Longmire long-awaited
Longmire is back, and right from the start this Wyoming-based mystery drama is like a breath of fresh air. It’s part crime drama, part cop show, and a simple synopsis of tonight’s secondseason opener reads like any number of other TV cop shows you’ve seen before — but there’s a twist. A rural prison transfer goes sideways, and lantern-jawed sheriff Walt Longmire (Robert Taylor, deftly channelling Gary Cooper for a new age) must confront the escapees. They’ve taken hostages, complicating an already complicated situation. It sounds like a typical TV potboiler so far, but what makes Longmire different is its big, wide sky, its gorgeous prairie-mountain setting and, more importantly, the way that setting affects the story.
In the opener, Longmire pursues the fugitives and their hostages up a mountain, just as a snowstorm is closing in. The open skies darken, and Longmire has no choice but to press into the storm, come what may. Longmire is set in present-day Wyoming, but its moral tone and truth-and-justice outlook are a throwback to the classic TV westerns of yesteryear, Gunsmoke meets Have Gun, Will Travel. (A&E — 8 p.m.)
Setting plays an important role, too, in The Glades, which returns for a fourth season with Det. Jim Longworth (Matt Passmore) investigating the untimely demise of an heiress. (A&E — 7 p.m.)
The Independent Lens documentary Detropia is a fascinating, eyeopening look at Detroit, birthplace of the middle class. (PBS — 11 p.m.)
The new season of Bachelorette picks up where last season’s Bachelor left off, with jilted bachelorette Desiree Hartsock heartsick over being passed over by virginal Bachelor dude Sean Lowe, auditioning new fellas. (ABC, OMNI1 — 9 p.m.)