1) “The Resident,” 8 p.m., Fox. It’s Nurse Appreciation Day at the hospital, a fact that’s met with skepticism. “If they really appreciated us, they’d get us more nurses, not cookies,” someone says. Chasing profits, the hospital keeps adding procedures without adding staff; it’s a flaw that strikes powerfully tonight. An hour that starts with doctors and nurses at play (shown here) ends starkly. “Resident” still flounders when trying a lighter story; a jockey sub-plot here is a prime example. But when it’s serious – as it often is – it works well.
2) “Dolly Parton: Here She Comes Again,” 10 p.m., ABC. Parton keeps surprising us. All flash and dazzle on the outside, she writes songs with uncommon depth. She’s a good singer, a good-enough actress, a great songwriter and, as Barbara Walters has said, maybe the perfect interviewee. Now it’s her time: Tonight, she’s profiled in this documentary … On Wednesday, she’s a “guest host” of the Country Music Association awards … And on Nov. 22, her songs will be the basis of Netflix’s “Heartstrings.”
3) Disney+ debut, www.disneyplus.com. While ABC is busy with country and comedy, it’s parent company begins its massive incursion into Netflix turf. For $7 a month, it has a mega-library – Marvel movies, Disney and Pixar cartoons, all “Simpsons” seasons, Fox movies (including “Sound of Music”), National Geographic, etc. It also has new shows, including a “Star Wars” series (“The Mandolorian”), a Jeff Goldblum reality show and two series – one scripted, one not – about high school musicals.
4) “Empire,” 9 p.m., Fox. In its final season, this is going full-throttle soap opera; its high-volume scenes don’t seem even remotely believable. Now Lucious and Andre drop thunderbolts from opposite ends of a conference table. And Tiana is nudged toward becoming a totally different person. These are fun scenes, but they seem unrelated to the behavior of humans on Planet Earth.
5) ALSO: At 9 p.m, NBC’s “This Is Us” has Rebecca seeing Randall new world – living in Philadelphia, where he’s on the city council. At 10, one show wraps its season (“Mr. Mercedes” on AT&T/DirecTV), another returns (“Ambitions” on the Oprah Winfrey Network) and PBS’ “Frontline” looks at what happens to migrant children during the border crackdown.