AMC, 11:30 a.m. ET
Season 3 of Better Call Saul begins tonight – for details, see its separate listing below – and AMC completes its three-week Monday scene-setter for Saul viewers by, today, repeating all of Season 2 in its entirety. It’s a great TV show, and a great season – and it ends with a revelation that will be continued immediately, in the very same scene, as Season 3 begins. And ask yourself, watching the Season 2 finale: “Who wrote the one-word note placed on Mike’s windshield?” It’s important…
NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
The Knockout rounds continue this week, including tonight’s Team Gwen face-off between Stephanie Rice and Troy Ramey. Two very different styles, but two talented performers. Like the judges this season, contestants on this cycle of The Voice display an awful lot of chemistry and appeal.
PBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
MINISERIES PREMIERE: Part 1 of 3. This three-part
American History documentary looks back 100 years and just beyond, to America’s initially reluctant involvement in what eventually came to be known as World War I. Before there was a WWII, this global conflict was called “The Great War.” Most people know that. What you may not know, in this study focusing largely on the U.S. arguments for and against military intervention at the time, how freakishly similar our current events are to these not-so-current ones.
For a full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower. Check local listings.
A&E, 10:00 p.m. ET
This series, this season, has become one of the year’s most delightful surprises, as it closes in on its finale, and its merging with the story told in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic movie Psycho. Last week, Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and his domineering mother Norma (Vera Farmiga) finally confronted each other about the elephant in the room, and it was a dead elephant. Viewers know she’s dead, and exists now only as a very active figment of her son’s imagination – and Norman seems to know that now, too, even if Norma herself won’t admit it. This week, despite their confrontation, expect to see more of Farmiga’s Norma – and, probably, more of Highmore’s Norma as well. And no, that's not a typo.
AMC, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Season 3 of
Better Call Saul begins right where Season 2 left off, with Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), eventually to adopt the slimy persona of shifty attorney Saul Goodman, confessing to his brother Chuck (Michael McKean) that he doctored some paperwork, and committed a felony, to take some legal business away from his brother. Chuck is out for revenge – and so, in other scenes, is Mike Ehrmentraut, the formidable ex-cop played by Jonathan Banks. Mike’s quest takes him, eventually, to someplace excitingly familiar to
Breaking Bad fans, pushing this series up yet another notch with wild waves of anticipation. For my full review today on NPR’s
Fresh Air with Terry Gross, listen to the radio, or, later on this afternoon,
visit the Fresh Air website. And
for another full review, see David Hinckley’s All Along the Watchtower.
TBS, 10:30 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: This Season 3 start of Angie Tribeca returns Rashida Jones to the deadpan role of dedicated detective Angie Tribeca, who’s surrounded by clues yet, like her colleagues, perpetually clueless. Angie Tribeca is guilty of serving up the most groan-inducing puns and outrageous sight gags since the days of Police Squad! and the classic Mel Brooks TV sitcoms, including Get Smart. And that’s meant not as a complaint, but as the highest of compliments. There aren’t many TV comedies these days that can make you laugh out loud, but Angie Tribeca may be three of them.