiannon Giddens.

· Doc (9/8c, Fox): Michael’s (Omar Metwally) first day back as Westside Hospital’s Chief of Internal Medicine gets messy when the most recent chief, Joan (Felicity Huffman), returns as a patient, setting up conflict with his ex-wife Amy (Molly Parker) over her treatment.

· NCIS: Origins (9/8c, CBS): Someone’s in the doghouse for real when the squad’s beloved K-9 agent, Gary Callahan, is seriously wounded at a crime scene, and his humans become bloodhounds to find who’s responsible. Followed by NCIS: Sydney (10/9c), where the team gets their fortunes told while chasing a clue from a tarot card that could shed light on the drowning of a U.S. Navy officer.

· R.J. Decker (10/9c, ABC): The scruffy Florida private eye (Scott Speedman) suspects a newly released and vengeful ex-con with whom he served time is trying to frame him, or worse.

ON THE STREAM:

· A Taste for Murder (streaming on BritBox): Warren Brown (Luther) stars in an escapist procedural set in scenic Capri, filmed in Italy and Croatia, as DCI Joe Mottram, a grieving widower who brings his daughter to the seaside town for the summer to stay with his in-laws (including Downton Abbey’s Phyllis Logan) and solve a few local crimes as one does.

· Sheng Wang: Purple (streaming on Netflix): The comedian entertains an audience at Washington, D.C.’s Warner Theater in his second stand-up special for the streamer.