Meet the Fake ‘Anna,’ ‘Marry Me’ and More Romcoms, Remembering Whitney’s Super Bowl Anthem, Winter Olympics and Kevin Hart

Inventing Anna

Two-time Emmy winner Julia Garner (Ozark) adds another bizarre accent to her arsenal in a gripping performance as con woman extraordinaire Anna Delvey (born Sorokin), a fake German heiress who dupes and swindles her way through elite New York society from 2013 to 2017. Her story is fascinating, but maybe not enough to sustain Shonda Rhimes’ indulgent nine-part limited series, which runs longer than the entire Godfather trilogy. Unfortunately, the series spends way too much time with another Anna: Anna Chlumsky, as an obsessed magazine journalist who neglects her own pregnancy to investigate Anna’s outrageous history and salvage her own tarnished reputation. Garner eerily nails the real Anna’s cruel carapace of smug and remorseless condescension toward the fools in her wake. (See the full review.)

Marry Me

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, romantic comedies are all the rage this weekend. The highest profile may be this pairing of Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson as a pop star who pops the title question to an average-joe complete stranger (Wilson) when she learns that her equally famous fiancé (Maluma) has been cheating on her. Expect complications before the happily-ever-after.

E60

Marking 10 years since Whitney Houston’s untimely death, a half-hour E60 special celebrates the legacy of the superstar’s unforgettable 1991 rendition of the National Anthem at Super Bowl XXV in Tampa. Broadcast to a worldwide audience during a tense time of war, shortly after the U.S. and allied forces launched Operation Desert Storm in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Houston’s performance resonated them and now, rallying the nation with a unity we can only imagine today.

Live coverage of Snowboard (Mixed Team Cross Final) and Women’s Alpine Skiing (Downhill Training) are among the prime-time highlights, along with Men’s Ski Jumping, Men’s Skeleton and Men’s and Women’s Short Track. Other sports featured through the day and night on NBC, USA Network, CNB and streaming live (with on-demand options) on Peacock, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app include Cross-Country Skiing, Women’s Biathlon, Hockey and Curling. For complete listings by sport of what to watch, when and where, go to nbcolympics.com/schedule.

Kevin Hart’s Winter Olympics Tailgate Party

The comedian riffs on the Winter Games with guests including former Olympic medalists Lindsey Vonn and Gracie Gold and current silver medalist in snowboard slopestyle, Julia Marino. Joel McHale and Jack McBrayer are the jokey field correspondents. Highlights include Hart taking a slapshot lesson from Blake Bolden, the first Black woman to play in the U.S. Women’s Hockey League, a visit from Tiffany Haddish and an interview from Beijing with the Jamaican bobsled team.

More from the Valentine’s love parade:

• I Want You Back (streaming on Prime Video): It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Charlie Day and Parks and Recreation’s Jenny Slate make an odd couple as two jilted souls who meet shortly after being dumped by their partners (Jane the Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez and Scott Eastwood). They scheme to ruin their exes’ new relationships, but guess what happens next?
• 10 Truths About Love (streaming on Tubi): Camilla Belle is Carina, a heartbroken and uptight romance columnist who learns to loosen up when paired at work with Liam, a more carefree writer who offers to help her get her boyfriend back. Guess what happens next?
• Tall Girl 2 (streaming on Netflix): Catch up with “tall girl” turned “it” girl Jodi (Ava Michelle) in the sequel as she navigates new relationships from her new perch of high-school popularity.
• The In Between (streaming on Paramount+): Less a romcom than a tear-jerker (Valentine’s second favorite genre), starring The Kissing Booth’s Joey King as Tessa, a young photographer whose soulmate Skylar (Kyle Allen) perishes in a car accident but appears to be reaching out to her from the great beyond.
• The Sky Is Everywhere (streaming on Apple TV+): Tearjerker #2: An adaptation of Jandy Nelson’s novel stars Grace Kaufman as Lennie, a 17-year-old music prodigy grieving her older sister’s death. Her aching heart is torn between her sister’s boyfriend Toby (Pico Alexander), who bonds with her in mutual mourning, and Joe (Jacques Colimon), the hot new guy at school.
• Love Is Blind (streaming on Netflix): Not a romcom but a laughably contrived reality dating show (Valentine’s third-favorite genre), launching its second season with five episodes in which singles make a commitment to marry before actually seeing each other. Four more episodes drop Feb. 18, with the finale on Feb. 25.
• Poly (streaming on The Roku Channel): A reality miniseries profiles people in polyamorous relationships.
• Old Flames Never Die (8/7c, Lifetime Movie Network): Not so much a romcom as a romantic thriller (Valentine’s fourth-favorite genre), starring Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe as Kira, a novelist who heads home after her unfaithful fiancé is accused of murder. After hooking up with her high-school beau (Lou Ferrigno, Jr.), she worries he’s becoming too involved.

Inside Friday TV:

• everything’s gonna be all white (8/7c, Showtime): A three-part docuseries (all available On Demand and on streaming) explores the root causes of racial inequity in America from the perspective of people of color.
• 20/20 (9/8c, ABC): Juju Chang interviews Sharee Miller, a mother of three who was at the center of a deadly love triangle that led to the 1999 murder of her husband and the suicide of her online lover. (The case inspired the 2006 Lifetime movie Fatal Desire starring Anne Heche and Eric Roberts.)
• Dollface (streaming on Hulu): Binge alert for all 10 episodes of the comedy series’ Season 2, following Jules (2 Broke Girls’ Kat Dennings) and her BFFs (Brenda Song, Shay Mitchell and Esther Povitsky) as they emerge from the pandemic to face the impending milestone of turning 30.