1) “The Son” season-opener, 9 p.m. , AMC, rerunning at 10:05. Sprawling and ambitious, this hour leaps between Texas and Mexico … and between 1852, 1915 and even 1988. A young Eli (with his American Indian captors) leads their raid … An old Eli (Pierce Brosnan, shown here) searched for his son Peter, who rescued a neighbor when Eli attacked her home … And Peter’s daughter is a matriarch. All reflect the slow pace of a western – and the deadly intensity that seems to infect anyone in Eli’s life.
2) “Love Takes Flight,” 9-11 p.m., Hallmark. Sure, there are lots of pleasantly interchangeable movies on the Hallmark channels, but this is different. It’s under the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” banner, which goes all the way back to the 1951 debut of (really) an acclaimed opera. It has fewer commercials, more quality and piles of praise; the 1986 “Promise” won five Emmys. In this one, Nikki DeLoach plays a doctor running a small hospital; an emergency-medicine pilot (Jeff Hephner) broadens her world.
3) NFL draft, noon to 7 p.m., ABC and ESPN. For the first two days, these sister networks had separate productions, with ESPN aiming for the intense fan. Now they simulcast the last day, with rounds 4-7. It’s easy to dismiss those, but keep this in mind: Tom Brady went in the sixth round, the 199th choice overall; he’s gone on to win six Super Bowls and was named most valuable player in four of them.
4) “Ransom,” 8 p.m., CBS, and more. Sure, this seems like a typical Saturday – a new “Ransom” (an imposter poses as Eric), an old “FBI” (a couple’s crime spree) and a new “48 Hours.” More interesting is what’s not here: CBS had scheduled the first championship game of the Alliance of American Football … except that the league folded and went bankrupt before ever getting that far.
5) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Here’s a quick rerun of an episode from just three weeks ago. Kit Harington (whose “Game of Thrones” only has four Sundays left) hosts, with Sara Bareilles as music guest. Next week, “SNL” returns to live, with Adam Sandler’s first time as host.