Mike Hughes on TV

1) “Chicago P.D.,” 10 p.m., NBC. This is easily the best of the three “Chicago” series, as shown tonight. After a bland “Chicago Fire” at 9 p.m., we get this taut hour. It starts with Haily Upton (Tracy Spiradakos, shown here) on a nighttime run. A crisis leads to a stunning opening; then the propulsive story streaks toward its emotional finish. There’s strong writing and visuals, plus great work from Spiradakos. Read more…

1) “This Is Us,” 9 p.m., NBC. After an Olympic break, broadcast-TV’s best drama is back with another emotional and well-crafted episode. This one steps outside the usual Pearson universe. There are nods to nice-guy types – Miguel (in a flashback, before he married Rebecca) and Elijah (who’s with Madison).  But the real focus is on Randall’s wife Beth (shown here). If you saw (in real life) a 15-year-old Olympian being berated for falling, you’ll be moved by Beth’s reaction here. Read more…

1) “Abraham Lincoln,” 8-10:33 p.m., History, rerunning at 12:04 a.m. Sunday’s opener (rerunning at 5:30 p.m. today) took Abe through a tough childhood, brightened when his new stepmother brought warmth and books. Now, on Presidents Day, we see him (shown here) waging war and pondering emancipation. Skillfully blending historians and re-enactments, this concludes at 8 p.m. Tuesday, with reruns at 3 and 5:30. Read more…

1) Olympic finale, 8-10:30 p.m., NBC. The Chinese have shown a mastery of spectacles – from inventing fireworks (1,00 years ago) to holding he Olympic opening ceremony (16 days ago). Now it’s time for the closing ceremony (the 2018 one is shown here), plus two reruns of the figure-skating gala. One (3:30-8 a.m.) is on the USA Network, which also reruns the men’s hockey championship during that stretch; the other (2-6 p.m.) is on NBC, which also has women’s cross-country skiing plus (at 7 p.m.) an Olympic wrap-up. Read more…

1) Figure-skating gala, 11:30 p.m. ET, NBC. Here’s one of the highlights of the winter games – no rules, no judges, just skilled skaters entertaining us. That includes the medal winners and, sometimes, others. We can expect to see the gold-medalists, including the French ice-dance duo (shown here) and Nathan Chen of the U.S.; we’ll also see the winners of the pairs finals, which air from 6-10 a.m. today on the USA Network. That will rerun in NBCs primetime (8-11 p.m. ET) … just before we see the medalists have gala fun. Read more…

1) ”Knives Out” (2019), 8-11 p.m., Syfy. In no universe would this be considered sci-fi or syfy or whatever. Still, it’s a terrific film, worth seeing. Rian Johnson’s Oscar-nominated script skillfully juggles humor, action and a murder mystery. The stars include Jamie Lee Curtis (shown here, foreground), Chris Evans and – as a detective with a big Southern accent – Daniel Craig. And Ana de Armas, relatively unknown to American audiences, is terrific as an innocent, working for a scheming family. Read more…