What’s on TV This Week: ‘Slave Play’ and ‘Orphan Black: Echoes’

For those who still enjoy a cable subscription, here is a selection of cable and network TV shows, movies and specials that broadcast this week, June 17-23. Details and times are subject to change.

Monday

THE GREAT AMERICAN RECIPE 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings). “The Great British Bake Off” has taught us about jaffa cakes, brandy snaps and sachertorte, but this reality show focuses on all things American. Eight contestants from different regions around the U.S. compete for the title by preparing their prized signature dishes that represent them and where they are from.

Tuesday

GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953) 9 p.m. on TCM. Marilyn Monroe stars as Lorelei, a showgirl engaged to Gus, much to the disapproval of Gus’s father. When Lorelei goes on a cruise with her best friend Dorothy (Jane Russell), her future father-in-law hires a private investigator to follow her and make sure she doesn’t do anything unbecoming. Though Bosley Crowther wrote in his review for The New York Times that the “direction is uncomfortably cloddish and slow,” he noted that “subtle backlash of burlesque banter not only tags the brand of wit that flows with old-fashioned charm through the picture, but pointedly explains the buoyancy and survival of the young ladies in this bumptious film.”

HERE TO CLIMB 9 p.m. on HBO. Sasha DiGiulian’s climbing career began at the age of 7, and over the years, she has scaled Big Wall in Brazil and the Misty Wall in Yosemite National Park. This documentary follows her ascent, literal and figurative.

Wednesday

TOP CHEF 9 p.m. on Bravo. While this season has mostly taken place in Wisconsin, the three finalists are setting sail on a cruise ship from Curacao, with Caribbean themed challenges on deck. For the finale, Dan, Danny and Savannah are going to compete with six eliminated contestants joining them to act as sous chefs. There are tons of fish in the sea, but only one can take home the title.

JUNETEENTH: CELEBRATING FREEDOM AND LEGACY 10 p.m. on CNN. Though it became a federal holiday only in 2021, Juneteenth has been celebrated for more than 150 years, as the oldest known observation of the end of slavery in the U.S. This CNN special will feature performances from John Legend, Patti LaBelle, and Smokey Robinson. Opal Lee, often referred to as “the grandmother of Juneteenth,” will join the CNN anchor Victor Blackwell for a conversation the current state of affairs.

Thursday

SLAVE PLAY. NOT A MOVIE. A PLAY 9 p.m. on HBO. The Tony-nominated show “Slave Play,” which opened on Broadway in 2019, follows three interracial couples undergoing “antebellum sexual performance therapy.” Now, this documentary is taking viewers behind the scenes with the playwright Jeremy O. Harris as he workshops and rehearses, before ultimately bringing the play to the big stage.

Friday

BRIDGET JONES’S BABY (2016) 7:52 p.m. on HBO. Though Hugh Grant in a romantic comedy is hard to beat, McDreamy a.k.a. Patrick Dempsey is a good alternative. This movie follows Bridget Jones (Renee Zellweger) as she again finds herself in a love triangle, this time with a newly single Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) and a cute stranger she hooked up with at Glastonbury (Patrick Dempsey). To make matters more complicated? She’s pregnant and the father of the baby could be either of them.

Saturday

SUMMER OLYMPIC TRIALS: DIVING, SWIMMING AND TRACK & FIELD starting at 1 p.m. on NBC. We are just over a month before the Olympics in Paris, but for many athletes, this is really their time to shine. Before packing their bags and brushing up on their French, they first must qualify to get there. NBC is airing all different qualifiers all throughout the weekend.

Sunday

CRIMINAL MINDS MARATHON starting at 3 p.m. on Pop. The members of the F.B.I.’s Behavioral Analysis Unit love to chitchat about a hostage situation or a violent crime occurring instead of just rushing to the scene, which, in real life, would be a horrible emergency-response tactic, but on this show, it makes for good TV.

ORPHAN BLACK: ECHOES 10:05 p.m. on AMC. This new Canadian thriller stars Krysten Ritter, Avan Jogia and Keeley Hawes and takes place in the future — 2052 to be exact, almost four decades after the original series left off.