The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching
Covid Diaries NYC
New York City was devastated by Covid’s first wave. To document the crisis, five young filmmakers, ages 17 to 21, turned cameras on themselves and their households, revealing groundlevel dramas that statistics couldn’t capture. Death was no abstraction as family members tried to sort out when to go out, when to quarantine, when to show up daily for low-paying “essential” jobs, and when, finally, to fill the streets and join a nationwide protest movement. Tuesday, March 9, at 9 p.m., HBO
Last Chance U: Basketball
A new season of Netflix’s acclaimed sports documentary series moves from the gridiron to the hardwood but maintains its winning premise:
It’s at the junior college level, where you find athletes working to rise from nobodies to stars. The subjects this time will be the talented ballers at a school in East Los Angeles, all being pushed to their potential by a philosophical but tough coach. Available Wednesday, March 10, Netflix Generation
No one knows as well as a 17-year-old what it’s like to be 17 these days. Writer Zelda Barnz was exactly that age when she sold the pilot to this new dramedy series about a group of LGBTQ high schoolers, and it’s arriving not so long after. With her screenwriter father Daniel serving as cowriter and Lena Dunham overseeing the project as executive producer, Generation has a chance to be another Entourage for HBO, but with a little more focus on the humor and joy of adolescence. Available Thursday, March 11, HBO Max Own the Room
Young talent expresses itself in many ways, and this documentary finds five inspiring examples from around the world. At the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, dozens of university students whose innovative ideas have lifted them to the finals compete for a cash grand prize.
The film’s featured competitors hail from Nepal, Puerto Rico, Greece, Venezuela, and Nairobi. Among their brainchildren are an app that helps deaf patients communicate and a method of producing synthetic chemicals using the sun. Available Friday, March 12, Disney+
The 2021 Grammy Awards
Grammy night finally arrives, after a Covidrelated 10-week delay, and women have a chance to dominate, with Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, and Phoebe Bridgers all in the running for big awards and Beyoncé arriving with nine nominations to lead the field. Trevor Noah will host, but the night’s performers will be announced closer to the big event. Sunday, March 14, at 8 p.m., CBS
Other highlights
Assembled: The Making of WandaVision
A new series that goes behind the scenes on Marvel Studio’s big projects begins with a look at the attention to classic sitcom detail that powers the hit series WandaVision. Available Friday, March 12, Disney+ kid 90
Punky Brewster star Soleil Moon Frye spent her teen years with a video camera in hand, filming her child-star friends. The footage has been edited into a time capsule for 1990s kids. Available Friday, March 12, Hulu
Yes Day
Jennifer Garner and Edgar Ramirez co-star in a family comedy about parents who quit their naysaying to let their kids make the rules for 24 hours. Available Friday, March 12, Netflix