DAVID WIEGAND
THURSDAY
We’re many months away from Halloween, but the Discovery Channel isn’t waiting to scare the bejesus out of audiences with the world premiere of a movie about “the single greatest agent of death in modern human history.”
“Mosquito,” airing at 9 p.m. and narrated by Jeremy Renner, is a timely look at the little critter that’s responsible for about 750,000 deaths a year around the globe. Many of the victims are children. We know about individual diseases such as Zika, malaria and dengue fever, but the Discovery film “connects the dots between these diseases” and goes a step further, by looking at how increased global travel and trade, as well as global warming, is accelerating the expansion of the mosquito population around the world.
A new TV celebrity gossip show airs on WE TV at 10 p.m.
“Bossip on WE TV” focuses on news about African American celebrities. Vic Mensa and Method Man guest on “Nick Cannon’s Wild ’n Out ” at 11 p.m. on MTV, followed by a second episode at 11:30 p.m. with Dave East and “Catfish’s” Nev Schulman.
FRIDAY
Hulu offers the sixepisode Canadian import
“Pure” for streaming today. It’s a watchable but not exceptional drama about Mennonites in Ontario getting involved in the drug trade.
Netflix offers for the day include the complete first season of the animated show “Castlevania,” the second season of“Cirque du Soleil: Luna Petunia,” the fourth season of “Dawn of the Crudes” and the fourth season of “Degrassi: Next Class.” The third season of “KC Undercover” premieres on the Disney Channel at8 p.m. Erik Griffin, who has a significant role in the Showtime series “I’m Dying Up Here,” has his own standup special on Showtime at 9 p.m. called “Erik Griffin: The Ugly Truth.” Season 27 of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” digs in on the Food Network at 9 p.m. River Phoenix and Heath Ledger are the subjects of the premiere episode of “Under the Influence” at 9 p.m. on Reelz.
SATURDAY
ABC moves “In an Instant” to a new 8 p.m. time slot today. Season three of “School of Rock” plugs in on Nickelodeon at 8:30 p.m.
What you really need to see today is a film without a single socially redeeming value but a lot of bad taste and even more silliness. It’s the HBO mockumentary “Tour de Pharmacy,” spoofing doping in the Tour de France and airing at 10 p.m.
I don’t know why I’m actually telling you that ABC has moved “Still
Star Crossed ” to a new time of 10 p.m. on Saturday, because the reason they moved it is that few are watching it. That’s why it was just canceled.
SUNDAY
It’s shark season. If you didn’t know that now, you will soon enough. It’s become so competitive
this year that the National Geographic Wild Channel’s “Sharkfest,” which dives in on July 23, created an entire press release designed to look like an edited version of a press release from the Discovery Channel announcing its own “Shark
Week,” which also launches on July 23, with every “Shark Week” mention crossed out and “Sharkfest” penciled in on top.
But Discovery takes the first bite, as it were, with the special “SW17 — Sharktacular 2017 ” at 9 p.m. Freeform airs an hourlong sneak preview of its forthcoming series “The Bold Type” at 8:55 p.m. The series, starring Katie Stevens and Aisha Dee, is based on the career of former Cosmopolitan and Hearst chief content officer Joanna Coles, who is one of the show’s executive producers. I haven’t watched the screener yet, but unless they intentionally make an off-color joke about the name of one of the characters, they might want to trade the name “Richard Hunter” for a name whose diminutive doesn’t make an off-color joke. Then again, Stevens plays the editor of the fictional Scarlet magazine, which is obviously supposed to be Cosmo. Would Helen Gurley Brown approve?
Mario Lopez hosts the
CBS show “Candy Crush,” based on the addictive app, premiering at 9 p.m. HBO begins the fourpart documentary “The Defiant Ones,” exploring the working relationship between Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, at 9 p.m. The History Channel airs the two-hour special “Amelia Earhart: Finding the Lost Evidence ” at 9 p.m.
CNN’s “decade” specials are ear and eye candy, not too deep or intellectual, but completely addictive once-overs of culture, politics and other aspects of specific decades in our collective past. The “Most Trusted Name in News” premieres
“The Nineties” with a two-hour double episode called “The One About
TV,” referencing the episode naming convention in“Friends.” Sit back and enjoy the show at 9 p.m.
Robert De Niro, Bill Clinton and Tracy Morgan are among those on hand for Spike TV’s “One Night Only” tribute to Alec Baldwin at 9 p.m. TV One kicks off the new season of “Unsung” with a focus on Wyclef Jean at 9 p.m. AMC airs the summer finale of the third season of“Fear the Walking Dead” with a two-hour show at 9 p.m., followed by the summer finale of “Talking Dead: Fear Edition” at 11. David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook. Email: dwiegand@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV