1) “Motherland: Fort Salem,” 10 p.m., Freeform. Those first days of college can always seem rough – especially when this is War College (shown here) and everyone is a witch. Also, there’s a quick test that makes even an escape room seem easy. Complicating things: As they start classes, the friends still don’t know why, in a crucial moment, they were able to link explosively. It’s a good episode in an intriguing series.
2) “Mr. Inbetween,” 10 p.m., FX, rerunning at 10:34 and 11:08. Here’s the exact opposite of the big-deal, special-effects approach of “Motherland.” The story of an Australian hitman is filled with quiet understatement. That’s especially true of this underwrought episode. Emily Barclay is excellent as Ray’s drug-running colleague; she’ll be back next week.
3) “American Experience: Mr. Tornado,” 9 p.m., PBS. When Ted Fujita was young, his home town was spared by weather. (It would have been an atom-bomb target, but there was cloud cover; Nagasaki was hit instead.) Obsessed by weather, Fujita became a tornado expert, developing a “micro-burst” theory and the “f-scale.” Here’s a fine blend of science and humanity.
4) “Frontline,” 10 p.m., PBS. Germany had worked hard to shed its Nazi past. Now come new waves, often attacking the surge in immigrants. A politician was killed … an ex-soldier tried to break into a synagogue on Yom Kippur, then killed two people outside … an attack killed nine immigrants, six of them Muslims. Critics blame virulent social media and indifferent officials; one man, reportedly found with 10,000 rounds of ammunition stolen from police and military, received a suspended sentence.
5) ALSO: The two ratings giants collide at 8 p.m., with CBS’ “NCIS” and NBC’s two hours of “America’s Got Talent” auditions. Another big draw is pro basketball. At 8:30 p.m. ET on TNT, the Atlanta Hawks host the Milwaukee Bucks in the second game of the best-of seven semi-finals.