Best-bets for Feb. 3: Here’s close-quarters drama

1) “Chicago Fire,” 9 p.m., NBC. Drama often works best when people are wedged into tight spaces – a jury room, a lifeboat, a quarantine room … and, in this case, a freight elevator. After a couple minutes, this terrific episode becomes a four-person play. David Eigenberg (shown here, at his bar in a previous episodes) has some great moments here as Herrmann; he and Joe Minoso (as the stoic Cruz) are trapped there with two civilians, well-played by Baize Buzan and Brian King. Basically filmed non-stop, it’s a sharp and involving hour. Read more…

1) “Chicago Fire,” 9 p.m., NBC. Drama often works best when people are wedged into tight spaces – a jury room, a lifeboat, a quarantine room … and, in this case, a freight elevator. After a couple minutes, this terrific episode becomes a four-person play. David Eigenberg (shown here, at his bar in a previous episodes) has some great moments here as Herrmann; he and Joe Minoso (as the stoic Cruz) are trapped there with two civilians, well-played by Baize Buzan and Brian King. Basically filmed non-stop, it’s a sharp and involving hour.

2) “Nova,” 9 p.m., PBS. The elements are always trying to fool us. Put the wrong ones together and you might get an explosion; put two explosive ones (sodium and chloride) together and you might get table salt. David Pogue makes it fun, in a three-week series called “Beyond the Elements.”

3) “The Masked Dancer,” 8 p.m., Fox. Half the dancers have now been unmasked – and it’s truly a mismatched bunch. It ranges from a science guy (Bill Nye) to a “Jersey Shore” party guy (Vinny Guadognino). Others are singer Brian McKnight, rapper-turned-actor Ice-T and former kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart. Now five dancers remain.

4) “Chicago Med,” 8 p.m., NBC. April Sexton (Yaya DaCosta) found new passion for her nursing work, when she was in the COVID ward, giving crucial care. Then Dr. Ethan Choi (Brian Tee), the new Emergency Department chief, ordered her back to his unit. To complicate things, she’s his former fiancee. To complicate things even further, her brother is back in the emergency department; when the men argue about a case, she’s in the middle.

5) “A Raisin in the Sun” (1961), 10 p.m. ET, Turner Classic Movies. One of the highlights of this Black History Month (or any month), this film beautifully captures Lorraine Hansberry’s moving play about a Chicago family. The superb cast includes Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil and Sidney Poitier – who also stars in “Cry, the Beloved Country” (1952), at 8 p.m. ET.

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