1) “Chicago Fire,” 9 p.m., NBC. A subtly perfect performance by Joe Minoso (shown here) sparks the show’s 300th episode. He plays Cruz, struggling to recover from injuries and get back to work. There are quietly moving scenes with Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Herrmann (David Eigenberg, who also gets some comic moments when it’s time for new photos). Read more…
By the end of the first “Gilded Age” season, Cynthia Nixon was neatly settled into her role.
She was Ada Brook (shown here, left), forever the younger and meeker one. She was living with her older sister, Agnes Brook van Rhijn (right), a widow with much money and many opinions. Ada’s just sort of went along.
Then one day, Nixon recalls, she was chatting with a director. “He started talking to me about who they were going to cast as my husband next season …. I could have fallen out of my chair.”
She was learning that “Gilded Age” isn’t one of those shows where things stay the same. That’s even more obvious, now that the fourth season (9 p.m. Sundays on HBO and HBO Max) has just begun. Read more…
1) Election coverage. It will be blanket coverage from the news channels and most broadcast networks. Plans call for NBC to start at 6:30 p.m. ET, CBS at 7, ABC and PBS at 8. Most will pause for local news at 11 and ABC has Jimmy Kimmel at 11:35, but coverage may continue afterward. Kimmel and Jon Stewart (11, Comedy Central) will be taped earlier that night. And yest, there are alternatives, including “Best Medicine” (shown here). Read more…
1) “St. Denis Medical” season-opener, 8 p.m., NBC. It was 36 years ago that David Alan Grier and Damon Wayans linked in the Emmy-winning “In Living Color.” Now they’ve re-united for this episode, a funny one: Ron (Grier, 70) is recovering from heart surgery; his temporary replacement (Wayans, 66, shown here) spews slogans and pep talks. Read more…
In some ways, TV’s holiday season will feel different this year:
There will be two mega-concerts by the Tabernacle Choir (shown here), instead of one. And there might be no Kennedy Center Honors … at least none as a big-network show.
Those are two things gleaned from the arrival of CBS’ annual list of November and December specials. Read more…
1) “The Gilded Age,” HBO. The third season reruns at 1 p.m., leading into the season-opener at 9, finding lives re-arranged. Bertha got her way, with her daughter Gladys marrying a duke; now, however, her own husband George has left. (Those three are shown here, in better times.) Peggy and William are engaged; Jack Trotter is adjusting to prosperity and Ada is learning to be in charge. Read more…
Many hours have been spent on two worthy debates:
1) Who was the best “Star Trek” captain? and
2) Who was the best Scrooge?
I’ll save you some time. The answer to both is Patrick Stewart (shown here as Scrooge), who died Wednesday at 86. Read more…
1) “St. Denis Medical” season-opener, 8 p.m. today, NBC. It was 36 years ago that David Alan Grier and Damon Wayans linked in the Emmy-winning “In Living Color.” Now they’ve re-united for one episode, a funny one: Ron (Grier, 70, shown here center in a previous episode) is recovering from heart surgery; his temporary replacement (Wayans, 66) spews slogans and pep talks. Read more…
1) “Simpsons” marathon of “Treehouse of Horror” episodes, 8 a.m. ro 1 a.m., FXX. Here’s a fun way to spend time before or after trick-or-treating. Each half-hour has three tales. Some are gory, most are funny, all are wonderfully imaginative. (One example is shown here.) This time, it runs in reverse: The 35th one (2024) is 8 a.m.; the first (1990) is 1 a.m. that night. Read more…
An overlooked gem will return to TV soon.
“Mickey’s Christmas Carol” (shown here) is a half-hour film from 1983, when the Disney movie studio was at a low point. It drew praise and an Oscar nomination, but was often ignored as the company grew.
Now it’s returning on Thanksgiving eve, as the start of the holiday rush from Disney-owned ABC. There will be other nods to the classics — “Mary Poppins” on Thanksgiving, “The Sound of Music” three days later — plus some newer bursts of music and animation. That includes: Read more…
Best-bets for Nov. 4: a night of emotion and evolution 
Best-bets for Nov. 3: election night … and alternatives 
Best-bets for Nov. 2: season-openers for two comedies 
