(Here is the week’s TV top-10 for Monday, Oct. 14; please send a reply when this arrives)
1) “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago P.D.,” 8-11 p.m. Wednesday, NBC. It’s crossover time, flipping the order of the first two shows. Things start with firefighters and paramedics, rushing to a bacteria outbreak at a Bears game; a fire at a university causes Sevaride to suspect there’s something bigger. Then “Med” has an apartment complex under quarantine; Will comes across a bioterrorism suspect. That leads to “P.D.”(shown here) and a massive manhunt.
2) “Treadstone” debut, 10 p.m. Tuesday, USA. Remember when USA and others had cheery dramas in pretty, blue-sky places? Not any more. The first 11 minutes are as dark and brutal as anything on TV; the rest doesn’t get much cheerier. This visits Treadstone, the program that molded a super-assassin, then stole his memory and made him think his name was Jason Bourne, Now we leap between Russia, Germany, North Korea, Alaska, London and more. It’s nasty and exciting, perplexing and interesting.
3) “CMT Artists of the Year,” 8 p.m. Wednesday, CMT, rerunning at 9:30. This week is stuffed with honors for music greats. CMT has performances by four of the honorees – Carrie Underwood, Kane Brown, Thomas Rhett and Dan + Shay; Chrissy Metz of “This Is Us” will sing in a tribute to the fifth winner, Luke Combs. Also performing is Ashley McBride, named “breakout artist of the year.” And Sam Hunt and Lady Antebellum perform a tribute to Reba McEntire, now named “artist of a lifetime.”
4) “Great Performances: Grammy Salute to Music Legends,” 9-11 p.m. Friday, PBS. More honors, more music: Many of the honorees will perform; they include Dionne Warwick, Julio Iglesias, Sam Moore (alone and with Garth Brooks), Valerie Simpson (with Kenny Lattimore) and George Clinton (wih everyone). Also, honored will be Johnny Mandel, Lou Adler, Billy Eckstine, Black Sabbath and Donnie Hathaway. We’ll hear Patti Austin, Snoop Dogg, Gregory Porter, Jessie Mueller and more.
5) “Patsy & Loretta,” 8-10:03 p.m. Saturday, Lifetime. Here are some more music greats, this time depicted in a TV movie. Patsy Cline was big and brash, willing herself to stardom; Loretta Lynn was (at first) timid, expecting nothing. Still, this film says, they had key things in common – great talent, warm hearts and heavy-drinking husbands.This is a big story, fairly well told, with lots of music done by two talented Broadway stars: Jessie Mueller is fine as Lynn; Megan Hilty is superb as Cline
6) “POV,” 10 p.m. today, PBS. Growing up in suburban Chicago, Assia Boundaoui felt she was being watched. So did others in her Muslim neighborhood; in the 1990s, FBI agents even knocked on doors and asked questions. Two decades later, Boundaoui (a journalist) linked with others (including her sister, a lawyer) to learn more. They found that the FBI’s “Operation Vulgar Betrayal” produced 33,000 pages of reports … and, apparently, no convictions. It’s an intriguing story that has a prsonal touch.
7) Presidential debate, 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, CNN. This will reportedly be the most crowded presidential debate stage yet. Tulsi Gabbard and Tom Steyer have been added to the 10 candidates in the previous debate. That includes front-runners Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, plus Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Julian Castro, Kamala Harris, Beto O’Rourke, Amy Klobuchar and Andrew Yang. CNN’s Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper will anchor with the New York Times’ Marc Lacey.
8) “Arrow” season-opener, 9 p.m. Tuesday, CW. It’s the end of the beginning, sort of: There are 82 series on the five big commercial broadcast networks this fall; “Arrow” is the last to arrive. It’s also the show that has propelled much of the CW line-up, with six series in what’s called the “Arrowverse.” Now the eighth and final season – with only 10 episodes – begins. Oliver returns to Starling City, trying to figure The Monitor’s mission. Meanwhile, Mia and William have their team collide with a new foe.
9) “Perfect Hamony,” 8:30 p.m. Thursday, NBC. Four weeks into the season, this continues to be the best new broadcast-network show. It has sharp wit, occasional sight gags and great characters. Bradley Whitford is Arthur, a former Princeton prof, now widowed, bitter and conducting a tiny church choir. His singers are determined to win contests; nothing can stop them … except the start of hunting season. Now Arthur joins the hunt. Tempers fray, friends fight; funny moments exist alongside bits of warmth.
10) And more. One key series ends (“The Terror: Infamy,” 9 p.m. today, AMC) and another starts (“Watchmen,” 9 p.m. Sunday, HBO). Both are beautifully filmed … both are rooted in a real-life tragedy (the detainment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, the massacre of blacks in 1921 Tulsa) … and both then go in wild, supernatural directions. And a streaming note: On Friday, Amazon Prime introduces a real gem: “Modern Love” is an anthology, dramatizing eight real-life stories.