On Track with the Olympics, Go Ape on Hulu, Sandy Cheeks to the Rescue, the Cartel-Busting Cowboy

Summer Olympics

The first week of the summer games ends with track and field events joining swimming finals and men’s synchro springboard finals as marquee sports in NBC’s “Primetime in Paris” coverage (8/7c). NBC goes live during the day with track and field heats and the men’s 10,000m final at the Stade de France (1 pm/ET) and swimming finals (2:30 pm/ET) including Australia’s Kaylee McKeown going for another back-to-back gold in the women’s 200m backstroke final. U.S. women’s beach volleyball takes on Germany at 4 pm/ET. USA Network and E! also carry live coverage, with all events available for livestreaming on Peacock. For a full schedule, go to nbcolympics.com.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

The 10th Apes movie, and the fourth in the current rebooted franchise, makes its streaming debut, jumping ahead several hundred years from 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes and the reign of Caesar. Owen Teague stars as young chimpanzee Noa, whose peaceful existence is shattered when his tribe is captured and enslaved by the warmongering Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). All 10 films, starting with 1968’s original Planet of the Apes, are available for streaming on Hulu.

Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

While most of the 25th-anniversary celebrations of SpongeBob SquarePants are happening on Nickelodeon and Paramount+, somehow Netflix ended up with this movie spinoff, an ambitious mix of live action and CGI animation that features loyal sidekick Sandy Cheeks (voiced by Carolyn Lawrence) at the center of the action. The fun, or peril, begins when all of Bikini Bottom is scooped from the depths of the ocean by a mysterious marine biology lab, leaving behind Sandy and SpongeBob. They leave their once-watery home for Texas to save their friends and restore their beloved habitat, with help from Sandy’s family (including Johnny Knoxville and Craig Robinson). Live-action guest stars include Wanda Sykes.

Cowboy Cartel

A true-crime docuseries from producers of Narcos and American Cartel follows rookie FBI agent Scott Lawson as he pursues a hunch that ultimately takes down the notorious Treviño brothers, kingpins of Mexico’s deadly Los Zetas cartel. His unlikely entry point is the horse-racing industry, where their money-laundering operations gives Lawson an opening to infiltrate the crime organization. Lawson and other law-enforcement agents are interviewed over the four gripping installments.

INSIDE FRIDAY TV:

• Jazz Ramsey: A K-9 Mystery (9/8c, Hallmark Mystery): Rachel Skarsten stars in the title role as a K-9 trainer who investigates an old crime scene with her star crime-detection dog Zeus and her ex-boyfriend detective Nick (Corey Sevier).
• Rebel Moon—The Director’s Cut (streaming on Netflix): If Zack Snyder’s two-part sci-fi epic left you wanting more, the director complies with what’s described as a “bigger, bloodier cut.”
• Lady in the Lake (streaming on Apple TV+): Maddie’s (Natalie Portman) risky interview with a murder suspect lands her a job at the Baltimore newspaper-but not one she particularly covets. Her interracial affair with Officer Platt (Y’lan Noel) could have dire consequences—but that’s nothing compared to the danger facing Cleo (Moses Ingram) on an eventful Christmas Eve.