CRITIC’S CORNER
THE VOICE NBC, 8 ET/PT
The Olympics are over, but NBC still has a big-ratings-draw competition in its arsenal: The
Voice, which returns tonight with its best weapon, the blind auditions with spinning chairs. Adam Levine and Blake Shelton lead the spinners, joined by Shakira and Usher. We know The Voice can entertain. What it hasn’t done yet is create a star — and that failure, if not corrected, is inevitably going to cut into the show’s entertainment value. Eventually, people grow tired of games that don’t seem to be worth winning.
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER CBS, 8 ET/PT
The world’s longest wedding weekend moves one step closer to completion, as HIMYM reaches the morning of Barney and Robin’s ceremony. And a rough morning it is: Barney is severely hung over, and the gang has to scramble to cure him.
THE BLACKLIST NBC, 10 ET/PT
One of the fall’s more promising series returns from its Olympic sojourn with Red (James Spader) recruiting Liz (Megan Boone) to pull off a heist at the Syrian embassy. Every week, Spader provides enough reason to keep watching this show, but that would be a far more enjoyable process if Blacklist would ratchet back a bit on the sadism and violence. And if it would kill off Liz’s husband. Just not too graphically, please. Red (James Spader) has devious fun.