Halloween and baseball have wrecked our regular coverage, so why don’t you watch The Blacklist?
Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, October 28. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
The Blacklist (NBC, 10 p.m.): Game 5 of the World Series and the impending specter of Halloween mean that most of our regular coverage is taking a break this week. If you don’t have an awesome Halloween-themed party to go, it’s a slow night for television. So why not catch up James Spader and his shenanigans over at NBC? Spader’s super-villain Red is tracking a “beautiful yet menacing corporate terrorist,” while Tom confronts Liz about a “mysterious box.” This is going to be a doozy of an episode, we can tell already. Phil Dyess-Nugent is beautiful and menacing on Monday evenings, but Monday evenings only.
REGULAR COVERAGE
How I Met Your Mother (CBS, 8 p.m.): Marshall is trying to get the entire group to delete an incriminating text message on his beloved wife Lily’s phone. True love is manipulation over the Internet. At least, that’s what Donna Bowman has always thought.
Mom (CBS, 9:30 p.m.): Christy is trying to practice abstinence with her new beau, played by Justin Long. And as it turns out, Bonnie has an Alcoholics Anonymous nemesis. Her name is Marjorie. How fun! Todd VanDerWerff wants a nemesis!
Hostages (CBS, 10 p.m.): Ellen’s sister drops by for an unexpected visit, so the Saunderses and Duncan Carlisle have to pretend like their insane kidnapped hostage-state is normal. Then the secret service begins to question Ellen, and she has to pretend everything’s fine with them, too! Which leads Sonia Saraiya to wonder if maybe everything is okay, and Duncan is just going to move in and make duct-tape sculptures in the basement.
WHAT ELSE IS ON?
The Voice (NBC, 8 p.m.): The knockouts round of the competitions has begun. Two judges pit their contestants against each other. To the death! No, not to the death. But we think every reality show sounds more interesting with “to the death” thrown in there somewhere.