Trouble in ‘Paradise,’ FBI Lineup Returns, Henry Louis Gates Jr. on ‘Great Migrations,’ ‘Joe Schmo’ Takes the Horns

Paradise

Beware any place (or show) ironically calling itself Paradise, because you can be sure peril isn’t far away. And so it is in an enigmatic utopia that provides the setting for an unusual hybrid of political thriller, whodunit mystery and doomsday drama from the unlikely source of This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman. Favoring tension over tears this time, he reunites with Emmy-winning star Sterling K. Brown as stoic Secret Service agent Xavier Collins, a widowed family man whose altered world is thrown for a further loop when the president he’s sworn to protect, the boyish Kennedy-lite Cal Bradford (effortlessly charismatic James Marsden), is murdered. Flashbacks reveal their complicated relationship and the circumstances that led them to this seemingly idyllic community. The series, which co-stars a tart Julianne Nicholson as a tech mogul who’s the power behind the throne, veers from poignant end-of-the-world meditations to harrowing action sequences and contrived cliffhangers. It’s a lot, but could be more. Launches with three episodes. (The pilot episode gets extra exposure this week, airing on ABC Wednesday at 10/9c and Saturday at 10/9c on FX.)

FBI

As the CBS schedule returns all week from an extended holiday hiatus, all three FBI series are back with new episodes. The mothership gives Agent Scola (John Boyd) an emotional workout as he reflects on the death of his brother on 9/11 while investigating a terrorist plot that involves crashing commercial airliners. Followed by FBI: International (9/8c), where a member of the Fly Team goes missing during the ongoing hunt for fugitive Greg Csonka (Beau Knapp) in Paris, while Vo (Vinessa Vidotto) fights for life after being shot; and on FBI: Most Wanted (10/9c), history informs the investigation into a series of Philadelphia fires connected to the 1985 MOVE bombing.

Great Migrations: A People on the Move

Not content with just finding our roots, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. charts the evolution of Black history in America with a four-part docuseries tracing the movement of African Americans across the United States after Reconstruction freed them from the bonds of slavery. Gates describes these migrations as “expressions of hope, leaps of faith, acts of resistance.” The journey begins in the years from 1910 to 1940, the first wave of the Great Migration that brought rural Southerners fleeing the yoke of Jim Crow laws to the North in search of new opportunities, creating new identities and communities.

The Joe Schmo Show

Ben may be a patsy, the only person in this faked reality-show comedy who isn’t following a script, but he’s no pushover. That becomes clear in the second episode, when he’s rewarded the title of Goat Keeper, assigned to an actual goat (the purpose being to remove him from the rest of the cast, so they can get instructions from producers). Ben takes his role seriously, as well as the ridiculous game itself, so much so that his latest strategy forces the producers and cast to rework the scenario to preserve the illusion that it’s all real. “There are few things funnier than taking really stupid stuff seriously,” opines one of the fakers. It’s also pretty funny when fakers are so nearly and easily exposed that they have to scramble to keep the game going.

St. Denis Medical

Where there’s a will … is there a way for supervising nurse Alex (Allison Tolman) and ER doc Ron (David Alan Grier) to avoid becoming executor of the estate of needy administrator Joyce (Wendi McLendon-Covey), who brags about her obsessive end-of-life planning, “I’m ready to die at a moment’s notice.” Mortality is front and center on the medical comedy when surgeon Bruce (Josh Lawson) hits a snag in his quest for immortality and nurses Matt (Mekki Leeper) and Serena (Kahyun Kim) oversee a family who are at each other’s throats while attending their father’s deathbed.

INSIDE TUESDAY TV:

• Finding Your Roots (8/7c, PBS): Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. reveals family histories to actress Sharon Stone and model Chrissy Teigen.
• High Potential (9/8c, ABC): Major Crimes Chief Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) sets her team, including the perceptive Morgan (Kaitlin Olson), to solving a classic cold-case whodunit involving a rich family.
• Doc (9/8c, Fox): Amy (Molly Parker) and her ex, Michael (Omar Metwally), face a cathartic emotional reckoning when she learns more about her forgotten history from retrieved e-mails.
• The Real Housewives of New York City (9/8c, Bravo): Catfight alert as the cast rehashes the conflicts of Season 15 in the first episode of a two-part reunion.
• Hunting History with Steven Rinella (10/9c, History Channel): The outdoorsman survivalist goes to the scene of historical mysteries to track new clues, starting with the disappearance of mystery man skyjacker D.B. Cooper, who parachuted into obscurity in 1971. Rinella explores the Cascade Mountain range to learn if he could have survived the terrain after his jump.
• The Irrational (10/9c, NBC): Alex (Jesse L. Martin) deals with daddy issues when the appearance of a mysterious ghost ship at his hometown causes him to reunite with his estranged father (Ron Canada).
• Horror’s Greatest (streaming on Shudder): In space, everyone can hear you scream—especially when the genres of horror and science-fiction collide in classics including Alien and Forbidden Planet.