TV Guide Magazine November 22, 2021

ONE MORE! I found the article “The Five Best Gibbs Episodes” [October 25 issue, page 4] interesting, but I must add one: “Call of Silence,” Season 2, Episode 7. The wonderful Charles Durning deftly and brilliantly portrayed a WWII veteran and Medal of Honor recipient who confesses to a murder, but his memory is affected by trauma, guilt and loss. Gibbs’ interactions with this war hero are based on compassion, good therapeutic principles and knowledge of what war experience does to people. I was reminded of my own patients and therapy clients. —Charlene MAID RIGHT If y’all haven’t watched Netflix’s Maid, what are you waiting for? I’ve watched it several times and find something new each time. Strong acting, and the ending is everything! —Jody HAPPY TV Lots of love to Fox’s…

@TVGMMattRoush I’ve been hearing about this “new” CBS show Ghosts. I remember a series titled Topper many years ago with the same idea. Mr. Topper (Leo G. Carroll) and his wife (Lee Patrick) were in a house, and Topper was the only one who could see the ghosts of a young married couple (Anne Jeffreys and Robert Sterling). It was an enjoyable show. Am I correct: Did this show exist, or is my memory wrong? —Doreen MATT ROUSH: Your memory is fine. Ghosts, adapted from a British series, is the latest in a long line of comedies involving spirits not everyone can see. Topper, which aired on CBS from 1953 to 1955, was itself adapted from a novel and a series of 1930s and ’40s movies originally starring Cary Grant as one…

Smart Watch If you have a half hour, check out this series Country star Trisha Yearwood turns Trisha’s Southern Kitchen into a ski lodge as part of a toasty wintertime feast with Smoky Chorizo Chili and Cheesy Veggie Melts. Saturday, Nov. 27, Noon/11am c, Food Network If you have an hour, watch this special What’s one thing more reliable than the shiny guiding light on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? It’s the great ratings for the holiday classic, which netted 5.7 million watchers last year. Monday, Nov. 22, 8/7c, CBS If you have a free evening, watch this movie In the wake of Army of the Dead’s stellar success, the heist comedy prequel Army of Thieves—about a group of safecrackers in the early stages of a zombie apocalypse—has unlocked some true ratings treasure. Netflix If you have a…

“My husband and I got ourselves into a bit of a pickle,” is how mildmannered Susan Edwards (Oscar winner Olivia Colman) describes the brutal double murder that she and addled spouse Christopher (David Thewlis, right, with Colman) are running from in the truecrime black comedy Landscapers (Monday, Dec. 6, 9/8c, HBO). The limited series fascinates as the couple escape into fantasy while trying to keep their sanity. —Robert Edelstein The Show We’re Talking About in the Office The cattle-ranching Duttons do not break. At the end of the explosive Yellowstone Season 3 cliffhanger, patriarch John (Kevin Costner, below) lay on the road, riddled with bullets; Beth (Kelly Reilly) was the victim of a mail bomb; and Kayce (Luke Grimes) was being targeted. In the November 7 Season 4 premiere, we discovered their…

@TVGMMattRoush The Hot Zone: Anthrax A docudrama revisits the post-9/11 manhunt to stop a terror threat LIMITED SERIES PREMIERE Sunday–Tuesday, Nov. 28–30, 9/8c, National Geographic “OUR NATION IS gripped with fear,” declares news anchor Tom Brokaw (a mannered impersonation by Harry Hamlin) as anthrax-laced letters are sent to media outlets, including NBC, in the weeks after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Office workers and unsuspecting postal employees from Florida to the Northeast are among the early victims of the airborne menace. I remember the panic well. At the time, we occupied the same building as the New York Post, which received one of the poisoned envelopes. Unfortunately, the six-hour (over three nights) procedural docudrama The Hot Zone: Anthrax rarely works up more than a lukewarm head of tension as it depicts the dogged investigation by FBI…

@Lindastvpicks THE GREAT WELCOME TO THE new Russia, Gillian Anderson! In the second season of this heavily fictionalized comedy about Catherine the Great, a nowpregnant Catherine (Elle Fanning) has taken over the country from her husband, the hilariously profane Emperor Peter (Nicholas Hoult), and is trying in vain to wrangle the utter chaos her new regime (circa 1762) has created. Enter her formidable mother, Joanna (Anderson, in a tailor-made role, above left, with Fanning), who arrives displeased with the rumors sweeping Europe about what her daughter’s been up to. Joanna knows how to hide her hypercritical words with an elegant smile, and we can’t immediately discern whether she’ll be an ally or a foe. If anyone’s worried that the show may become dull now that the coup is over, there’s no need for…