Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Tuesday, October 27. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
World Series: Game 1: Mets at Royals/NBA Basketball: Cavaliers at Bulls & Pelicans at Warriors (Fox, 8 p.m./TNT, 7 p.m.): Look, there’s no pressure at all to give even two shits about sports, especially around these parts, but a quirk of scheduling means this is just about the best day to be a sports fan, with the World Series and the new NBA season starting on the same night. Kind of incredibly, this is the first ever World Series to pit two expansion teams against one another (and by “expansion,” we mean “did not exist in 1903,” to give you a sense of baseball’s timescales), as the contact-hitting magicians from Kansas City and the flamethrowing youngsters from Queens look to win their franchise’s first championship since the mid-80s. Meanwhile, TNT’s always essential Inside The NBA kicks off at 7 p.m., followed by games showcasing LeBron James, the new-look Chicago Bulls, destroyer of worlds Anthony Davis, and the champion Golden State Warriors. Good times all around.
Also noted
The Muppets (ABC, 8 p.m.): Fozzie and his girlfriend are apparently having problems, at least one of which has to be the fact said girlfriend’s dad is none other than Wynn Duffy. At this point, we would quite like to link to a representative video of all that made Wynn Duffy Jusitified’s most lovable indestructible shitheel, but there is inexplicably a complete absence of Wynn Duffy content on the internet. Truly, this is the darkest moment in What’s On Tonight’s long history. Dan Caffrey tries to comfort us, even if he doesn’t really have a clear idea why.
The Flash (The CW, 8 p.m.): The team goes looking for a new person to pair with Dr. Stein for Firestorm, and since they already used the comics-approved Ronnie Raymond replacement Jason Rusch in a bit part last year, they consider new character Jefferson “Jax” Jackson. Also, Barry is apparently getting closer to Officer Felicity Smoak. (She may have an actual name—fine, it’s Patty—but that character is running the Felicity Smoak playbook something fierce.) Scott Von Doviak is still a little miffed the team didn’t just ask him to be half of Firestorm. He’s got free time, you guys!
iZombie (The CW, 9 p.m.): The episode description tells us that “Liv eats the brains of a country singing waitress to investigate a case,” which may be the first time a synopsis hasn’t actually specified that said person was dead before Liv ate her brains. Like, we assume this is just the latest murder she has to investigate, but we’re also willing to consider the possibility Liv cheats on her zombie morals when country singing waitress brains are involved. Just like a vegetarian that occasionally eats fish, or something! Carrie Raisler is pretty sure the version of iZombie we’ve created in our heads based only on reading episode descriptions is at least as convoluted as the real thing, though only at most 75 percent as good. At most.
Regular coverage
The Mindy Project (Hulu)
Fresh Off The Boat (ABC, 8:30 p.m.)
Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC, 9 p.m.)
Manhattan (WGN, 9 p.m.)
Hey, how long is The Bastard Executioner overrunning this week?
The Bastard Executioner (FX): So, the show actually isn’t airing this week, which means it’s technically overrunning by negative 60 minutes. Well done, show! Nice and economical. But what this does mean is that Kyle Fowle has an open week to review the episode he missed because he was, you know, off on his honeymoon. So look out for that later today.
Elsewhere in TV Club
Film editor A.A. Dowd pays a visit to our little TV Club to offer a Halloween-appropriate exploration of the 10 episodes of Tales From The Crypt. Here’s a taste:
The average Crypt episode is equal parts Edgar Allan Poe, O. Henry, and the Old Testament—which is just a roundabout way of saying that the show is deeply indebted to its source material, the EC horror and suspense comics of the 1950s, from which it borrows most of its twist-punctuated stories. It wasn’t just the simple moralistic plots, nor the parents-incensing violence, that the show’s creators lifted from EC mastermind William M. Gaines. They also faithfully reproduced his macabre sense of humor, expressed most plainly in the groan-inducing puns of the wraparound segments—those bookending appearances by rotting master of scaremonies The Cryptkeeper, who’s either the jokiest cadaver of all time or the world’s oldest, most putrid Catskills comedian.