TV picks: ‘Luther,’ ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ ‘Tales of the City,’ a D-Day doc, and more

Luther. Idris Elba is back as British police detective John Luther in a four-episode fifth season that includes a chilly but undeniably charismatic blast from his past. 8 p.m. Sunday, June 2, BBC America.

American Princess. No, it’s not another Meghan-and-Harry movie. Australian actress Georgia Flood stars in a new series as Amanda, who flees her society wedding for a Renaissance Faire-like festival after catching her fiance in a compromising position. (Note: This isn’t the Hallmark Channel. I’m being polite about the position.) Lucas Neff (Raising Hope) plays one of the festival regulars who helps her find her Elizabethan feet in the world where you can’t always tell the players from the “playtrons.” Lesley Ann Warren, who long ago had her own princess moment as Cinderella, guest-stars in the two-episode premiere as Amanda’s horror of a mother. 9 p.m. Sunday, June 2, Lifetime.

Perpetual Grace, LTD. The MGM-owned premium channel Epix continues its bid for viewers’ attention in this new drama with a dream cast. Ben Kingsley and Jacki Weaver star as the leaders of a mom-and-pop church in New Mexico who take in a drug addict (Jimmi Simpson, Westworld) who isn’t quite what he seems. But then neither are they. 10 p.m. Sunday, June 2, Epix.

The Weekly. Would you trust journalists more if you saw how they work? That’s the bet the New York Times is making in this new half-hour docu-series, which follows its reporters on the job. The premiere focuses on the Times’ 2018 investigation into allegations of abuse and deception at T.M. Landry College Prep, a small private school in Louisiana that had established a reputation for getting disadvantaged students into top colleges. 10 p.m. Sunday, June 2, FX.

The Handmaid’s Tale. If the second season of this dystopian story left you dispirited — or if you’re still upset about how it ended — take heart. The gloom has lifted, just a little, as June (Elisabeth Moss) tries to make her decision to stay behind in Gilead count for something. It doesn’t hurt that Bradley Whitford is back as the enigmatic Commander Joseph Lawrence. Inspired by Margaret Atwood’s novel about a post-U.S. nation ruled by religious extremists whose response to a fertility crisis is to enslave women to bear their children, this show is never going to be a laugh riot. But it does have some slyly funny moments. Wednesday, June 5, Hulu.

The Battle of Normandy: 85 Days in Hell. This hour-long documentary marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day employs some footage filmed by a team led by Oscar-winning director George Stevens that was deployed to film the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II. 8 p.m. Thursday, June 6, Smithsonian Channel.

Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. Don’t do the math. That’s the advice of Lower Merion High grad Alan Poul, who’s worked on every TV iteration of Armistead Maupin’s stories of LGBT life in San Francisco, starting with the Peabody Award-winning mini-series that was set in the 1970s and that aired on PBS 25 years ago. Poul’s both an executive producer and a director on this 10-episode update, which brings Laura Linney’s Mary Ann Singleton back to the city after a long absence to help celebrate the 90th birthday of her former landlady, Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis). Paul Gross returns as Brian Hawkins, who’s now Mary Ann’s former husband, and Ellen Page is Shawna, the daughter he was left to raise on his own.. Friday, June 7, Netflix.

Designated Survivor. Kiefer Sutherland’s still an accidental president in the third season of the series, picked up by Netflix after ABC canceled it. But now as he runs for election, he and his aides get to swear occasionally. There are also some new faces, among them ER’s Anthony Edwards as Mars Harper, chief of staff to Sutherland’s President Tom Kirkman; Lauren Holly as Harper’s wife, Lynn; and Jamie Clayton (Sense8) as someone who’s going to make life in the White House even more interesting. Friday, June 7, Netflix.