‘Major Crimes’ and a night of frights
As Groucho Marx quipped, “Hello, I must be going.” “Major Crimes” (9 p.m., TNT, TV-14) enters its sixth and last season tonight. Look for Cmdr. Sharon Raydor (Mary McDonnell) to spend much of the season tying up loose ends, solving murders where the evidence often leads to the politically connected.
› For some of us, perhaps the scariest thing about Halloween is the fact that the original “Halloween” (7:30 p.m., AMC) turns 40 next year. Its 20th was celebrated in the 1998 reunion “Halloween: H20: 20 Years Later” (9:30 p.m., AMC).
› While not frightening in the supernatural sense, the 2000 adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ satirical novel “American Psycho” (8 p.m., Cinemax) has proven to be terrifyingly prescient.
While others have written about Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) as an example of sociopaths in our public and political life, I have always found his consumer-brand-name obsession to be his most chilling personality tic. He’s a handsome shopaholic
obsessed with working out and exfoliating. When Ellis introduced the character in his 1991 book, it was clearly satire. Now he could be a character on any number of Bravo series.
› It’s worth noting that between making two of the most popular movie musicals of all time (“West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music”), director Robert Wise branched into a haunted house thriller. Released in 1963, “The Haunting” (9:30 p.m., TCM) was clearly billed as a thinking person’s ghost story, adapted from a novel by Shirley Jackson and starring critically acclaimed stage actresses Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. It was not to be confused with “House on Haunted Hill” (11:30 p.m.), a 1959 3-D scarefest released in “Emergo” and directed by the king of promotional gimmicks,
William Castle.
TV-themed DVDs available today include the second season of “Humans,” seen on AMC.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› “The Voice” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) glances back at the best performances so far this season.
› Actors Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd and John Turturro, all born to immigrant parents, discover their stories on “Finding Your Roots” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).
› The holidays, a perky vet and a homeless cat put a fireman’s bachelor status in their collective crosshairs in the 2014 romance “The Nine Lives of Christmas” (8 p.m., Hallmark). Followed by “Looks Like Christmas” (10 p.m.) from 2016, starring Anne Heche as a type-A control freak unwilling to relinquish control of a school pageant. Heche now stars as a control freak of the CIA variety in “The Brave” on NBC.
› Bull helps a small-town crusader on “Bull” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
› Halloween is a moving experience on “This Is Us” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
› If required, the Dodgers and Astros meet in Game Six of the World Series (8 p.m., Fox).
› The Crescent City proves perilous for petty officers on “NCIS: New Orleans” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).
› The brothers take the stand on “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
› A mother’s medical bills seem insurmountable on “Kevin (Probably) Saves the World” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14).
SERIES NOTES
› Another petty officer expires on “NCIS” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).
› Silver loses its shine on “The Middle” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› Danny Trejo guest-stars on “The Flash” (8 p.m., CW, TV-PG).
› Daddy issues on “Fresh Off the Boat” (8:30 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› Trouble in the corridors on “blackish” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
› A wrinkle in time requires a return to 1988 on “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” (9 p.m., CW, TV-14).
› A transit strike looms on “The Mayor” (9:30 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin.tvguy@gmail.com.