1) “Fargo” opener, 10 and 11:20 p.m., FX. This is “Fargo” at its best – weird and wild one moment, slow and droll the next, but always fascinating. A Minnesota mom (Juno Temple,shown here) accidentally gets in a fight, sparking events. There’s death, destruction and her claim that nothing happened. We meet her sweet husband, his disturbing mom and, in the 11:20 episode, a villain (Jon Hamm). The result is beautifully written and, at times, fiercely violent.
2) “Groundbreakers,” 8-10 p.m., PBS. The format is simple: Four statrs in their 20s (Naomi Osaka, Suni Lee, Chloe Kim and Diana Flores) talk with pioneers of women’s sports – Billie Jean King, Julie Foudy, Nancy Lieberman and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. They hear stories of $10-a-day pay, partial (or no) scholarships and B-level facilities. They also hear of heroic efforts to (sometimes) achieve equality.
3) “NCIS: Sydney,” 8 p.m., CBS. In the “NCIS” style, opposite moods entwine. There’s a harsh, lethal story, alongside lots of light banter between the Americans and Australians who have been thrown together. Some of that banter gets buried under the Aussie accents, but the serious part – complete with math, technology and the world’s deadliest snake – is a good one.
4) “FBI True,” 10 p.m., CBS. Here was something new – undercover work inside the FBI headquarters. Robert Hanssen was suspected of passing secrets to the Russians; Eric O’Neill was assigned to win his trust and catch him in the act. O’Neill and his supervisor (Rich Garcia, who earlier went undercover with a Colombian drug cartel) talk about the mission and its life-and-death stakes.
5) Movies. Amid all the Christmas-type movies made for TV, here are two good ones that were in theaters: “Love Actually” (2003, 9 p.m., AMC) has humor, romance and Hugh Grant; “The Preacher’s Wife” (1996, 9:40 p.m., MGM+) has Denzel Washington, Whitney Houston and great gospel numbers. Also, Freeform has animated gems – “Mulan” (1998) and “The Lion King” (1994) – at 7 and 9 p.m.