More Cases for Dalgliesh, ‘Perry Mason’ Finale, Top 20 Becomes 12 on ‘Idol,’ A ‘Living Funeral’ and Actual Death on ‘9-1-1’
Bertie Carvel returns as P.D. James’ impeccable detective Adam Dalgliesh in three two-part mysteries on Acorn TV. HBO’s revisionist Perry Mason awaits a verdict in the season finale. America’s vote narrows the American Idol field from 20 to 10 (with the judges saving two more of their favorites). Fox’s 9-1-1 features a “living funeral” and, to Athena’s alarm, an actual death when a perp dies in her patrol car.
Dalgliesh
Season Premiere
I keep hearing from people upset that Three Pines, the Prime Video series derived from Louise Penny’s crime novels, wasn’t renewed for a second season. That’s understandable, but there’s still hope for those with a taste for literate murder mysteries. Acorn is releasing a second season of two-part whodunits (each airing complete in one night) based on the classic Adam Dalgleish mysteries of the late, great P.D. James. Tony winner Bertie Carvel returns as the pensive sleuth in Death of an Expert Witness, in which the DCI is dispatched to rural East Anglia when a senior forensic scientist is found murdered in his lab. (Followed the next two Mondays by adaptations of James favorites A Certain Justice and The Murder Room.)
Perry Mason
Season Finale
The stakes are high in the Season 2 finale of the revisionist courtroom drama, with a beleaguered Perry (Matthew Rhys) making his final argument in court about “the illusion of justice” in the trial of brothers Mateo and Rafael. Elsewhere, Team Mason is feverishly working around the system in a last-ditch effort to find a compromise with D.A. Berger (Justin Kirk). As befits the series’ gloomy 1930s film noir sensibility, don’t be surprised should Perry Mason find a way to simultaneously win and lose.
American Idol
The contestants’ jubilation to make the Top 20 cut is short-lived, because it’s already time to learn the results of the overnight vote that will narrow the field to 10. In a two-hour episode, the 20 singers perform before learning who stays and goes, with judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie selecting two more lucky souls to move forward in the Top 12.
9-1-1
When a car plows into a “living funeral,” the 118 crew rushes to the rescue to ensure that no one actually dies. Athena (Angela Bassett) isn’t so lucky, when a routine arrest turns tragic after the suspect dies in her patrol car minutes later. Sticking with the theme of the week, Buck’s (Oliver Stark) latest love interest is a death doula.
INSIDE MONDAY TV:
- All Paws on Deck (7/6c, Nickelodeon): It’s a doggone treat: a 10-year PAW Patrol anniversary special, rounding up every PAW Patrol pup in the show’s history. Their mission: stop a 10-year-old who wants to transform Adventure Bay into her own high-tech metropolis.
- All American (8/7c, The CW): Spring break isn’t all fun and games for Spencer (Daniel Ezra) when he and Jordan (Michael Evans Behling) are surprised by the return of an old friend.
- Fantasy Island (9/8c, Fox): Who are you calling a fantasy? A bride (Jessy Shram) dumped at the altar reconnects with her childhood imaginary friend (Call Me Kat’s Kyla Pratt), who guides her back to her inner child.
- The Good Doctor (10/9c, ABC): Can this professional relationship be saved? Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) has another falling out with his mentor Dr. Glassman (Richard Schiff) when they clash during surgery. Healers, heal thy egos.
- Free Chol Soo Lee (10/9c, PBS): Independent Lens unpacks the turbulent story of Korean-born Chol Soo Lee, an immigrant wrongly sentenced to life for a 1973 murder in San Francisco’s Chinatown. A grassroots movement, inspired by the reporting of journalist K.W. Lee, helped lead to a retrial and release in 1983, but not an end of Chol Soo Lee’s trevails.
