1) “Nature,” 8 p.m., PBS. At 98, David Attenborough (shown here) keeps trying new ideas; here’s one of his best hours ever: He pretends to visit London’s Natural History Museum overnight; then special effects bring extinct creatures back to life. The result is honest — he tells which parts are definite and which are speculation – and immensely entertaining.
2) “Good Cop/Bad Cop” debut, 9 p.m., CW. With the clever “Wild Cards” at 8 p.m., CW now has the perfect companion. A small-town police chief (Clancy Brown) has two detectives: His daughter (Leighton Meester, who’s terrific here) has great people skills, his son (Luke Cook) has none. This opener ripples with wit and humanizes the criminals.
3) “Wild Cards,” 8 p.m., CW. Ellis meets a man who has few memories and a tangle of conspiracy theories. It’s easy to ignore him … but what if he’s right? Max soon joins the chase, in an entertaining hour.
4) “Thomas Jefferson” conclusion, 8-10 p.m., History. In its mid-section (rerunning at 6 p.m.), Jefferson stumbled as a governor and rebounded as a diplomat. Now his presidency starts shakily (no one beyond the first two rows can hear his inaugural speech), then soars with the Louisiana purchase. Afterward, he faces financial trouble and personal flaws.
5) MORE: At 8 p.m., there’s also “The Masked Singer” (with a “Shrek” theme) on Fox and “Shifting Gears” and “Abbott Elementary” on ABC. PBS has a fairly good “Nova” at 9 (a fresh perspective on Pompeii) and, at 10, the first half of a potent “Secrets of the Dead” report on Bruno Lohse and the Nazi plundering of Jewish art holdings.
— Mike Hughes, TV America