HBO’s stranded-in-space comedy Avenue 5 returns for a second season. Lucy Lawless is back in her native New Zealand solving cases in Acorn’s My Life Is Murder. The CW welcomes back sports drama All American and its spinoff All American: Homecoming. Hulu gets in the Halloween spirit with Grimcutty, a horror film about a deadly Internet meme come to life.
HBO
Avenue 5
Calamity begets calamity in the Season 2 premiere of a raucous comedy that often feels like Gilligan’s Island in space, set aboard a luxurious interplanetary cruise ship that went disastrously off course, turning an eight-week voyage into an eight-year debacle. As the new season resumes with a five-month time jump, Captain-in-name-only Ryan Clark (a droll Hugh Laurie) has yet to deliver the latest bad news to his restless passengers, who’ve been living in a “state of blissful ignorance,” believing they’ll be home in four weeks. With food and other supplies running out, some tough decisions need to be made, but who’s got the backbone to face the truth?
Acorn TV
My Life is Murder
With two episodes a week streaming through early November, the diverting mystery series starring Lucy Lawless as investigator Alexa Crowe offers 10 new cases in its third season. With her supportive team of friends and fellow snoops in scenic Auckland, New Zealand, Alexa gets busy with cases involving the death of a tango teacher—does it take two to murder?—and the slaying of a crime novelist who’s found encased in a public sculpture.
Troy Harvey/The CW
All American
The sports drama begins its fifth season off the field at Christmastime, with Spencer (Daniel Ezra) planning a holiday bash in hopes of bringing him and Olivia (Samantha Logan) closer. Among the attendees: Simone (Geffri Maya), who’ll soon be heading back to Atlanta for the second season of All American: Homecoming (9/8c) and a new semester, during which she decides to focus solely on tennis.
HULU
Grimcutty
The first in a series of original Hulu horror films developed through the “Bite Size Halloween” short-form program, Grimcutty describes a fearsome creature seen in an Internet meme, which somehow begins to cause those who see it to turn into murderers. When a teenager (Sara Wolfkind) and her kid brother (Callan Farris) realize their parents’ hysteria has brought Grimcutty to life, things get serious, and scary, on the home front.
Inside Monday TV:
- The Voice (8/7c, NBC): As the Blind Auditions wrap, with the Battle Rounds looming, the coaches take a breather for a group performance of coach Camila Cabello’s “Havana.”
- Bob Hearts Abishola (8:30/7:30c, CBS): Can Abishola (Folake Olowofoyeku) help heal the domestic divide when Christina (Maribeth Monroe), who left the family’s sock company, is fired by Toesey Woesies?
- Kevin Can F**k Himself (9/8c, AMC): The dark dramedy, which alternates between gritty drama and the recreation of a classic cheesy sitcom, ends its two-season run with beleaguered housewife Allison (Annie Murphy) finally figuring out why her life with loutish husband Kevin (Eric Petersen) has gone so far off the rails.
- NCIS (9/8c, CBS): Things get personal with Agent Knight (Katrina Law) when a campsite murder reunites her with her ex-boyfriend (Caleb Alexander Smith), a National Parks Service agent working the case with the NCIS team.
- The Good Doctor (10/9c, ABC): Following the trauma of the season opener, Dr. Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore) and Dr. Alex Park (Will Yun Lee) become surgical attendings, supervising two new first-year residents: military vet Danica “Danni” Powell (Savannah Welch) and former farm boy Daniel Perez (Brandon Larracuente). It’s also a new day for the wounded Dr. Audrey Lim (Christina Chang), making a painful transition back to the hospital workplace.
- Quantum Leap (10/9c, NBC): While inhabiting the body of a female bounty hunter in the 1980s, Ben (Raymond Lee) begins remembering more about his pre-leap life.
- Dancing with the Stars (streaming on Disney+): Synergy rules on the first-ever “Disney+ Night,” with performances to music from the worlds of Disney, Pixar and Marvel, including selections from The Muppet Show, Hamilton, The Greatest Showman and The Simpsons.
- Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers (streaming on Hulu): In the docuseries’ season finale, team owner Jeanie Buss struggles with work-life balance.