1) “Modern Family” (9 p.m. Wednesday, ABC) and “The Good Place” (9 p.m. Thursday, NBC) season-openers. Two of TV’s best comedies begin their final seasons. For “Modern Family,” it’s the 11th, covering a broad swath; Haley, barely a teen when this started, is now arguing with her parents about how to raise her twins. For “Good Place” (shown here) it’s only the fourth, but there have been wild changes. Now an experimental afterlife begins; the opener is inconsistent, but includes some very funny moments.
2) “Perfect Harmony” debut, 8:30 p.m. Thursday, NBC. Here’s the season’s best new comedy, a marvelous mix of warmth and snark. We meet Arthur (Bradley Whitford); once a Princeton music professor, he’s now widowed and weary in small-town Kentucky. He’s ready to end it all … until choral music flows from a little church. Now he has people to save … and to insult. They’re such good-natured souls that they’ll mostly shrug it off. Anna Camp and newcomer Geno Segers are great in support.
3) “Stumptown” debut, 10 p.m. Wednesday, ABC. And here’s the best new drama – or, at least, the best one on a broadcast network. Dex (Cobie Smulder) is a private detective, with a broken-down car and a broken-down life; she’s ex-military, with PTSD, gambling addiction and steep debts. In short, she’s a bundle of cliches – including having a heart of gold, as we see when she’s with her brother, who has Down syndrome. She stumbles through life while helping people, as all the private eyes seem to do.
4) “Country Music,” 8 p.m. today through Wednesday, PBS. The final nights of Ken Burns’ masterpiece see old and new forces at work. George Jones and Tammy Wynette offer deep pain in their music and their lives. Kris Kristofferson brings a poet’s flair. Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings make “outlaws” popular. And as Nashville becomes more homogenized, Jennings grumbles: “Are You Sure Hank (Williams) Done It This Way?” This ends in 1996, with Garth Brooks igniting an era of superstars.
5) ‘”Bob (hearts) Abishola” debut, 8:30 p.m. today, CBS. This is the first new show of the broadcast-network season. It’s also a good one, in a disarmingly low-key way. Bob (Billy Gardell) is a socks manufacturer; Abishola (Folake Olowofoyeku) is his cardiac nurse, a Nigerian native who lives with her parents. They have nothing in common, but he’s smitten and he’s determined. Unlike other Chuck Lorre comedies (“Big Bang,””Mom,” etc.), this is slow and sweet. Like the others, it’s very clever.
6) “Mixed-ish” debut, 9 p.m. Tuesday, ABC. “Black-ish” fans have known the basics about Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross), a brainy doctor from a biracial, hippie family. But now she narrates her girlhood stories, sort of “Young Sheldon” style. It was a serene time … until authorities closed the commune. Suddenly, Bow was in suburbia and in school, with a jarring introduction to race and image and more. This opener covers a lot of ground skillfully. It’s a good start, but we’re not sure where if can go next.
7) “Emergence” debut, 10 p.m. Tuesday, ABC. The first “Fargo” mini-series had great work from Allison Tolman, as a small-town cop. Now she’s back at it; she’s a police chief, raising her daughter with the help of her father and her ex-husband. Then a plane crashes, leaving a girl who can’t remember anything … and a lot of suspicious forces. At the best, this is like “Aliens” — sci-fi and maternal instinct in one grand blend; at the worst, it reminds us that networks rarely finish the sci-fi shows they start.
8) “The Unicorn” debut, 8:30 p.m. Thursday, CBS. For a year now, Wade (Walton Goggins) has been getting by with a little help from his friends’ casseroles. There were a lot of them after his wife’s funeral; he’s in emotional and culinary limbo, managing only to take care of his two daughters. What he doesn’t realize is that he’s a “unicorn” — a rare sort of unattached guy women savor. Now his friends nudge him into the dating pool. This is a quick-cut comedy, zipping between scenes, some quite funny.
9) “Saturday Night Live” season-opener, 11:29 p.m. Saturday, NBC. Leslie Jones pulled a surprise by leaving the show that propelled her to mid-life fame. But others are saying, including Kenan Thompson – for a record 17th season – and Kate McKinnon. “SNL” adds Chloe Fineman, Bowen Yang and Shane Gilliis. Ironically, Yang is its first Asian-American regular … and Gillis was fired after old comments (including anti-Chinese ones) surfaced. Woody Harrlson hosts, with Billie Eilish, 17, as music guest.
10) “Masterpiece: Poldark” season-opener, 9 p.m. Sunday, PBS. Here’s another major show starting its last season. It’s an epic, with a cinematic look and giant plot twists. In this first hour alone, there’s arson and an assassin, plus love, hate and political corruption. Poldark keeps trying to stay home with his struggling mine and his gutsy wife, but he’s a member of Parliament in London, where a friend needs him. Back home, his first love Elizabeth has died and her nasty widower seems to be losing his sanity.