The Future Is Wild (July 8, 15, 22; 9 to 11 p.m.; Animal Planet) lets biologists, geologists, and other ists imagine earth in computer images 5 million, 100 million, and 200 million years from now: Eight-ton land squids! Slither-sucker slime molds!
Discovering Dominga (July 8; 10 to 11 p.m.; Channel 13) follows P.O.V. to Guatemala, where 27-year-old Iowa housewife Denese Becker is returning for the first time since she barely escaped a massacre of Mayan peasants when she was 9. And the criminals are still there.
Martin Luther (July 9; 9 to 11 p.m.; Channel 13), produced, written, and directed by Cassian Harrison, narrated by Liam Neeson, and featuring Timothy West as “the reluctant revolutionary,” goes back to the sixteenth century to explore the seeds of the Protestant Reformation, which is also discussed by excitable experts.
Exclusive to Al-Jazeera (July 10; 9 to 10 p.m.; Channel 13) goes to Qatar for a “Wide Angle” look at the all-news network that seems to offend Arab governments as much as it does the U.S.
The Incredible Mrs. Ritchie (July 12; 7 to 8:45 p.m.; Showtime) stars James Caan as a high-school principal who sends Kevin Zegers to work for an eccentric elderly widow (Gena Rowlands) who tends a ghostly garden with her two mentally disabled children. Everybody learns a lot.
Prince Charming (July 13; 8 to 10 p.m.; TNT) wants to find out if modern-day damsels like Christina Applegate, Andrea Martin, and Bernadette Peters are willing to kiss a couple of frogs in Central Park on the off chance that they might be time travelers.
The AMC Project: Hollywood and the Muslim World (July 14; 10 to 11 p.m.; AMC) goes to Egypt, Lebanon, Qatar, and Iraq to talk about local sensibilities and sensitivities in a mediated sea of Western pop culture.