Worth Watching: Daniel Dae Kim on ‘Good Doctor,’ ‘AGT Champions’ and ‘Manifest’ Finales
A selective critical checklist of notable Monday TV:
The Good Doctor (10/9c, ABC): Austistic savant surgeon Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) doesn’t always make a good first impression — and so it is when a new chief of surgery, Dr. Jackson Han, shows up at San Jose St. Bonaventure. If the new doc looks familiar, it’s because he’s played by Lost and Hawaii Five-0 veteran Daniel Dae Kim, who’s also an executive producer of the show. When Dr. Han witnesses Shaun’s unnervingly blunt bedside manner with a distraught mom, he begins to question whether it’s worth keeping this unfiltered genius on staff as a resident.
America’s Got Talent: The Champions (8/7c, NBC): We’re down to the last night, and the Final 12, in the international talent competition. Little surprise that half of the remaining group are singers (including Susan Boyle), with two magicians, a knife-throwing act, a sand artist, a comedian and pint-sized ventriloquist/past AGT winner Darci Lynn vying for the top prize. Special guests in the finale, before the Champion among Champions is crowned, include Mystere by Cirque du Soleil, Voices of Hope Children’s Choir, AGT runner-up Jackie Evancho and Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Melissa Fumero appearing with magician Shin Lim.
Followed by the first-season finale of NBC’s regrettably earthbound Manifest (10/9c). Don’t be surprised if there are cliffhangers galore as Ben (Josh Dallas) and sister Michaela (Melissa Roxburgh) frantically try to keep the callings from going public.
Minding the Gap (9/8c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org): The POV series presents one of this year’s nominees for a documentary Oscar: Bing Liu’s deeply personal character study of his friendship with two other skateboarders in Midwestern Illinois, each dealing with volatile family situations. The deeper Liu digs into his friends’ lives, the more Gap has to say about race and class in America.
Inside Monday TV: Acorn TV imports the 12-part Dutch drama The Oldenheim Twelve for streaming, depicting the macabre disappearances of a dozen residents of a small village community… Syndication alert: Fan favorites Moesha and The Game join the Bounce schedule, with Moesha episodes airing weeknights at 7/6c and The Game at 8/7c… Lethal Weapon’s Jordana Brewster moonlights on CBS’s Magnum P.I. (9/8c) as Hannah, Magnum’s (Jay Hernandez) unsavory ex who was responsible for landing him and his pals in the POW camp. Only after Magnum is kidnapped does he realize Hannah is on the island, with plans for stealing a fortune in gold… True-crime fans can check out Investigation Discovery’s two-part Children of the Snow (9/8c, concluding Tuesday), following efforts in Detroit to solve child-killing cases from the 1970s. … To honor the Presidents’ Day holiday, History reveals The Secret History of Air Force One (10/9c).