Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, October 6. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
The Legend Of Korra (Nicktoons, 8 p.m.): No, it’s not an illusion created by artfully rendered bending of the elements: Online, The Legend Of Korra just started its fourth and final season. But as that premiere demonstrated, the timeline moves unpredictably in this fictional world, which is one way of explaining why the show is returning to Nicktoons with an episode from midway through season three. The other explanation: The show’s exile from the airwaves, handed down in July, is at an end, though it’s returning on a completely different network. If you haven’t been watching and reading along with Oliver Sava, here’s a chance to get caught up—this week, Nicktoons is airing the remainder of season three every night through Thursday.
Also noted
Max And Shred (Nickelodeon, 7:30 p.m.): Elsewhere on the Nickelodeon mothership, a champion snowboarder and a “science whiz-kid” team up in the premiere of a live-action series that somehow wasn’t greenlit during the height of the extreme-sports craze of the 1990s, the most extreme decade in recorded history.
The Originals (The CW, 8 p.m.): If TV Club is quitting CW vampires this fall, it needs to go cold turkey. That means saying goodbye to Klaus and the New Orleans crew, though we’ll be wearing a breakneck-plot-development patch for the next few weeks to cut down on the symptoms of CW-vampire withdrawal.
Gotham (Fox, 8 p.m.): A vigilante is on the loose in Gotham City. He’s got a flamboyant hook, and his name starts with a “B” and ends in a “man”—and no, it’s not Batman. It’s never going to be Batman, not as long as Gotham is still an ongoing series. Oliver Sava thinks that the sooner you accept a Batman-less universe, the sooner you’l accept Gotham.
Regular coverage
The Big Bang Theory (CBS, 8 p.m.)
Sleepy Hollow (Fox, 9 p.m.)
Is this a Monday with a new Gravity Falls episode?
Nope, but a new episode just aired on Saturday.
Elsewhere in TV Club
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (Friday night), Disney XD premiered its new animated Star Wars series, Rebels. The A.V. Club missed out on filing a timely review, but Kevin Johnson made the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs in order to offer some Star Wars Rebels thoughts for your Monday. That’s almost as fast as the protagonist of The CW’s new DC adaptation, The Flash, which Alasdair Wilkins reviews on the same day that Noel Murray remembers a different kind of superhero series, Now And Again, for One Season Wonders. That’s already a full slate of reading, but don’t let that discourage you from reading Dennis Perkins’ For Our Consideration essay on Vikings.
What else is on
The Cartoons Of Winsor McCay (TCM, 8 p.m.): More than a century after the creator of Little Nemo wowed audiences with the “interactive” short “Gertie The Dinosaur,” the animated works of Winsor McCay are collected in this anthology. (It’s the first installment of a night-long cavalcade of cartoon classics, which concludes at 3:30 a.m. with live-action/animated adaptation of Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth.)
A Very Special Supernatural Special (The CW, 9 p.m.): The A.V. Club will not recognize this cheekily titled preview of Supernatural’s 10th season unless it’s cheekily lead by the vintage “A CBS Special Presentation” bumper, six seconds of hand percussion and bombastic horns that always makes What’s On Tonight think that A Garfield Christmas is right around the corner.
Mystery Diners (Food Network, 9 p.m.): The hidden-camera restaurant show moves to a new timeslot—though if the Mystery Diners were better at their jobs, they would’ve kept that move a secret.
Hunted: The War Against Gays In Russia (HBO, 9 p.m.): In post-Soviet Russia… human-rights violations are egregious, as seen in this HBO Films documentary detailing very real modern tragedy.
Dead Still (Syfy, 9 p.m.): We’re nearly a week into October, which means two things for television programming: 1) You’ll be seeing more Ray Wise on your screen (as in this movie about a spooky camera) and 2) You’ll be seeing more Ray Wise in goofy genre fare (as in this movie about a spooky camera).
MLB Playoff: Dodgers at Cardinals (Fox Sports 1, TBD): As of press time, game 3 of the Los Angeles-St. Louis series doesn’t have a start time, but that’s more than can be said for tonight’s previously scheduled Detroit-Baltimore game, which was made unnecessary by the Orioles’ win yesterday.
Monday Night Football: Seahawks at Washington (ESPN, 8:15 p.m.): The defending Super Bowl champs from Seattle face off against the first playoff opponent they beat on their way to last year’s big game—a defeat which was only the second-biggest loss Washington faced in 2014.
In case you missed it
Homeland: In its first two post-Brody episodes, Homeland seems uncertain of itself. In turn, Sonia Saraiya is uncertain what Homeland is trying to show her in these two episodes.