Month: October 2021

1) “Nature,” 9 p.m. PBS. The osprey is an amazing creation. With a six-foot wingspan, yet weighing only three pounds, it’s a fierce flying machine. It’s the one bird that can dive down, completely submerge and emerge with a fish (shown here). In this beautifully filmed hour, a male commutes 4,000 miles to a Connecticut reunion with his annual summer mate. They raise three fledglings, while he also chases off two bald eagles (much bigger than he is) and even scatters an entire cormorant colony. Read more…

1) World Series, 8:09 p.m. ET, Fox, with preview at 7:30. The baseball classic begins, with all the big winners already gone. The Giants (107 wins in 162 games) and Rays (100 wins) lost in their first round; the Dodgers (106) lost in the league championship. That leaves Houston (95) and Atlanta (88, shown here with Eddie Rosario’s scoring slide) … and fits history: From 2010 to 2015, the World Series champion was never the season’s top winner. Two champs lately had a sub-90 season – the Giants (88 wins) in 2014 and Cardinals (83) in 2006. Read more…

1) “4400”(shown here) debut, 9 p.m., CW. For a lawyer returning from maternity leave, this is a messy start: En route to work, she’s yanked up and dumped in a field, one of 4,400 perplexed souls there. For her, it’s suddenly 16 years later; for others, the time gap varies. This reboots a cable series, now focusing on Black characters. Like NBC’s “La Brea,” it’s a great concept, but has wildly overdrawn characters. But CW, unlike NBC, tends to finish what it starts; we might stick with this for a while. Read more…

1) “SEAL Team,” 10:30 p.m., CBS,but 10 p.m. PT. It’s changeover time for this military drama. Last week, the show finished a taut two-parter in North Korea; next week, it’s supposed to have its final new CBS episode, before jumping to Paramount+. First comes this emotional hour: The team visits the 9/11 memorial (shown here) in New York, causing each person to flash back to 20 years ago. Read more…

(Here are the five TV best-bets for Saturday, Oct. 23; feel free to use in any form – all or some, print and/or web)

1) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Jason Sudeikis finally returns as host, with Brandi Carlile as music guest. Sudeikis was with “SNL” for two years as a writer and eight as an actor. After leaving in 2013, he sometimes returned to play Mitt Romney or Joe Biden. He made comedy movies, had two children with then-fiance Olivia Wilde, did “Last Man on Earth,” then soared after co-creating “Ted Lasso” (shown here). The Apple TV+ show won seven Emmys, including best actor (Sudeikis) and best comedy. Read more…

1) “SWAT,” 8 p.m., CBS. This was suppose to be a changeover night. CBS would debut a reality show, “The Activist,” at 8 p.m.; “SWAT” (shown here) would then move to Sundays to replace “SEAL Team,” which goes to Paramount+. Then people pointed out that the new show – activists competing for attention on social media and beyond – was a terrible idea; CBS pulled it for retooling. For now, “SWAT” stays on Fridays; tonight, vigilantes make it harder to catch a violent band of armed robbers. Read more…