Fox, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight is Game 5 of the 2019 World Series – and now that it’s tied up at two games apiece, the prospects of drama on the diamond just keep increasing. So far, defying expectations, the home team has lost each of the first four games: The Washington Nationals took the first two games from the Astros in Houston, while Houston responded by winning the next two games on the Nationals’ home turf. (Last night was a relative trounce, with the Astros winning 8-1.) Tonight is the third game played in Washington, after which the action returns to Houston. But tonight, the Game 1 pitchers are back for a rematch – and this time, they’ve seen all the hitters, and vice versa. Should be a really good one…
Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET
Yesterday, this documentary – along with the aforementioned World Series Game 5 – was
my Best TV Tomorrow recommendation on video. That’s two recommendations for TV offerings that I can’t see advance: the baseball game because it’s broadcast live, and this Showtie documentary because it’s cobbled together as late as possible, to include all the week’s big political events. This week, that will include the Republicans’ encroachment on the House closed-door impeachment hearings – and I can’t wait to see whether any of this show’s cameras were there to catch the backstage tumult.
The Circus, indeed…
AMC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Perhaps this is the week, after weeks of teasing, when we finally learn the cause, or at least the full effect, of the explosion of an unknown satellite above the land where our heroes, and the villains, currently are nestled. That’s what a zombie show needs to enliven itself… some UFOs.
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
Last week’s premiere set the stage for a new chapter in the Watchmen saga – and also showed its ability to pull us into the drama, with an unexpected and still-resonant death, suffered by a character I’d hoped would be central to this drama. But unsettling as that is, we still have Regina King as this show’s center – and for now, that’s plenty good enough for me.
HBO, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Mike Judge’s razor-sharp, forward-thinking satire of Silicon Valley returns for a new season. And the way Judge has made fun of things before they happen in real life, he’s turned this series into a kind of small-scale, small-screen version of Paddy Chayefsky’s Network.
HBO, 10:30 p.m. ET
MINISERIES PREMIERE: Tom Perrotta, who also wrote the novel which HBO adapted into The Leftovers, created this new series, also based on one of his novels. Kathryn Hahn, who did fine work in Parks and Recreation, I Love Dick, and all the way back to Crossing Jordan, stars as a single mom who adjusts to an empty nest after her son leaves for college. The son is played by Jackson White – and both of them are about to reconsider their long-held opinions regarding sex.
HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET
This has been a crazy week for U.S. politics – and for U.K. politics, too. Here comes John Oliver, who may well take cracks at explaining both, and swings at ridiculing them.