Apple TV+ presents “Women in Blue,” a Spanish-language period police drama. Set in Mexico City in the early 1970s and inspired by true events, it begins as that city is reeling from grim news reports of a serial killer who targets young women.
As the title implies, “Blue” concerns four very different women who challenge their conservative families to enter the police force. Their enlistment takes place against the backdrop of a nascent women’s movement. But they soon discover that the police force sees them as window dressing, something to distract the public from the killer’s ongoing spree.
As you might expect, our heroines eventually overcome a culture of contempt to forge a new approach to finding the killer.
Despite its gritty subject matter, “Blue” often unfolds like a soap opera. In introducing its four rookies, the pilot throws a lot of narrative balls in the air at once and hopes viewers can follow. This fairly complex storyline contrasts with some obvious and occasionally heavy-handed messaging.
“Women in Blue” is the third Apple TV+ series introduced this month that invites viewers to spend time with characters who speak another language in another country (and, with “Blue,” from another era). Eva Longoria stars in and produced “Land of Women,” about a spoiled New York socialite on the run from her husband’s criminal pursuers in a bucolic backwater in rural Spain. Rashida Jones stars in “Sunny,” as an expatriate American whose life is upended when her son and husband disappear, a mystery that plunges her into a rabbit hole of conspiracies involving companion robots, hacked software and the Japanese Yakuza underworld.
We all know that streaming platforms are out to find viewers (or subscribers) and to amuse and entertain them. But increasingly, I find that Apple TV+ has also set out to challenge viewers in a rather interesting fashion.
— TCM celebrates jazz on a summer’s day with four movies best enjoyed for their soundtracks. The film festival begins with director Louis Malle’s breakthrough New Wave thriller “Elevator to the Gallows” (12:45 p.m., TV-PG), featuring a moody score by Miles Davis.
Alain Delon plays a convict trying to go straight with his new wife (Ann-Margret) in the stylish 1965 thriller “Once a Thief” (2:30 p.m., TV-PG), which features a score by Lalo Schifrin during one of his most fertile periods. On his way to writing memorable soundtracks for “Bullitt” and “Cool Hand Luke,” Schifrin’s impossibly cool television scores included the themes to both “Mannix” and “Mission: Impossible,” arguably the best and most memorable music ever composed for prime-time network television shows.
The groundbreaking 1961 film “The Connection” (4:30 p.m., TV-PG) assembles a found-footage story about drug addicts awaiting their next fix. Its score by Freddie Redd features post-bop saxophonist Jackie McLean.
Patrick McGoohan (“Secret Agent Man,” “The Prisoner”) plays a jazz drummer with designs on his bandleader’s wife in the 1962 noir drama “All Night Long” (6:30 p.m., TV-14). Set in Britain’s jazz scene, it features cameos by musicians, including Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus and Tubby Hayes.
Short of dusting off your hi-fi and spinning some old Verve LPs, this may be the jazziest afternoon you’ll ever experience.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Primetime in Paris: The Olympics (8 p.m., NBC) presents coverage of swimming and gymnastics events.
— An oil heiress is found slain on “The Real CSI: Miami” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
— “Sea Change: The Gulf of Main” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-G, check local listings) explores how rising ocean temperatures are threatening habitats that have long incubated a complex ecosystem.
— A lone wolf finds the missing on “Tracker” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
CULT CHOICE
When novelist Richard Condon wrote the novel that was adapted into the 1962 thriller “The Manchurian Candidate” (8 p.m., TCM, TV-PG), its tale of POWs (Laurence Harvey and Frank Sinatra) brainwashed into an assassination plot hatched by a Russian agent (Angela Lansbury) posing as a right wing super-patriot was considered a far-fetched satire.
SERIES NOTES
“Big Brother” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) … “MasterChef” (8 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) … “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … Sibling rivalries on “Beat Shazam” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-PG) … “Claim to Fame” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) … “Shark Tank” (10 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Jude Law, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats appear on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS, r) … “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” are pre-empted for Olympic coverage … Taylor Tomlinson hosts BenDeLaCreme, Rory Scovel and Harvey Guillen on “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).
