What’s Worth Watching: ‘Mom’, ‘Better Things’, ‘Pitch’ and more for Thursday, October 27
Mom (9/8c, CBS): The tart comedy about souls barely in recovery is back for a fourth year, and Emmy winner Allison Janney is in fine form as Bonnie, who reminds us just how tough she is to live with when her boyfriend Adam (the terrifically wry William Fichtner) returns unexpectedly and moves in, experiencing up close and personal her explosive mood swings. (“She’s been three different people in the last hour!” he cries.) Daughter Christy (the underrated Anna Faris) decides to find a man of her own, but makes a bad judgment call in using Jill (Jaime Pressly) as her wing-woman.
Better Things (10/9c, FX): The night’s other great mom-com unfolds much like life itself, in disjointed vignettes that can turn on a dime from joyful laughter to rage and tears, and then back again. Sam (Pamela Adlon, brilliantly bawdy) barely recovers from laying down the law to her eldest daughter’s boyfriend before she’s being subjected to pranks from all sides. Good thing she has a sense of humor—and a spine of steel, when a jubilant pillow fight with another daughter shifts gears with gut-wrenching suddenness into a scene of bitter recrimination. Someday they’ll all look back and laugh at all of this—if they survive it.
The Big Bang Theory (8/7c, CBS): Back on Thursday where it belongs, no longer propping up what is now TV’s worst night of comedy on Monday, the long-running hit sitcom takes another dig at Comic Con as the Van Nuys edition—is that really a thing?—brings out fans of Penny’s (Kaley Cuoco) schlock ape movie. Besides Mom, the night is a decidedly mixed bag, including the series premiere of the middling The Great Indoors (8:30/7:30c), the return of Modern Family wannabe Life in Pieces (9:30/8:30c) and the series premiere of narcotizing medical drama Pure Genius (10/9c).
Pitch (9/8c, Fox): As the World Series takes a pause, resuming Friday in Chicago, the enjoyable baseball drama returns for a new outing with the focus now on Ginny’s (Kylie Bunbury) pal Blip (Mo McRae), who is the subject of rumors about being traded from the Padres.
