1) “The Swarm” season-finale, 9 p.m., CW. The first seven episodes –slow, but solidly crafted – have had the seas churning. Whales attacked; crabs marched ashore. Secret drilling on the ocean floor may have unleashed a creature; last week, scientists arrived by ship to see. One tried to communicate; another tried a mini-sub mission. Now something has infiltrated the ship and one person is in a coma. Charlie (the talented Leonie Benesch,shown here) faces a lonely decision.
2) “The Simpsons,” 7:30 a.m. to midnight, FXX. Each year, near Halloween, “Treehouse of Horror” offers three tales; some are clever, some are gory, most are bizarre. This year’s new “Treehouse” will be at 8 p.m. Nov. 5, but first we can savor the old ones. After a 7:30 special, 32 will rerun in order.
3) More Halloween. There are some scares out there, including “Halloween” films all day on AMC. The 1978 original is at 8 p.m.; its 1981 sequel is 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. But mostly, there’s fun: Syfy has “Ghostbusters” (1984) at 4:30, preceded by its sequel (1989) at 2. Disney has “Halloweentown” (1998) at 11 a.m., 5:20 p.m. and 11:40 p.m., with sequels in between. Freeform has “Hotel Transylvania” films at 4:35 and 6:40 p.m., with “Hocus Pocus” at 8:50.
4) “Found,” 10 p.m., NBC. This search is doubly difficult because the missing teen is undocumented and kept a low profile. It’s a fairly good story, scarred by weak secondary plots and two cliches: a lunk-headed police boss … and a good guy fighting for his life, while two females merely watch.
5) ALSO: The World Series has its fourth game (in a best-of-seven), at 8:03 p.m. on Fox. “Native America” (9 p.m., PBS) includes an involving (and heartbreaking) profile of a youth who enters demanding horse relay races. And Kenneth Branagh’s “A Haunting in Venice” (2023) arrives on Hulu, just in time for Halloween. Storywise, it’s fairly good; visually, it’s no match for Branagh’s previous two Hercule Poirot films.
— Mike Hughes, TV America