Best-bets for March 18: Witches & rappers

1) “Motherland: Fort Salem” debut, 9 p.m., Freeform. They forgot to tell us this in history class: Ever since the Revolutionary War, it seems, witches have been a key part of the American army. Now we meet three young ones (two are shown here) in basic training. There’s the privileged daughter of an officer … an angry youth mourning her mom … and an idealist who just wants to do good. Their arguments feel contrived, but other scenes work well – especially the opening and closing ones, showing how potent the enemy is. Read more…

1) “Motherland: Fort Salem” debut, 9 p.m., Freeform. They forgot to tell us this in history class: Ever since the Revolutionary War, it seems, witches have been a key part of the American army. Now we meet three young ones (two are shown here) in basic training. There’s the privileged daughter of an officer … an angry youth mourning her mom … and an idealist who just wants to do good. Their arguments feel contrived, but other scenes work well – especially the opening and closing ones, showing how potent the enemy is.

2) “Modern Family,” 9 p.m., ABC. After pausing last Wednesday to rerun viewers’ favorites, “Family” is down to its final four episodes. The show began 11 years ago with Cam and Mitchell adopting Lily; now they ponder adopting again. Also, Phil’s tricky stairway thwarts Claire’s big job interview.

3) “Brockmire” season-opener, 10 p.m. ET, IFC. Instead of 11 full seasons, “Brockmire” settlers for four short ones … and is making this fourth and final one a huge jump. It goes ahead a decade, gives Jim Brockmire an 18-year-old daughter (that’s explained in the very funny opening) and says America and baseball are near collapse. It’s a wild leap, full of dialog that’s sometimes excessive and often terrific.

4) “Chicago Med,” 8 p.m., NBC. It’s the 100th episode for “Med,” which deserves some credit. (“Brockmire” will end at 32, which is why it so often seems so fresh and clever.) Tonight, Dr. Charles (the psychiatrist) and Dr. Manning (the pediatrician) tackle the complicated case of a 4-year-old who’s been there before. Also, Dr. Marcel and Dr. Choi have a cop with a mysterious gunshot wound.

5) “Dave,” 10 p.m., FXX. Dave doesn’t really need a manager yet, because … well, there’s nothing to manage. He also doesn’t need a catch phrase, because he fancies himself a serious rapper. But now his friend becomes his manager and a phrase goes viral. It’s a pretty good episode with a strong finish.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *