Lone Star’ Begins Final Season, LeVar Burton Gets Bookish on ‘Futurama’

Though inspired by famed neurologist Oliver Sacks, the doctor hero of Brilliant Minds also owes a debt to his TV predecessors. Maverick Dr. Oliver Wolf (an intense Zachary Quinto) is, like Hugh Laurie in House, an abrasive rule-breaker, a genius at solving profound medical mysteries — think of him as a brain whisperer — with quirky interns following his every move. Like Freddie Highmore in The Good Doctor, he has a condition you wouldn’t expect in a healer: face blindness. “It makes you look so much deeper. You see the stuff the rest of us miss,” a colleague assures him, perhaps too on the nose. Also rare in a lead character, Oliver is openly gay, although in the first episodes, his affections are focused solely on his noble profession and his empathy reserved for his troubled patients. The cases strike a deeply emotional chord, including in the pilot episode the dilemma of a mother who can no longer recognize her own children. As Oliver tells his acolytes, “Ask not what disease the person has, but rather what person the disease has.”

He seemed to be everywhere at the Paris Summer Olympics, spreading goodwill, and now rapper Snoop Dogg takes his place on one of the revolving red chairs as a first-time coach, alongside fellow newbie and accomplished crooner Michael Bublé. They join returning coaches Gwen Stefani and Reba McEntire for the singing competition’s most enjoyable round, the ”Blind Auditions,” during which they respond sight unseen to voices that impress them, and if more than one chair turns, they fight to woo that singer onto their team.

The Austin-based 9-1-1 spinoff sat out an entire season because of the industry strikes and business complications stemming from 20th Television’s split with the Fox network. The series returns for a fifth and final season, teasing a massive train derailment to keep the first responders of the 126 on their toes — or possibly on their backs from gas emissions described as a “poison cloud of death.” In new developments, Carlos (Rafael Silva) joins the Texas Rangers to investigate his ranger father’s murder, but first he and Ranger partner Sam Campbell (Parker Young) tackle a case involving an attack on an armored truck. Marjan (Natacha Karam) and Paul (Brian Michael Smith) apply for the lieutenant’s spot, now that Judd (Jim Parrack) has left the squad to care for his disabled son Wyatt (Jackson Pace), who goes to work at the call center.

There’s more first responding, with considerably less clothing, as the Hawaii-set drama moves into its regular time period. The crisis du jour involves a 16-year-old girl swept away in a sudden flash flood, washed into the sea from the mountains. Em (Arielle Kebbel), who’s been questioning Sonny’s (Robbie Magasiva) decisions lately, defies her boss by heading out to sea alone to find the missing girl. Back on the beach, rookies Hina (Zoe Cipres) and Kainalu (Alex Aiono) get their feet wet under the supervision of Laka (Kekoa Kekumano).

LeVar Burton, beloved for his many years hosting Reading Rainbow, introduces viewers to “the wonders of books, and all the fun adventures you can have watching TV shows based on them,” in a broad parody of classic children’s mystery icons including Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, the Belgian Tintin and Encyclopedia Brown (Bender as “Wikipedia Brown”). Each caper takes a sci-fi twist, which helps explain Neil deGrasse Tyson’s cameo, reminding us why matter matters.

INSIDE MONDAY TV:

• Monday Night Football (8 pm/ET, ABC): The Washington Commanders take on the Cincinnati Bengals, while on ESPN (7:30 pm/ET), the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Buffalo Bills.
• Antiques Roadshow (8/7c, PBS): Season 28’s Vintage episodes begin in Atlantic City, revisiting appraisals made in 2009 to see which items have increased in value and which have not.
• All American: Homecoming (8/7c, The CW): In the sports drama’s penultimate episode, Simone (Geffri Maya) gears up for one of her toughest tennis matches, while JR (Sylvester Powell) finds a sponsor for the team that may not meet with everyone’s approval.
• Crossroads: A Conversation with America (9/8c, PBS): Former NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff conducts a town hall meeting in the battleground state of Wisconsin to examine the issues that are dividing the country and whether there’s a way to bring civility back to the process.
• The Wranglers (9/8c, The CW): A sneak peek of a reality series set at Montana’s Circle Bar Dude Ranch features a rodeo competition to determine who’ll be the new Head Wrangler. The series officially premieres Oct. 14.
• English Teacher (10/9c, FX): While chaperoning a junior class camping field trip, Evan (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and BFF Gwen (Stephanie Koenig) air out their grievances, while gym teacher Markie (Sean Patton) hopes to act on his crush on Gwen.