Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

Season premiere of NCIS (CBS, 7pm)
Season finale of Warehouse 13 (SyFy, 8pm and 10pm; also on Friday at 9pm)
Series premiere of The Good Wife (CBS, 9pm)

Primetime Grid

Primetime

Gibbs puts Tony and McGee in charge of finding a replacement for Ziva in the season premiere of NCIS (CBS, 7pm). I should hope that at some point the team figures out what really happened to Ziva at the end of last season; we’ll just have to wait and see how long it takes before she’s back with the team. Just as we waited after Gibbs retired that one season, only to return and return again. I like this show a lot and it mostly comes down to excellent cast chemistry and interesting character interplay. It’s a fun show and the cases are usually decent as these things go too. I’m looking forward to the new season.

Annie is humiliated about certain text messages and photos; Jennie Garth returns as Kelly in another new episode of 90210 (CW, 7pm).

Season finale of Ruby & the Rockits (ABC Family, 7:30pm; also on Wednesday at 11:30pm).

The team learns that MacPherson is auctioning artifacts in the season finale of Warehouse 13 (SyFy, 8pm and 10pm; also on Friday at 9pm).

Four months after the events of the episode of NCIS which introduced a team of NCIS agents who work in Los Angeles, we see Callan (the character played by Chris O’Donnell) has recovered from his gunshot wounds in the series premiere of NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS, 8pm). O’Donnell stars along with LL Cool J, Linda Hunt, Peter Cambor, Daniela Ruah, and Adam Jamal Craig. Rocky Carroll will appear occasionally as NCIS Director Vance (a role he plays on NCIS). Louise Lombard (of CSI) was the team leader in the backdoor pilot (the NCIS episode), but is nowhere to be found on the new show, which is a shame. They also seem to have forgotten the big fuss which was made over using surveillance in the NCIS episode. And of course they have a fancy new headquarters which is pretty to look at and completely unrealistic, even more than is usual on TV. The first episode is slick and one doesn’t get a very good handle on the characters at all. Linda Hunt is awesome as she usually is, but her character just outfits the team. Or something. I figured out what was going on with the case in the first episode awfully fast, a lot faster than the folks on the show did, which is always annoying. The show doesn’t have much in common with NCIS, really. I hope the show improves and that the characters are fleshed out, but I was underwhelmed by the first episode.

Jonah is furious when he learns his fiance hasn’t told her family that they’re engaged, David accuses Michael of murder, and lots more drama on the new Melrose Place (CW, 8pm).

New 18 Kids and Counting (TLC, 8pm and 10pm).

The League takes bold steps, Clay and Gemma struggle, and so on Sons of Anarchy (FX, 9pm, 10:02pm, 12:03am; also on Friday at 10pm).

Season finale of The Colony (Discovery Channel, 8pm and midnight; also on Saturday at 10am).

Julianna Marguiles stars in the series premiere of The Good Wife (CBS, 9pm). She plays the wife of a States Attorney (played by Chris Noth) who is involved in a major scandal; after he goes to prison, she goes back to work as a junior associate at a law firm. Josh Charles (of Sports Night, In Treatment) plays her former classmate and boss; Christine Baranski plays a partner at the firm, Archie Panjabi plays the firm’s investigator, and Matt Czuchry (who was “Logan” on Gilmore Girls) plays another junior associate. Titus Welliver guest stars as the new States Attorney. I liked the first episode. It’s a legal drama, but it’s also about how a woman copes after a major scandal. She has kids to consider and needs to earn money and deal with all sorts of fallout. It’s too soon to tell if I’ll like this show better than Canterbury’s Law, which was Marguiles last drama that just happened to have her play a lawyer.

Christian Slater stars in the series premiere of the forgotten (ABC, 9pm). I haven’t seen it, but reviews by others have not been kind, to say the least. The premise is that there’s a team of dedicated amateurs who call themselves “The Forgotten Network”. They work on murder cases involving unidentified victims and try to identify victims. Um, okay. Other castmembers are: Anthony Carrigan, Michelle Borth, Heather Stephens, Bob Stephenson, and Rochelle Aytes. Deirdre Lovejoy (of The Wire) and Devon Gummersall (of My So-Called Life) guest star in the first episode.

New Chopped (Food Network, 9pm and midnight).

New Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre World (Travel Channel, 9pm, 10pm, 1am).

Pee Wee Herman, Amy Poehler on The Jay Leno Show (NBC, 9pm).

Late Night

Vali Nasr on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

Shai Agassi on The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

Former President Bill Clinton, LeBron James on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Rebecca Romijn, Lisa Lampanelli, Monsters of Folk on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 10:35pm).

Reba McEntire, Dave Annable on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:35pm).

Seth Meyers, Chris Paul on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC, 11:35pm).

David Duchovny, Carmelo Anthony, Kid Cudi on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings).

Stan Lee, Mat Kerney on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).