The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching
Tokyo Olympic Games, Week Two
There’s no predicting what stories will arise in the Games’ final week. But Monday and Tuesday should bring back the women gymnasts competing for gold in the floor exercise and beam. Also on Tuesday, the final in the women’s 400-meter hurdles promises a showdown between U.S. record-setters Dalilah Muhammad and Sydney McLaughlin. The weekend will feature finals in soccer and basketball before Sunday delivers the closing ceremony. Evening network coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. nightly, NBC
Small Town News: KPVM Pahrump Newscasters are regular folk, too—sort of. This six-part documentary series settles in with a colorful underdog news team in a Nevada desert town as they patch together a regular broadcast and aim even higher. Little KPVM is one of fewer than 100 independent stations left in the country, and owner Vern Van Winkle dreams of grabbing a share of the big Las Vegas market while trying to model political bipartisanship of a type that’s grown rare. Monday, Aug. 2, at 9 p.m., HBO Pray Away
Conversion therapy isn’t dead, but only a decade ago there was a wider movement in faith communities to attempt to convert LGBTQ people to heterosexuality. This documentary looks at Exodus International, a now disbanded but once prominent Christian group that had hundreds of chapters around the country before its leaders renounced the effort as wrong and damaging. Several participants who once followed the group’s teaching share their stories. Available Tuesday, Aug. 3, Netflix
Shiny_Flakes: The Teenage Drug Lord
Drug kingpins don’t look like they used to. Maximilian Schmidt of Leipzig, Germany, was still a teenager when he built a darknet site that accepted Bitcoin in exchange for ecstasy, LSD, meth, cocaine, and more. There was more than $4 million worth of drugs in his home when he was arrested at 20 in 2015. In this documentary, the fresh-faced convict who inspired the series How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast) shares his story. Available Tuesday, Aug. 3, Netflix
Val
Val Kilmer has lived most of his life on camera. In this striking documentary, which had a recent theatrical release, the actor who rose to stardom in 1980s and ’90s hits such as Top Gun and The Doors spent countless hours recording his experiences. That footage adds much to this endearing portrait of a talented but flawed man who has lost his voice to throat cancer but remains on a journey of self-discovery. Available Friday, Aug. 6, Amazon Prime
Other highlights
The Suicide Squad
DC Comics’ supervillain team still has Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, but in this theaterbound R-rated version, it’s Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn calling the shots as Idris Elba and John Cena join the crew. Available Thursday, Aug. 5, HBO Max
UFO
A four-part series executive-produced by
J.J. Abrams examines our decades-long fascination with UFOs and the government’s work in secretly tracking the evidence. Sunday, Aug. 8, at 9 p.m., Showtime
In Their Own Words: Princess Diana
The series that recently added profiles of Pope Francis and Chuck Berry now turns to “the people’s princess.” Sunday, Aug. 8, at 8 p.m., PBS