On a Tuesday that feels like an old-fashioned sweeps night with stunt casting and series premieres, Emily Wickersham returns to NCIS as Ellie Bishop, now a fugitive accused of cyberterrorism. Scott Speedman moonlights from Grey’s Anatomy to star as a shaggy-dog private eye in RJ Decker. Martin Clunes, who played the original Doc Martin, guest-stars on Best Medicine as the curmudgeonly father of Dr. Martin Best.
NCIS
Eleanor “Ellie” Bishop (Emily Wickersham) left the NCIS team five years ago under a cloud, only to emerge under an even darker cloud as a fugitive accused of international cyberterrorism. Assigned to track her down: new NCIS Elite agent Knight (Katrina Law), who tells her supervisor, “She isn’t just a target, she’s family.” The truth, as you’d expect, is more complicated, and Bishop’s first point of contact when she returns stateside is her closest ally, Nick Torres (Wilmer Valderrama), who’s still smarting over the way she left (which is another way to say “shipper alert.”)
RJ Decker
Series Premiere
Scott Speedman’s sleepy-eyed, laid-back persona is a good fit with the “Florida Man” sensibility of mystery-comedy writer Carl Hiaasen. His book Double Whammy introduced and inspired Speedman’s title character of RJ Decker, a former news photographer who’s reinventing himself as a shaggy-dog private eye after spending 18 months in prison. RJ Decker joins ABC’s night of unorthodox procedurals (Will Trent and High Potential), upping the quirkiness factor with details including Decker’s current home, a trailer on the edge of a giant sinkhole, and a messy personal life including an ex (Rectify‘s Adelaide Clemens) whose wife (Bevin Bru) is a detective who’s no fan of RJ’s methods. Station 19 alum Jaina Lee Ortiz co-stars as the seductive Emi, a new complication in Decker’s life. His first case involves a murder that echoes the death of one of Decker’s former newspaper colleagues. Just because he favors tropical shirts and looks like he just rolled out of bed is no reason to underestimate the guy.
Best Medicine
The Americanized version of the long-running British hit Doc Martin welcomes the original Doc Martin himself, Martin Clunes, in a meta bit of stunt casting. He guest-stars as Robert Best, the curmudgeonly doctor father of the equally grumpy Dr. Martin Best (Josh Charles), and dad’s none too pleased about his son’s “change of pace” that led him to abandon his prestigious surgeon’s career in Boston to retreat to quaint Port Wenn. Robert shares his son’s aversion to stray dogs and the town’s eccentric ways, but he’s even more irritated when Martin tries to diagnose his own odd tics and behaviors. Judith Ivey guests as Martin’s prickly mother, Vanessa, an advocate of “radical honesty.” The parental visit also brings unwelcome news to Martin’s Aunt Sarah (Annie Potts), while a chaotic sleepover at Port Wenn Day School finds Louisa (Abigail Spencer) suddenly anointed the new acting principal.
NCIS: Origins
Eyebrows are raised throughout the office when the usually reliable Gibbs (Austin Stowell) is late to work, suffering the effects of “the worst hangover of my life” when he wakes up in Vegas after a drunken wedding to Diane (Kathleen Kenny). While the couple ponders a quick annulment, Gibbs is plunged into a volatile case involving a movie-theater bombing tied to the compound where Franks’ (Kyle Schmid) brother Mason (Philip Winchester) is staying. Not the best circumstances for Gibbs to sharpen his interrogation technique.
Doc
No one’s happy to see the duplicitous Dr. Richard Miller (Scott Wolf) return to Westside Hospital, least of all Amy (Molly Parker), the victim of his gaslighting last season. “One mistake and I am taking you down,” she warns her former friend and colleague on his first day back. While Richard seeks redemption by treating an ailing food-delivery worker with respect and care, Amy’s new patient is a notorious malpractice lawyer who’s looking for anyone to make a false move. Good thing he doesn’t know about Chief Joan’s (Felicity Huffman) hidden medical condition, which Sonja (Anya Banerjee) and TJ (Patrick Walker) reveal to Jake (Jon-Michael Ecker), adding to his burdens.
INSIDE TUESDAY TV:
·Will Trent(8/7c, ABC): One of Ormewood’s (Jake McLaughlin) past cases returns to haunt him when a new confession brings urgency to halt a death-row execution. Followed by High Potential (9/8), with a case involving a luxury car heist that ends in death.
· Vanderpump Rules (9/8c, Bravo): Andy Cohen moderates a spirited rehashing of Season 12 in the first of a two-part cast reunion.
· NCIS: Sydney (10/9c, CBS): Talk about your cold cases. The team heads to a research base in Antarctica to investigate a murder, risking being trapped in darkness for six months if they don’t fly out before their plane’s engine freezes.
·The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon(11:35/10:35c, NBC): Rob Rausch, winner of the latest season of The Traitors, makes his late-night interview debut, joining guests Penélope Cruz and Marshals‘ Luke Grimes.
·Bruce Bruce: I Ain’s Playin’(streaming on Netflix): The comedian riffs on family and fame in his first Netflix stand-up special.