Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: It doesn’t take long for Olivia Colman, who takes the baton from Seasons 1 and 2 star Claire Foy and inherits the starring role of Queen Elizabeth II, to hit the ground running. In fact, she establishes her royal command of the role instantly, in this new Season 3’s opening seconds. Foy was brilliant; Colman, as an elder version of the same complicated leader, is equally convincing and compelling. It may be the best tag-team acting since Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando played the younger and older Vito Corleone in the
Godfather movies.
For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: This is Season 7 for
Ray Donovan, and poor Ray (Liev Schreiber) has been having a very tough time of it. In previous seasons, he’s lost his wife, almost lost his daughter, and now, in a plotline with echoes of
The Sopranos, this tough guy tries to work things out by seeing a therapist. But appointments are hard to schedule, because, once again, the police are after him. Something about a cop with a severed head…
For a full review, please see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
“Shane! Come back!” And he has. Tonight, in prime time, TCM presents this wonderful 1953 Western, directed by George Stevens with one eye on character and another on mood and action. Alan Ladd is great in the title role – but equally great, playing the roles of leading lady and ruthless villain, are Jean Arthur and Jack Palance. And Brandon De Wilde, as the boy who begs Shane to return, is memorably effective as well.
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
Tonight, as tensions escalate between police and their elusive, menacing quarry, we get the origin story of Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson) – or, as Jean Smart’s Laurie Blake calls him, “Mirror guy.”
Showtime, 9:00 p.m. ET
Jeremy Allen White’s Lip has an even more weighty responsibility, as the father of a new baby. One Gallagher leaves on Shameless, as Emmy Rossum’s Fiona did at the end of last season, and another one, a very tiny and needy one, takes her place.
Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET
Episodes 3 and 4. Daisy Haggard continues her strong starring role here as Miri Matteson, who’s back in her small seaside town after serving 18 years in prison for a murder conviction. But did she do it? These episodes drop more insight into that question, as well as a lot more information about the people around her in this small town, and what they were doing, with and to Miri, all those years ago. And in the present, she encounters some niceness – but only between bouts of awkwardness and cruelty. And keep watching after the closing credits roll: Showtime is presenting this British import in double doses, so two new episodes are shown in the 10-11 p.m. ET hour.
HBO, 10:30 p.m. ET
Given the relationship between Kathryn Hahn’s empty-nest mother and her new-to-college son, not to mention her new amorous relationship with one of the former classmates her son used to torment in high school, tonight’s episode title, “Parents’ Weekend,” promises a lot of conflict.
HBO, 11:00 p.m. ET
Impeachment hearings on Wednesday, more impeachment hearings on Friday, and John Oliver on Sunday. Three unmissable politically charged TV events of this week – but only one of them will make you laugh. Or should.