‘Good Doctor’ Meets ‘Good Lawyer,’ A Legal ‘Leap,’ Near-Death Crisis on ‘9-1-1,’ David Strathairn’s ‘Great Performance’

10/9c

Autistic doctor Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) finds a kindred spirit in Jodi DeGroot (Nancy Drew’s Kennedy McMann), a gifted lawyer who is sidelined from meeting with clients at her firm because of her obsessive-compulsive disorder. In an episode intended as a backdoor pilot for a projected The Good Lawyer series, Shaun insists to Jodi’s boss, Janet Stewart (Desperate Housewives alum Felicity Huffman, making her ABC comeback after the school admissions scandal), that Jodi represent him at a malpractice trial, which would be her first time in court. Bolstered by Shaun’s confidence, Jodi learns to step up, even if a squeaky chair threatens to throw her off her game. “I’m not wanted in a lot of places,” she tells Janet. “If I let that stop me, I wouldn’t be anywhere.” Time will tell if Jodi finds a spot on ABC’s schedule next season.

10/9c

Also taking a detour into the courtroom, the sci-fi time-travel series plops Ben (Raymond Lee) into the body of an overwhelmed public defender, who’s struggling to keep an innocent teen from getting a life sentence in a murder charge. Because of the stakes, QL security head Jenn (Nanrisa Lee) takes over as Ben’s hologram helper, lending her legal acumen.

8/7c

Last week, a lightning strike struck down firefighter Buck (Oliver Stark), who’s now in limbo between life and death. Prompt the It’s a Wonderful Life cues, as Buck imagines an existence where he didn’t spend his life trying to save others. Will a first responder get their wings before Buck snaps out of it?

9/8c

The renowned character actor David Strathairn reprises his acclaimed solo stage performance in a Great Performances adaptation of Remember This, a Clark Young and Derek Goldman’s play about WWII Polish resistance fighter Jan Karski. Strathairn portrays Karski and scores of other characters in this account of how Karski carried the first eyewitness reports of Holocaust atrocities to the Western world, all the way to the Oval Office. The film, shot in black and white, was produced on a Brooklyn soundstage at the height of the pandemic in July 2020, completed last year for a brief theatrical run.

INSIDE MONDAY TV:

• Street Outlaws: Fastest in America (8/7c, Discovery): The street-racing competition switches up the format, pitting two racers from each team to compete each night in a bracket showdown. After nine weeks, the team with the most wins and cash nets a $100,000 bonus.
• The Neighborhood (8/7c, CBS): Apparently still not settling into retirement well, Calvin (Cedric the Entertainer) considers starting up a new business with son Marty (Marcel Spears).
• True Crime Watch: Two series premieres on Investigation Discovery: Mean Girl Murders (9/8c) depicts friendships gone fatally wrong, starting with the 2002 stabbing in Fort Wayne, Indiana, of a popular high-school volleyball player. Followed by Killer Cheer (10/9c), which explores terrible crimes involving young girls, including a Massachusetts cheerleader who vanishes shortly after her 15th birthday.
• Perry Mason (9/8c, HBO): Perry (Matthew Rhys) is reluctantly lured back into criminal law when he senses injustice after two Latino brothers are charged in a high-profile murder. Joining the cast: Hope Davis (Your Honor) as an oil heiress who admires Mason’s partner Della Street’s (Juliet Rylance) independent spirit.
• All American: Homecoming (9/8c, The CW): The Bringston tennis team encounters danger on the way to their tournament, providing a new challenge for team leader Simone (Geffri Maya).
• NCIS (9/8c, CBS): The agents suspect bioterrorism in an attack at a strip-mall parking garage, while NCIS: Hawai’i (10/9c) discovers an unlikely bandit behind the burglaries of Navy residents’ vehicles.
• Jussie Smollett: Anatomy of a Hoax (streaming on Fox Nation): A five-part docuseries examines the former Empire star’s legal troubles after staging a fake hate crime against himself in Chicago in 2019. The series features exclusive interviews with brothers Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who were implicated in the plot.