‘All the Light We Cannot See,’ Golden Bachelor’s Home Visits, ‘SEAL Team’ Returns to CBS, ‘Lower Decks’ Finale

Series Premiere

Nuance is the first casualty of war—or so you might gather from director Shawn Levy’s (Stranger Things) lavish yet oversimplified adaptation of Anthony Doerr’s beloved and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Newcomer Aria Mia Loberti is a revelation as Marie-Laure, a blind girl broadcasting coded messages from a Nazi-occupied seaside town that’s being bombarded in the waning days of the war. Her fate intertwines with Werner (Louis Hofmann), a young, reluctant German soldier who’s a whiz with radios and yearns to meet the girl he hears on her forbidden signal. Mark Ruffalo co-stars as her kindly father, who whisks her from Paris to St. Malo, where war-damaged Uncle Etienne (Hugh Laurie) takes her under his cloistered wing. (See the full review.)

8/7c

Most hometown visits on The Bachelor or The Bachelorette involve meeting the parents. Not so much when the players are all in their 60s and higher. With only three ladies still in Gerry Turner’s weepy viewfinder, it’s time for the Golden Bachelor to head to their hometowns (in Washington state, Minnesota and New Jersey) to meet the kids—and grandkids. It must be awkward when a young ’un wonders aloud to one’s face, “Are you going to be my new paw-paw?” Saying “stay tuned” seems a bit gauche. Tears are gonna flow.

10/9c

One of the benefits—if you can call it that—of the extended Hollywood strikes is that some shows are finding their way back to broadcast TV. That applies to this military drama, which moved from to CBS to Paramount+ in its fifth season. The Season 5 premiere, however, may be familiar to those CBS fans who either don’t, won’t or can’t stream, because the network aired the first four episodes before moving behind the streaming paywall. In this episode from 2021, Bravo team learns their training exercise is actually cover for a dangerous covert mission, which continues next week.

Season Finale

Knowing your Star Trek lore is helpful, though not necessary, to enjoy this animated spinoff, which ends its fourth season on a thrilling high that reaches back in franchise history. [Spoiler Alert] In last week’s cliffhanger, it was revealed the rogue villain attacking non-Federation ships all season was Nick Locarno (Robert Duncan McNeill), a disgraced former cadet who was expelled from Starfleet way back in a 1992 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. (McNeill would go on to portray Lt. Tom Paris in Star Trek: Voyager, which becomes an amusing point of confusion.) Locarno believes he’s found a kindred rebellious spirit in Cerritos junior officer Mariner (Tawny Newsome), whom he’s beamed aboard his vessel to help achieve his dastardly goals. Did he forget she’s no fan of anyone’s authority?

THE YULE LOG:

• Now that Halloween is over, the floodgates have truly opened for special holiday programming. Today’s sampling: On Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, My Christmas Guide (8/7c) stars Heartland’s Amber Marshall as a seeing-eye-dog trainer who grows close to a professor (Ben Mehl) who’s lost his sight. Hulu streams two new films: A Christmas Frequency, starring Denise Richards as a morning radio host, newly separated (though not publicly) from her husband, and hoping she’s found “the one” (Jonathan Stoddard) on a blind date; and Reporting for Christmas, about a political reporter (Tamara Feldman) assigned a puff piece about a toymaker (Matt Trudeau). BET+ is also streaming a duo: A Wesley Christmas Wedding, revisiting the TV family (led by Jasmine Guy and Dorien Wilson) in time for a yuletide wedding; and Heart for the Holidays, starring Erica Peeples as a businesswoman who travels to a small town for a heart transplant and becomes attached to the community. Streaming on ALLBLK: Christmas Holidate, a farce about yet another busy businesswoman (Jasmine Burke) whose dating app glitches, sending more than one date her way. Finally, Food Network launches a seventh season of Christmas Cookie Challenge (9/8c), with hosts Ree Drummond and Eddie Jackson welcoming four gingerbread experts to create cookie stick puppets.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

• Son of a Critch (8/7c, The CW): Young Mark (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) asks Pop (Malcolm McDowell) for fighting lessons to fend off Fox’s (Sophia Powers) jealous ex-boyfriend.
• Hell’s Kitchen (8/7c, Fox): Retired soccer legend and Fox Sports analyst Alexi Lalas kicks it with the chefs in a soccer-inspired fusion challenge. At a frenzied dinner service, NFL Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson is joined by Melissa Rivers.
• Buddy Games (8/7c, CBS): In the season finale, the remaining teams put their friendships on the line for the $200,000 grand prize.
• Transplant (9/8c, NBC): Be careful what you wish for, learns Bash (Hamza Haq), as he tries to juggle his dual residency duties in surgery and emergency.
• Everyone Else Burns (9:30/8:30c, The CW): Rigid father David (Simon Bird) brings an antiquated Book of Order home “to confront our decadence” in this hilarious British comedy. Maybe not the best time for his wife Fiona (Kate O’Flynn) to be starting a business, defying the Order’s rules for “womenfolk,” or for daughter Rachel (Amy James-Kelly) to be requesting a mobile phone, necessary for her work-study.
• Dateline NBC (10/9c, NBC): Security camera footage might help solve the February murder of Illinois nurse Becky Bliefnick in her home.
• The Graham Norton Show (11/10c, BBC America): This week’s fabulously eclectic guest list includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dame Judi Dench, The Afterparty’s Jack Whitehall and Duran Duran.
• Frasier (streaming on Paramount+): While Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) schemes to be invited into an elite Founders’ Society club, his nephew David (Anders Keith) turns to Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) for pointers on how to talk to girls: “Why am I so bad at this when my father (Niles) was such a ladies’ man?” If he only knew.
• Kingdom Business (streaming on BET+): The gospel drama returns for a second season, with Denita Jordan (Yolanda Adams) fighting to protect her family’s empire and record label.