Year: 2020

1) “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist,” 9 p.m., NBC, and more. In an era that lacks music variety shows, we’ll settle for scripted shows that ripple with songs. Here are three, with Skylar Astin in two of them. In “Playlist” — a fun show, with Zoey (Jane Levy) hearing people’s thoughts via song — Astin (shown here with Levy) is Zoey’s friend Jesse; tonight has a key moment with his bubbly girlfriend. In “Perfect Pitch” (2012, 5:50 p.m., Freeform), he’s Max, in a choral group. He’s not in “Yesterday” (2019, 6:55 p.m., HBO), but it’s a music gem. Read more…

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. We never suspected Daniel Craig could be a funny guy. In his James Bond role (shown here) and others – especially the dark “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” – he seems tough and no-nonsense. But he did host “SNL” in 2012; he also had fun playing a Southern-fried detective in the terrific “Knives Out.” Now Craig – whose next Bond film opens April 10 – hosts. The music guest is The Weeknd, who has done it twice before, plus a couple of times backing others. Read more…

1) “Blue Bloods.,” 10 p.m., CBS. Two key figures in CBS history link tonight. Ed Asner (shown here) arrived a half-century ago in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”; Tom Selleck came 10 years later in “Magnum, P.I.” Combined, those shows spent five years in the Nielsen top-10, 11 years in the top-20. Selleck won an Emmy; Asner won seven, five of them in “MTM” and its “Lou Grant” spin-off. Now Asner, 90, plays the victim of a home invasion; Selleck, 75, plays his friend, the police commissioner. Read more…

1) “Better Things” season-opener, 10-11:14 p.m., FX. With subtlety and skill, this has the day-to-day lives of Sam (Pamela Adlon, shown here at right), her three daughters and her mother. Now the girls are back from visiting their dad, with fresh requests. One wants a pet; another wants a quinceanera … which you don’t expect in a Jewish family. Sam persists, while working through her own mid-life crisis and her mom’s late-life crises. As always, the result is an appealing mixture of humor, warmth and dismay. Read more…

1) “The Twenties” debut, 10 and 10:30 p.m, BET. When Lena Waithe hit her 30s, everything clicked. She got a role in “Master of None,” winning an Emmy for an episode she wrote; she wrote and produced Showtime’s “The Chi” and the movie “Queen & Slim.” Now, at 35, Waithe goes back to her early struggles, when she was an assistant to the “Girlfriends” producer. “Twenties” focuses on three friends (shown here), struggling in Hollywood. It’s sometimes a drama, occasionally a comedy, always loosely likable. Read more…