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) “B Positive,” 9:30 p.m. Thursday, CBS. After a good first season, this had a drastic makeover. The focus is still on the good-hearted (but sometimes-daft) Gina, brilliantly played by Annaleigh Ashford. But now she has inherited $48 million – and has bought the retirement home where she worked. That brings a flock of Tony-winners – Ashford, Ben Vereen, Linda Lavin, Priscilla Lopez – plus Jane Seymour (shown here with Veree ) and Hector Elizondo. At 10 p.m., switch to FX for the “What We Do In the Shadows” season-finale. Read more…
As the leaves get brighter and the air gets crisper, life shifts.
We turn to pumpkins and cider, to costumes and … Christmas movies?
Really. The first new Christmas film (shown here) reaches TV on Friday (Oct. 22), nine days before Halloween. There are two more this weekend … then three more each weekend after that.
Those are on the Hallmark Channel, but others – Lifetime, Freeform, Ion, UPtv – will follow, next month. Even CBS, which hasn’t had a new TV movie in nine years, plans two Christmas ones this year. 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…
1) “The Blacklist” season-opener, 8 p.m., NBC. This intense drama peaked as its eighth season ended: Red (James Spader, shown here in a previous episode) told Liz (Megan Boone, who was leaving the show) to shoot him and then read a letter revealing his secrets. Instead, a gunman killed her; Red killed him and fled. Now we jump ahead two years. Red vanished, the task force folded, but a new threat brings them back together. Read more…
1) “Nature” season-opener (shown here), 8 p.m., PBS. Martin Dohrn had been traveling the world, filming lions and leopards and even mass migrations. Then the pandemic confined him to his home and yard in Bristol, England. He fashioned special cameras and found more than 60 species of bees. Some carefully crafted homes, scooting across town to find the right sticks; others just stole homes. He even named some and followed one’s adventures. It’s a charming start to this show’s 40th season. Read more…
Two separate Halloweens are marching through our TV sets … and maybe through our lives.
There’s fun Halloween – cartoons and comedies and Muppets (shown here) and more. And there’s scary Halloween.
There’s also the question of just how long TV’s Halloween season should be. It’s: Read more…
1) “Impeachment,” 10 p.m., FX. Last week, this superb mini-series hit a peak: Monica Lewinsky learned that her “friend” Linda Tripp had taped their conversations for the FBI. Now come the aftershocks, as life closes in on both women. It’s another strong episode, boosted again by great work from Beanie Feldstein (shown here) and Annaleigh Ashford as Lewinsky and Paula Jones. Read more…
It was 20 years ago today that “Smallville” debuted on the WB network, raising the bar a bit for superhero shows.
The show’s goal, at first, was “no tights, no flights.” Instead, it would be a solid drama about a teen (played by Tom Welling) still adjusting to his superskills. Read more…
