Showtime, 12:00 p.m. ET
Season 2 of Showtime’s The Affair launches tomorrow night – and as a warm-up act, the network is repeating all 10 episodes of Season 1, in a marathon burst beginning at noon ET. If you’re new to the series, its innovative conceit, borrowing from Rashomon, is to look at the same story from more than one perspective. In Season 1, it was the affair of a married man. In Season 2, it’s the aftermath of that affair, but The Affair is doubling down, presenting its tale from four different perspectives. Collect them all. Trade with friends.
NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
This 2015 theatrical documentary on the 40 years of Saturday Night Live and its social impact arrives tonight in its natural environment: On NBC, in prime time, 40 years after SNL itself premiered. I’ll be watching, because SNL had a profound social impact on me 40 years ago: Its introduction, in 1975, was the means by which I talked myself into an assignment writing a TV review of it for Florida’s Gainesville Sun. And, thus, a career…
BBC America, 9:00 p.m. ET
The two-part opener of the modern era’s Season 9 was another cleverly constructed, twist-filled Doctor Who. I’d say “surprisingly” as well as “cleverly,” except that this series has been so consistently imaginative and enjoyable, it’s no longer surprising that it delivers. And on this show, very little is what it seems to be at first glance – including, tonight, even the very environment of an imperiled underwater base of operations.
HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET
Bradley Cooper stars in this biography of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, in a movie directed intensely by Clint Eastwood. Cooper’s performance is formidable, and impressive – and markedly unlike any of his movie roles to date.
BBC America, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: TV is a little less laugh-out-loud funny whenever Graham Norton is on hiatus, but now he’s back. He begins Season 18 of his long-running, freewheeling British talk show with a guest list that includes The Martian star Matt Damon. Last time Damon was on the show, alongside Bill Murray and Hugh Bonneville (pictured), he told Norton at the end it was the best time he’d ever had on a talk show. So this time, he’ll be showing up ready to have fun.
NBC, 11:29 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Season 41 begins tonight, with the same person acting as guest host and musical guest: Miley Cyrus, fresh off hosting MTV’s Video Music Awards (pictured), and even fresher off NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she appeared earlier this week.