Thursday night schedule takes shape
As a fall network television season slowly emerges, some networks and series jump right into November “sweeps” gimmick territory. Look for “crossover” episodes of returning dramas “Station 19” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-14) and “Grey’s Anatomy” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14), with both procedurals dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak in Seattle.
Neither series was made available for review. That’s no surprise, given the familiarity of “Grey’s Anatomy,” now in its 17th season. Nor was a review copy released for the 22nd season opener of “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
In another touch of November sweeps ballyhoo, NBC fetes its durable cop drama, the last surviving incarnation of Dick Wolf’s franchise, with “The Paley Center Presents Law & Order: Before They Were Stars” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-PG), a glance back at childhood photos and high school pictures of Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni
and many others.
“The Unicorn” (9:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) returns for a second season. Starring Walton Goggins as Wade, a father still mourning the loss of his wife, “Unicorn” always toggled between poignancy and goofy, contrived situations.
The new season tilts very much toward the latter. Picking up from the season one finale, Wade seems smitten by a fetching stranger (Natalie Zea) he encountered in a parking lot after leaving the gravesite of his wife. He had helped her rescue a skunk, but not before getting sprayed. The Hollywood technical term for scenes like this is “meet cute.”
Wade’s efforts to find the mysterious stranger take him and his pals to various veterinarians’ offices and even a school playground. In each scene, they become tongue-tied and awkward in wildly contrived ways that cast a creepy and even predatory light on their motivations. “The Unicorn” is the kind of harmless, pleasant comedy people seem to enjoy. But it’s sad to see Goggins deliver some of this aggressively unnatural dialogue.
› The NBC sitcom “Connecting,” about 20-something friends dealing with COVID, Zoom and social distancing, has been pulled from the schedule. There were probably Zoom meetings with bigger audiences. Not exactly canceled, its remaining episodes will stream on Peacock, which is probably a more suitable home for the series.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
› The Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans meet in NFL action (8 p.m., Fox, NFL). As in the past, Thursday Night NFL games can be streamed on Amazon Prime.
› Rival game designers concoct a holiday-themed scavenger hunt in the 2020 romance “On the 12th Date of Christmas” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).