ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: One of the few new bright spots on broadcast TV last season, Once Upon a Time took its fairy-tale premise, and its Disney imprimatur, and emerged with the best mythic mystery series since Lost. That enchanting season ended with a cliffhanger, as all the residents of Storybrooke were freed from their amnesiac spells, and Mr. Gold – a.k.a. Rumpelstiltskin – enveloped the town with a mysterious purple mist. What will the mist do? Tonight’s Season 2 opener, obviously, is not to be mist.
PBS, 8:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: Everyone who enjoyed Downton Abbey should make a special effort to catch this new British import, which begins a six-week run tonight on PBS. This BBC production is set in London’s East End in the 1950s – the same time and place that, in England, inspired the long-running soap opera EastEnders. But the focus this time, based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, is a woman who worked as a midwife in the poor section of London in the Fifties. Young Jessica Raine plays the newly minted midwife, who finds herself assigned to the East End, working with nuns and nurses whose character traits are every bit as distinctive, eccentric and entertaining as the residents and workers of Downton Abbey. Jenny Agutter and Judy Parfitt, as nuns who have seen it all and more, are standouts – but everything about this series is golden, from the characters of the caregivers and patients to the Mad Men-type jarring contrasts between acceptable practices then and now. Check local listings.
CBS, 9:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Last season, we learned that the dangerous man chasing Kalinda, and now Alicia, was Kalinda’s husband. Tonight we find out more about him – and meet him in the flesh, rather than as a scary voice on the phone.
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Last season ended with Dexter’s sister, Debra, witnessing her brother plunging a sword into the torso of the Doomsday Killer. The new season begins where that left off, with Debra holding a gun on Dexter and demanding an explanation. Talk quickly, Dex. For a full review of this season premiere, and of
Homeland, see or hear my report on
NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Last week at this time, Showtime’s
Homeland was racking up one Emmy win after another. This week, it begins Season 2, and immediately proves that those wins were no fluke. Six months have passed in the narrative since we last saw Carrie (Claire Danes) and Brody (Damian Lewis), but this first episode of the season gets us, and them, up to speed in no time. For a full review, see
Bianculli’s Blog.