Worth Watching: Return of ‘Cosmos,’ ‘Lone Star’ Finale, ‘Bachelor’ Faces a Final Choice
A selective critical checklist of notable Monday TV:
Cosmos: Possible Worlds (9/8c, National Geographic): Said to be the globe’s most watched science program, Cosmos welcomes back celebrated astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson to the Ship of the Imagination, a VFX creation, to host a new season of the revival of Carl Sagan’s iconic franchise. In back-to-back opening episodes, Cosmos reveals the formation of our universe, then jumps ahead billions of years to speculate where we puny earthlings might relocate when changes in the sun makes our planet uninhabitable.
9-1-1: Lone Star (8/7c, Fox): Since the New Year, my mailbag has reinforced the “people-hate-change” truism with pushback against this first-responder spinoff. (Which means if there’s an upside to this week’s two-hour finale, it’s that original 9-1-1 will be back next Monday.) In back-to-back episodes, Owen (Rob Lowe) and his crew go to the rescue of a father-and-son trapped in a cave. In more personal stories, Michelle (Liv Tyler) finally learns the full story about what happened to her missing sister, and Judd (Jim Parrack) deals with an aging father (Barry Corbin, also seen recently on Better Call Saul) with the help of wife Grace (Sierra McClain).
Other season finales include The CW’s All American (8/7c) and Black Lightning (9/8c), HBO’s The New Pope (9/8c) and fascinating true-crime series McMillion$ (10/9c), and Bravo’s reality competition Spy Games (10/9c).
The Bachelor (8/7c, ABC): Naturally, this shameless guilty pleasure can’t contain its finale to a single night, so it’s going to take two full two-hour episodes (concluding Tuesday) for Peter to make up his mind — if he does — between Hannah Ann and Madison. But first, they jet to Alice Springs, Australia.
Inside Monday TV: Acorn TV launches a second season of the acclaimed Irish mystery Blood with a two-episode premiere and weekly episodes airing through April 6. Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar stars as now-disgraced Dr. Ted Hogan, who returns to his broken family a year after the first season’s events, only to get caught up in a murder intrigue involving eldest daughter Fiona (Grainne Keenan)… The relationship on CBS’s Bob ♥ Abishola (8:30/7:30c) deepens when Abishola (Folake Olowofoyeku) invites Bob (Billy Gardell) to join her at church… Musician Niall Horan begins a weeklong residency on CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden (12:37/11:37c) leading to a new Carpool Karaoke segment on Thursday.
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