The terrific British crime drama Happy Valley returns after seven years for a final season. Jeopardy! Masters enters the semi-final round with four remaining players. NCIS wraps its 20th season with Torres behind bars. National Geographic’s riveting historical docudrama A Small Light ends with the tragic discovery of the Frank family in hiding. A second season of Apple’s Prehistoric Planet, airing over five nights, recreates life among the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.
Matt Squire/Lookout Point/AMC
Happy Valley
Winner of multiple BAFTA awards for its first two seasons (available for streaming on Acorn), the acclaimed British crime drama returns after seven years for a third and final season. Sarah Lancashire (Julia, Last Tango in Halifax) is tremendous as soon-to-retire Sgt. Catherine Cawood, a tough but compassionate Yorkshire cop who has seen the worst of human nature, distilled in the monstrous criminal Tommy Lee Royce (Granchester’s James Norton). Watch out should she learn that Tommy has found a way to connect from his prison cell to his son, and her beloved grandson, Ryan (Rhys Connah), now an impressionably curious teen. Like Broadchurch and other modern classics of the genre, Happy Valley packs an emotional as well as suspenseful punch.
Michael Yarish/CBS
NCIS
The 20th season ends with agent Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) in prison—which most likely has to do with the fact that someone behind bars has intel on an impending terror attack in the U.S., but the mission also conjures personal demons from Torres’ past. In happier news, NCIS historian Ducky (David McCallum) is back for the finale. And while franchise fans may be mourning the end of NCIS: Los Angeles over the weekend, NCIS has been renewed for a 21st year, and its Monday night companion NCIS: Hawai’i (10/9c) will be back for a third. In the Hawai’i finale, Tennant (Vanessa Lachey) hunts for a killer with a personal vendetta.
National Geographic for Disney/Dusan Martincek
A Small Light
The moving and devastating final chapters of the historical docudrama are, by necessity, tragic once Nazis discover the family of Anne Frank and their friends in the secret annex in August 1944. For Miep Gies (a remarkable Bel Powley), the brave Austrian-born Dutchwoman who helped hide the Franks in Amsterdam, the crusade isn’t over yet as she takes desperate measures to try to buy their freedom. The coda, when Otto Frank (Liev Schreiber) returns as the sole survivor, is heartbreaking yet also uplifting upon his discovery that Miep saved Anne’s diary, which will go on to inspire generations.
Jeopardy! Masters
This exciting tournament of top Jeopardy! players moves into the final stretch, with James Holzhauer (relishing his “game show villain” persona), Andrew He, Matt Amodio and Mattea Roach competing in four games over two nights to decide who’ll make it into Wednesday’s two-game finals. (Sorry, Amy and Sam.) No one appreciates good game play more than host Ken Jennings, whose banter with James is so juicy it might make you wish for a Greatest of All Time rematch. The “Daily Doubles” are particularly important in this round, with big bets and dominant performances from Holzhauer and He in particular.
Prehistoric Planet
Spend the week in a dazzling Jurassic world, with episodes dropping daily (through Friday) from the second season of the natural history docuseries that recreates a world inhabited by a wide array of dinosaurs. Sir David Attenborough narrates, with experts from the BBC Studios Natural History Unit and visual effects from the creators of The Lion King and The Jungle Book remakes. Each of the five new episodes imagines a different environment: islands, volcanic badlands, swampy marshlands, deep oceans and North America, home to the fearsome T. rex. This is nature programming taken to the next level.
INSIDE MONDAY TV:
- The Neighborhood (8/7c, CBS): Kevin Pollak returns in the Season 5 finale as Dave’s (Max Greenfield) estranged father, with D.L. Hughley guest-starring as himself, whose celebrity endorsement Calvin (Cedric the Entertainer) seeks to help boost his and son Marty’s (Marcel Spears) new business. Followed by the Season 4 finale of Bob Hearts Abishola (8:30/7:30c), with the couple at a crossroads as Abishola (Folake Olowofoyeku) awaits word of acceptance at medical school in Baltimore, while Bob (Billy Gardell) struggles with the thought of leaving Detroit.
- The Voice (8/7c, NBC): In advance of Tuesday’s season finale, the Top 5 sing a ballad and an up-tempo song for the coaches and America’s vote. In a special guest performance, Tony-nominated Alex Newell (Glee) performs his show-stopping number “Independently Owned” from the musical comedy Shucked, the first time a Broadway show has been represented on the musical competition.
- Prisoners of the Snow (9/8c, ABC): A special edition of 20/20 interviews five survivors of the infamous 1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash that stranded a Chilean rugby team in the Andes Mountains for more than 60 days, providing grisly inspiration for Showtime’s hit Yellowjackets.
- The Randall Scandal: Love, Loathing, and Vanderpump (streaming on Hulu): From ABC News Studios, a 90-minute documentary examines the scandals—infidelity, workplace abuse, race discrimination—attached to film producer Randall Emmett, who was formerly engaged to Vanderpump Rules personality Lala Kent.
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