TV: Five shows worth watching tonight: Oct. 2
COMEDY Raising Hope Fox, CITY-TV, 8 p.m. ET/PT Back tonight for its third season, this offbeat sitcom is this generation’s version of Roseanne or My Name is Earl. In similarly affectionate fashion, the show focuses on the declassé existence of single dad Jimmy (Lucas Neff) trying to raise his darling daughter Hope as best he can, with occasional assistance from his hillbilly parents, Burt (Garret Dillahunt) and Virginia (Martha Plimpton) and no help whatsoever from his addled grandmother, Maw-Maw (Cloris Leachman). In tonight’s season opener, Jimmy finally meets his new girlfriend’s mother Tamara, played by guest star Melanie Griffith, at the funeral of Sabrina’s grandmother, Nana (Tippi Hedren). Turns out Nana’s living-will video puts some bizarre restrictions on Jimmy’s relationship with her granddaughter.
DRAMA NCIS: Los Angeles CBS, Global 9 p.m. ET/PT Emmy voters may prefer the intense political intrigue of the Showtime series Homeland, but far more Americans are watching this show. Recently returned for its fourth season, the NCIS spinoff regularly draws roughly eight times the U.S. viewing audience of Homeland. Most likely viewers are drawn to a military-style drama that never equivocates between the good guys and bad guys. Case in point: Tonight’s new episode in which the NCIS team discover the body of a retired marine while sifting through the wreckage of a drone-strike attack in Afghanistan. The big question for NCIS hotshots Callan (Chris O’Donnell) and Hanna (LL Cool J): What was a retired marine doing in Afghanistan anyway?
REALITY Keasha’s Perfect Dress Slice, 9 p.m. ET/PT Whatever happened to Keasha Rigsby? The sassy bridal consultant was the main reason to watch Say Yes to the Dress, which documents the frantic daily routine at the Kleinfeld Bridal Salon in New York, but seemed to fade from sight in the show’s sixth season. Well, Keasha has relocated to Toronto to open her own bridal shop, which is the setting for this new series. Each episode squeezes three brides-to-be into a half-hour, and mercy, is there drama behind the scenes. In tonight’s opener, Carolynne fights with her mother about the perfect frock, Tangara wants a gown with flash and Krista’s “Man of Honour” urges her to scrap the wedding dress she’s already bought and start from scratch. Oh, no, he didn’t!
DRAMA Private Practice ABC, CITY-TV, 10 p.m. ET/PT Yes, it’s still on. This spinoff from Grey’s Anatomy recently returned for its sixth season by immediately shedding one cast member. In last week’s opener, it was revealed that the principal character of Dr. Pete Wilder, played by Tim Daly, had expired of a heart attack while jogging. In tonight’s show, his medical colleague and friend Addison (Kate Walsh) hosts a memorial at her home with everyone pitching in with fond memories of the dearly departed. In more immediate medical plotlines, resident psychiatrist Dr. Sheldon Wallace (Brian Benben) walks into an ethical quandary when a suicidal patient makes a shocking confession.
MOVIE About Schmidt Vision, midnight ET; 9 p.m. PT Hollywood was a more interesting place when Jack Nicholson was still making movies. At 75, the two-time Oscar-winner appears to have gone into semi-retirement of late, but there was a time when scriptwriters were cranking out roles seemingly tailored specifically for him. Like this 2002 comedy-drama co-written and directed by Alexander Payne, in which Nicholson is a perfect fit as Warren Schmidt, a softspoken actuary whose retirement plans of cruising around in a Winnebago are shattered by the sudden death of his wife. The tragedy leads Schmidt to discover that his better half had a torrid affair years before and prompts a reunion with his only daughter Jeannie (Hope Davis). Suddenly, Schmidt’s life has new purpose: To break up his daughter’s wedding to the loutish waterbed salesman Randall (Dermot Mulroney).