1) “Fear the Walking Dead” return, 9-10:08 p.m., AMC, repeats at 11:23. When this show started, Madison (Kim Dickens, shown here) was an average (perhaps) school counselor. Then she battled zombies heroically, was apparently killed … and emerged three years later — collecting children for PADRE, then reversing her life and helping them escape. Now the final six episodes begin as she faces an old foe plus PADRE. It’s a tense, taut and well-crafted hour.
2) “Family Guy,” 9:30 p.m., Fox. After making a zillion or so dollars, Tom Selleck did a commercial (frequently shown on cable) for reverse mortgages. Now “Guy” aims some harsh (but funny) satire at him. It even has Sam Elliott – who starred with Selleck in TV westerns – voicing some of it. That wraps a new-cartoon night that has “Simpsons” (8 p.m.), “Bob’s Burgers” (9) and an OK “Krapopolis” (8:30) in which the jury system is invented.
3) “Hotel Portofino,” 8 p.m., PBS. Last week’s season-opener ended with a jolt: Bella’s foul husband, who left after hitting her; is back and claims to be sorry. Their son Lucien – who married for money to save the family hotel –is also back and is near his true love Constance, a maid. The story juggles soap opera and 1930’s political tension in Italy, peaking with botched violence. That’s followed by “World on Fire,” with Harry adjusting to desert warfare.
4) “Annika,” 10 p.m.,, PBS. In the season-opener, Annika pondered telling her colleague that he’s the father of her teen daughter, then didn’t. It was a good episode … promptly undone by the weird final minutes of this one. The good news is that there’s a lot of witty talk (directly to the camera) about author Walter Scott; the bad news is that clever words are sometimes lost amid a Scottish accent.
5) “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” 8 p.m., ABC. After offering light fun the first three weeks, “Wonderful World of Disney” switches to Halloween mode for two 1993 films – this animated one from Tim Burton and next week’s “Hocus Pocus.” That steps on the turf of Disney-owned Freeform, which has “Hocus Pocus” at 9:45 p.m. today, preceded by “Encanto” (2021) at 7:30 and “Hotel Transylvania” films at 3:20 (2012) and 5:25 p.m. (2018).
— Mike Hughes, TV America