1) “Alien: Earth,” 8 p.m., FX, rerunning at 9:17, 10:34, 11:52. Awesome visually and intense emotionally, this ratchets up the impact. The minds of dying kids were inserted into synthetic bodies; now one synth tries to save her brother, in a crashed ship with creatures. Adult synths loom, for bad (shown here) or good, plus a young genius obsessed with discovery. Read more…
Americans are used to seeing Sanjeev Bhaskar draped in angst and agony.
He plays an earnest cop in “Unforgotten” (shown here) which starts its sixth season at 10 p.m. Sunday (Aug. 24) on PBS. Dealing with years-ago murders, it’s a smart show that feels the pain of friends, family, suspects and cops.
So this is a surprise: Bhaskar is a fun and funny guy. He’s done lots of comedies, met lots of Beatles. He once had the No. 1 song in England … a fact that he apologized for. Also, he married his fictional grandmother.
And he’s definitely surprised to be in a dead-serious show. “I thought, ‘Who’s going to cast me as a detective?'” Bhaskar said by Zoom. “I wouldn’t cast me as a detective.” Read more…
1) “Lego Masters Jr.” debut, 8 p.m., Fox. Kids finally get to play with the toys. After five seasons with grown-ups, there’s a new age group (9-14) and host (Kelly Osbourne, right). For this four-week tournament, each kid duo gets a sorta-celebrity. The talent is huge; so is the hype. After a 10-minute intro, we see likable kids do great work. Read more…
1) “Nautilus” (shown here) season-finale, 9 p.m., AMC, rerunning at 11:07. Two large — and very different — episodes are back-to-back. First, Nemo and friends finally find the treasure land … and big trouble. Then, surprisingly, we get a corporate battle. Both hours strain credibility (especially the second). Still, this tends to be an oddly entertaining romp. Read more…
1) “America’s Got Talent,” 8-10 p.m. Tuesday, NBC. The quarter-finals will sprawl over four Tuesdays, with 11 acts each time. This opener has five music acts (including Tom Sandoval, of “Vanderpump Rules” and Jessica Sanchez, shown here) and three dance acts — B Unique, LightWire and Loco Pop Familia — plus magic, a trapeze duo and comedian Shuler King. Read more…
1) “Match Game,” 8-11 p.m., ABC. This show (shown here), hosted by Martin Short, is getting a big push. It has only had four hours (9 p.m. Wednesdays), but now three of them rerun here. Caroline Rhea and Constance Zimmer repeat as panelists at 8 and 10 p.m.; Triumph the Comedy Insult Dog is at 9. Read more…
1) “The Rainmaker” debut, 10 p.m., USA Network. Adapting a 1995 John Grisham novel, this keeps only the basic notion — a young law-school grad (shown here) scrambles for work — and the names. It adds two upscale people — his girlfriend and a nemesis (John Slattery) — plus new cases and twists that are sort of fun and involving and Grisham-y. Read more…
1) “Revival” season-finale, 10 p.m., Syfy. At first, “Revival” was kind of fun — or as fun as something can be when the former dead are revived in small-town Wisconsin. Soon, alas, it turned grim and murky. Em (the sheriff’s daughter and deputy’s sister) was killed, revived and is about to be killed anew. There’s a nasty preacher (shown here), some jolts and one final twist. Read more…
1) “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” 9 p.m., FX and FXX, repeating at 9:34 and 10:08 on FXX. With Frank (right) on “The Golden Bachelor,” the others (shown here in a previous episode) fret about his coming-home episode. They even rehearse for test audiences. The story has some hilarious moments, sags, then has a great closing twist. Read more…
The upcoming “Stand Up to Cancer” special — sprawling across much of the TV universe on Friday (Aug. 15) — will partly have a country-music feel.
The show will be from Nashville, with music by such local acts as Jon Pardi (shown here), Dan + Shay, Jelly Roll, Brothers Osborne and the Nashville Community Gospel Choir.
Also performing will be the Jonas Brothers, Gavin DeGraw, Marcus King, Noah Cyrus (Billy Ray’s daughter, Miley’s younger sister) and gospel great CeCe Winans. Sheryl Crow — who grew up in small-town Missouri and sometimes drifts between pop and country — will host and perform. Read more…
