Worth Watching: ‘9-1-1’ Crossover, HBO’s ‘Investigation,’ the Real ‘9 to 5’ Story, Remembering Cloris Leachman
A selective critical checklist of notable Monday TV:
9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star (8/7c and 9/8c, Fox) Crossover alert! If it’s good enough for Chicago on Wednesdays… It was only a matter of time before the 9-1-1 TV universe collided. In the first hour, Buck (Oliver Stark), Hen (Aisha Hinds), and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) suit up as they head to Austin, where they help the 126 firehouse tackle a spreading wildfire. The situation is especially heated for Hen and Capt. Owen Strand (Rob Lowe) following a helicopter crash.
The Investigation (10/9c, HBO): TV’s globalization continues with this absorbing six-part dramatization of a case that put Scandinavia in the world headlines. With a cast of leading actors from Denmark and Sweden, this investigation is led by Copenhagen’s Head of Homicide Police Jens Møller (Søren Malling), following the bizarre disappearance of Swedish journalist Kim Wall, who vanished aboard the homemade submarine of an inventor who becomes a prime suspect. But how to find the evidence they need to make a convincing case?
9to5: The Story of a Movement (10/9c, PBS, check local listings at pbs.org): Thought 9 to 5 was just a fun movie and a catchy Dolly Parton song? Think again. Independent Lens presents a documentary about the actual 9to5 movement that inspired the hit 1980 film. Started in the early 1970s by Boston secretaries demanding better pay and a stop to the insidious practice of sexual harassment, the group commanded headlines as well as workplace change. Founders of the movement are interviewed, and 9 to 5 star/activist Jane Fonda speaks out as well.
Remembering Cloris Leachman: The late Emmy- and Oscar-winning actress is best remembered as Phyllis on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and her subsequent spinoff, and two of her best episodes are being showcased on The Decades Network, including the time she became Mary’s hapless new assistant at work (2 pm/1c), and the instant classic “The Lars Affair” (2:30/1:30c) in which she suspects her never-seen husband Lars of having an affair with that vixen Sue Ann Nivens (Betty White). In prime time, a vintage episode of The Dick Cavett Show (9/8c) features her discussion of her Oscar-winning performance in The Last Picture Show. Over on MeTV, samples of her guest-starring work can be seen in late night on Perry Mason (11:30/10:30c) in “The Case of the Crafty Kidnapper” from 1966 and in the 1961 Twilight Zone chiller “It’s a Good Life” (12:30 am/11:30c) as the mother of a terrifyingly imaginative child (Lost in Space‘s Billy Mumy).
Inside Monday TV: Usher in Black History Month with another look at 1977’s groundbreaking miniseries phenomenon Roots (6 pm/5c, Sundance TV), airing over two nights (concluding Tuesday), with four episodes a night, starting with the travails of slave Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton). The late Cicely Tyson appears as his mother in Africa… Need cheering up about the state of the world? Maybe you should think twice before diving into the Discovery+ series Nostradamus: End of Days, which over eight weekly episodes decodes the doomsday prophet’s apocalyptic words and visions… Turner Classic Movies turns its evening over to “Golden Turkeys,” movies so bad they’re campy fun to watch. The lineup begins with Ed Wood’s laughably amateurish 1959 horror romp Plan 9 from Outer Space (8/7c) and moves on to a true “B” picture: the killer bee-driven disaster movie The Swarm (9:30/8:30c), a 1978 honey trap for eclectic A-listers including Michael Caine, Henry Fonda, Olivia De Havilland, Richard Chamberlain, Patty Duke, Lee Grant, Katharine Ross and Fred McMurray. Then: John Wayne as Genghis Khan? We must be talking about the cheesy 1956 epic The Conqueror (11:45/10:45c).
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