1) “The Walking Dead,” 9 p.m., AMC, rernning at 11:07 p.m., 12:14 a.m., more. It’s been 16 months since we saw a new “Dead.” That one – the showdown with the Whisperers – reruns at 7:52 p.m. Then the final season – eight episodes now, 16 more later – begins, with a desperate search for food. Tonight starts with a perilous mission, then plunges into an even tougher one, which needs help from the despised Jeffrey Dean Morgan (shown here). The result, as usual, is tough and tense, gory and well-crafted.
2) “The Equalizer” return, 9 p.m., CBS. Now that “Love Island” has finished, some popular shows come off the shelf for reruns. This is a good episode, starting when a woman’s son is kidnapped; to save him, she’s supposed to steal information from her FBI employer. That’s followed by an “NCIS: Los Angeles” rerun, with Kensi coming face-to-face with the sociopath who’s been obsessing on her.
3) “Work in Progress” season-opener, 11 p.m., Showtime. Cable keeps giving us comedy-dramas that are low-key and subtly crafted. That includes “Atlanta” and “Better Things” on FX, “Reservation Dogs” on Hulu and this quiet gem. Abby McEnany vowed to eat one almond per day, then commit suicide when the 180 were gone. But, she says, “life got in the way of me killing myself.” She plods ahead with humor, unable to replace her late therapist or her departed lover.
4) New documentaries. As we near the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, TV has a flood of fresh films, including superb ones from National Geographic and PBS. But Spike Lee takes a different approach here: “NYC Epicenters: 9/11 to 2021 1/2” views New York’s response. That’s 8 and 9 p.m. on HBO; also, “Gossip” (viewing Cindy Adams and other gossip folks) starts at 8 p.m. on Showtime.
5) And departing documentaries. CNN’s “History of the Sitcom” ends by looking at ways TV comedies help us escape reality. That’s at 9 p.m., rerunning at midnight; at 8 and 11, a rerun looks at fish-out-of-water tales of aliens, monsters and everyday outsiders. And at 10 p.m., HBO concludes its surfing series, “The 100 Foot Wave,” one day before ABC debuts “The Ultimate Surfer.”