A Movie Opening on ‘This Is Us,’ ‘FBI’ and a Deadly Deli, ‘Frontline’ Explores ‘Trump’s Showdown’

Matt Roush October 2, 2018, 7:00 am

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A critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:

This Is Us (9/8c, NBC): The family gathers once again for a milestone in Kevin’s (Justin Hartley) acting career — the opening of his big-budget war movie, Hill 400, directed by Ron Howard. We can only hope his siblings behave better than when they had trouble sitting still for his return to the sitcom set of The Manny. In flashbacks, we see the “Big Three” as teenagers, making plans for college.

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FBI (9/8c, CBS): Urban nightmares come true on the new Dick Wolf procedural. The crime du jour: a mass poisoning at a New York City deli, claiming eight victims. (Was the corned beef really worth it?) The investigation leads agents Bell (Missy Peregrym) and Zidan (Zeeko Zaki) to conduct a sting operation. Hold the mayo. Also: A post-pilot changing of the guard, as Sela Ward replaces Connie Nielsen as the new boss, Special Agent in Charge Dana Mosier.

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Frontline: Trump’s Showdown (9/8c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org): Public TV’s illustrious investigative series begins a new season with a timely documentary from director Michael Kirk (Trump’s Takeover, Divided States of America, The Choice 2016), tracking the complicated and volatile history of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election, and the president’s confrontational approach toward federal investigators, the FBI and even his own Attorney General. The two-hour program culls from more than 60 interviews with former heads of U.S. intelligence agencies, lawyers, authors, journalists and Trump insiders.

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Inside Tuesday TV: If Sunday’s 60 Minutes interview with Paul McCartney stoked your Beatlemania, check out Ringo Starr’s hourlong chat on AXS TV’s The Big Interview with Dan Rather (9/8c)… LeBron James is among the producers of HBO’s sports documentary Student Athlete (10/9c), which explores the world of unpaid college athletes in a system that generates billions of dollars for their schools… A new team member joins CBS’s NCIS: New Orleans (10/9c), when Special Agent Hannah Khoury (Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce’s Necar Zadegan) arrives as Pride’s (Scott Bakula) replacement during his medical leave. During his recuperation, Pride considers taking a new position within the agency… TBS’s Wrecked (10/9c) wraps its third season of wacky mayhem with back-to-back episodes, in which the survivors try to get the upper hand on their rich captors in hopes of escaping Declan’s island.