What’s Worth Watching: ‘NCIS’, ‘The People v O.J.’, ‘Awkward’ and more for Tuesday, March 15.
NCIS (8/7c, CBS): And they’re just getting started. (I kid.) Having significantly outpaced the show from which it spun off—JAG, which logged 227 episodes in its 10-season run—NCIS marks its 300th episode with a look at the plight of wounded warriors, with Taye Diggs guest-starring as the sole survivor of an ambush on Special Ops troops in Iraq. The inspirational hour features a performance by the MusiCorps Band, comprised of injured veterans participating in a music rehabilitation program. Mark Harmon just signed on for two more years (the 14th and 15th), easing fears that losing Tony (Michael Weatherly) at the end of this season might hasten this enduringly popular show’s demise.
The People v O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story (10/9c, FX): The gloves come off, because the gloves come on, in the episode of the riveting true-crime miniseries that many have been awaiting eagerly, recreating the moment when O.J. (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) dons the infamous gloves. But not before both sides feverishly debate the wisdom of staging a stunt whose devastating outcome no one could have predicted. “The gloves are our conviction,” insists prosecutor Marcia Clark (Sarah Paulson) to her associate Christopher Darden (Sterling K. Brown), who’s way too eager to put O.J. on the spot despite his boss’s warnings. While O.J.’s defense team schemes to manipulate their opposition to do their bidding, lead lawyer Johnnie Cochran (Courtney B. Vance) is distracted when his scandalous past explodes in the tabloid media. Couldn’t be juicier.
Awkward (10/9c, MTV): The odds are it will be, you know, awkward when Jenna (Ashley Rickards) reconnects with her high-school buds, as the show jumps ahead a year to the summer after their freshman year in college. (My, how time flies.) Jenna is pumped about her summer fellowship at an Internet start-up, but there’s lots of catching-up to distract her as the fifth (and presumably final) season resumes. Followed by the third-season premiere of the even twistier rom-com Faking It (10:30/9:30c), with Karma (Katie Stevens) and Amy (Rita Volk) trying to get back in sync after a summer apart.
Inside Tuesday TV: A role reversal on ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat (8/7c) as Louis (Randall Park) recuperates from an accident at home as “Mr. Dad,” while Jessica (Constance Wu) takes over at Cattleman’s Ranch to everyone’s chagrin. … For the first time after coming out, a self-conscious Kenny (Noah Galvin) returns to school on ABC’s The Real O’Neals (8:30/7:30c), and lets fly a forbidden word that puts him on the radar of the Eeyore-like vice principal (a very funny Matt Oberg). … There’s a power play up in them there hills on WGN America’s Outsiders (9/8c), as Big Foster (David Morse) takes advantage of a death in the family to declare himself the new “Bren’in,” understandably rousing suspicions. … Getting back-to-back previews (10/9c) before moving to its regular Sunday position this week, NBC’s no-longer-empty-nest sitcom Crowded couldn’t be more harmlessly innocuous. But Carrie Preston (The Good Wife) is, as ever, delightful, and Patrick Warburton (Rules of Engagement) a master of droll and deadpan timing as the parents who reluctantly reopen their doors to their deadbeat daughters: Miranda Cosgrove as the brainy one, Mia Serafino as the ditzy drama queen.
