Worth Watching: ‘This Is Us’ Goes to New York, Deja Creepy Vu on ‘NCIS,’ Losing a ‘Legend’
A selective critical checklist of notable Tuesday TV:
This Is Us (9/8c, NBC): After going through a “Hell of a Week” in a trilogy of episodes earlier this season, the Pearsons visit a helluva town — New York City, that is — as the fourth season nears its finale this month. In present day, it’s Kevin’s (Justin Hartley) movie premiere that beckons his mother, Rebecca (Mandy Moore), who’s looking to enjoy life’s big happy events while she still has most of her faculties. But well-meaning buzzkill Randall (Sterling K. Brown) has his own agenda. In This Is Us tradition, this conflict plays out against memories of past family visits to the Big Apple.
NCIS (8/7c, CBS): Shades of another classic CBS procedural this week, when the team’s latest investigation leads them to a creepy discovery: a container filled with dollhouses displaying recreations of murder scenes. (Could this be a CSI “Miniature Killer” copycat?) In a more personal subplot, the sort of hook that endears fans to the show, team members decide it’s time to clean out their living spaces, but some find it harder to de-clutter than others. (Been there.)
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (9/8c, The CW): Parting is such sweet sorrow, and this theme from Shakespeare applies to an episode that marks the farewell of original cast member Brandon Routh and wife Courtney Ford, as dynamic duo Ray Palmer and Nora Dahrk bid adieu. It all begins when Ray plays a date night with Nora, which goes sideways after an Encore unexpectedly arrives.
Inside Tuesday TV: Irascible comedian Marc Maron (GLOW) returns to Netflix for another woe-is-everyone standup special, Marc Maron: End Times Fun… For a second night in a row, fans will breathlessly await the decision of ABC’s The Bachelor (8/7c) in the elongated season finale… Could Moira (the delicious Catherine O’Hara) be experiencing a comeback as Pop TV’s Schitt’s Creek (9/8c) nears the end? What else could explain the former producers of her soap Sunrise Bay arriving with big news?… The HBO Sports documentary Women of Troy (9/8c) looks back at the groundbreaking USC women’s basketball team of the 1980s, led by Cheryl Miller, and how the Trojans changed the sport forever… VICE TV is the latest to weigh in on the royal family’s troubles, with the special Meghan Markle: Escaping the Crown (9/8c), which takes a hard look at how tabloid media and the monarchy itself hastened the split, with issues of race and prejudice foremost… NBC has postponed the scheduled premiere of its new tear-jerking drama Council of Dads for two weeks, meaning a new episode of New Amsterdam (10/9c) airs instead. This week, Max (Ryan Eggold) works with Bloom (Janet Montgomery) and Reynolds (Jocko Sims) to reconstruct a patient’s past encounter to avoid a lawsuit.
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