1) “Sanditon” season-opener, 9 p.m., PBS. There’s lots of work left to do – and only six episodes in this final season. Sweet Charlotte has just returned from a visit to her home town, where she got engaged to a local guy. (They’re show here.) But what about the widower’s unspoken love for her? And his daughter and Georgiana, courted because of their wealth? All of that – and much more — will be settled in these crowded (and well-crafted) hours, part of a busy drama night for PBS.
2) “Call the Midwife” season-opener and “Marie Antoinette” debut, 8 and 10 p.m., PBS. In many ways, these shows are opposites. “Midwife” fills the convent and hospital with sweet souls, battling immense problems in 1968 London; tonight’s stories are light (a fibbing newcomer) and not (anti-immigrant fervor). “Marie” fills the palace with schemers. This opener is overwrought, but stick around; better hours await, as the teen princess finds her way.
3) “Lucky Hank” debut, 9 p.m., AMC, rerunning at 10:01, 11;02, 12:03. Here is one of the year’s best new shows, with quirky characters and, at times, blistering dialog. That starts when Hank (Bob Odenkirk), a writing professor, unleashes a rant about mediocre students in a mediocre college. He has plenty of flaws, but his boss still tolerates him, his wife still likes him and his colleagues are too clumsy to supplant him. It’s a great start.
4) “The Blacklist,” 10 p.m., NBC. This show’s 200th episode is sort of a perverse twist on “King Lear”: A rich guy died and left his fortune to his triplet daughters … if they can figure out his elaborate clues. Then again, someone else – a fierce killer, or Red and his colleague(Stacy Keach) — might get the money first. It’s a smart, sharp episode.
5) ALSO: CBS has the college basketball tourney at noon, 2:30 and 5 p.m. ET, but then skips a game so it can air “Equalizer,” “East New York” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.” That game is at 7:30 on TruTV; others are 6 and 8:30, TNT; 7 and 9:30, TBS. “The Way Home” is at 9 on Hallmark, setting up next week’s season-finale. And at 9 p.m. ET, a Fox News documentary tells of reporter Benjamin Hall’s rescue in Ukraine and his recovery from near-fatal wounds.
— Mike Hughes, TV America