1) Football season-opener, 8:20 p.m. ET, NBC. The pros are back, ready to gobble our TV time. There’s a pre-game show at 7 p.m. and then a Super Bowl rematch, with the Seahawks and (shown here) the Patriots. The next day, Netflix has 49ers-Rams. And on Sunday (plus one game Monday) it will be all the rest.
2) “Resolve to Solve” finale, 10 p.m , PBS. Here’s the most personal and most powerful episode, as Miles O’Brien views research into the brain. The first half looks at addictions; the second views something he’s familiar with: Like many amputees, O’Brien has intense “phantom” pain from a missing limb. The result is both informative and emotional.
3) “The Shards” season-finale, 9-10:12 p.m., FX. Weeks ago, this descended into soap-opera turf. Despite elegant narration and great visuals, it’s stuffed with gorgeously empty people. At least, viewers could wait patiently for the mystery to be solved. They shouldn’t have; this “ending” will only leave them perplexed and bitter.
4) “Nation’s Dumbest,” 9 p.m., Fox. We’ll miss JoJo Siwa, now that she’s “graduated.” She was a delight, bringing a sense of joy. Now only three people are in danger of being crowned “dumbest.” Tonight, they’ll each add a kin — spouses for Hilaria Baldwin (actor Alec Baldwin) and Anthony Michael Hall, a dad, perhaps, for Chase Hudson.
5) “Star Trek” (2009), 7-10 p.m., Syfy. One day after “Trek” turned 60, Syfy shows this reboot, imagining how the crew first got together. That’s followed at 10 by an episode of “The Ark”: Now relocated on another planet, Earthlings learn that this place has also had problems.