Xena reunites with her Gabrielle when Lucy Lawless welcomes former co-star Renee O’Connor for the Season 2 finale of Acorn’s My Life Is Murder. Ed Sheeran is the Mega Mentor as NBC’s The Voice moves into the Knockouts round. USA’s 2004-07 sci-fi drama The 4400 gets a remake on The CW with a decidedly diverse feel, following the Season 4 premiere of football drama All American.
My Life is Murder
The light mystery from New Zealand fulfills many a Xena: Warrior Princess fan’s dreams when Lucy Lawless, as retired but still nosy detective Alexa Crowe, hooks up again with her former Xena co-star Renee O’Connor. Their chemistry won’t be nearly so friendly this time, because O’Connor is playing a prime suspect, the mysterious widow of a self-help guru who leads Alexa on a cat-and-mouse game in the search for his killer. More Acorn mystery awaits in the decidedly more serious Manhunt: The Night Stalker. In the second chapter, Colin Sutton (Martin Clunes) suggests a new strategy in the police hunt for a notorious burglar and serial rapist.
Trae Patton/NBC
The Voice
Ed Sheeran is this season’s Mega Mentor, providing tips to all of the teams’ singers as they prepare for the first night of the Knockouts. The coaches have some tough choices ahead as they pair each singers against another teammate, with only one moving on to the Live Playoffs. (Each coach has one steal, though, in case a ringer goes out early.)
Adrian S. Burrows Sr./The CW
4400
Not the first sci-fi/fantasy show that comes to mind when you think “reboot,” USA’s cult series from 2004-07 returns with a new contemporary feel and a more diverse cast. The set-up is somewhat the same: 4400 people of all backgrounds who suddenly vanished over the last century inexplicably return en masse in 2021 Detroit, falling from the sky like so much space debris. For them, no time has passed (shades of Manifest), whether they’re an activist from the civil-rights era or a doctor from 1920s Harlem—or a budding lawyer and new mom who vanished just 16 years earlier. As the government tries to figure out just what’s up with these time refugees, they’re kept in captivity by not-always-friendly guards. What they all have in common is they’re from disenfranchised or marginalized groups, and they seem to have developed strange gifts like automatic healing during their absence. Too bad the thuddingly mediocre execution doesn’t live up to the provocative high concept. The CW will likely keep it around for multiple seasons anyway.
THE CW
All American
Back on Mondays for a fourth season, the high-school football drama has plenty to untangle from last season’s July cliffhanger. Did Coop (Bre-Z) survive the shooting? And how about Layla (Greta Onieogou), MIA on the road with a psycho stalker? Those tuning in for the gridiron action want to know who won the championship, and what Spencer (Daniel Ezra) will decide on early national signing day.
Inside Monday TV:
- Dancing with the Stars (8/7c, ABC): It’s a Halloween-themed “Horror Night” for the dancing competition—although some might argue the title applies to every episode since the overbearing Tyra Banks took over control of the show.
- The Big Leap (9/8c, Fox): The premiere of the big show is only a day away, and while producer Nick (Scott Foley) stays busy preparing for a live after-show, the dancers’ personal lives get ever more complicated. (Those looking for 9-1-1 will have to wait a week. An “All-Time Countdown” of The Masked Singer’s greatest hits—such as they are—airs in its place.)
- Below Deck (9/8c, Bravo): The seaborne guilty pleasure returns for a ninth season aboard the superyacht My Seanna in the Caribbean off scenic St. Kitts, with newly promoted Eddie Lucas learning the ropes as first officer.
- Ordinary Joe (10/9c, NBC): Parenthood storylines connect the Joes, as Nurse Joe (James Wolk) tends to son Christopher (John Gluck) by himself when Jenny (Elizabeth Lail) goes out of town for work, and Rock Star Joe puts an inadvertent spotlight on his son, Zeke.
- The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (11:35/10:35c, CBS): Bruce Springsteen, whose book Renegades: Born in the USA co-authored with Barack Obama is out this week, stops by the theater for an interview and a solo performance.