Here we go again. “The Resident” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) begins its fourth season, as too many procedurals have this year, with a flashback to the origins of the COVID crisis, showing how major characters reacted under dire circumstances and lockdown.
Will viewers, who have been living under exactly those conditions, really flock to see them reflected on a make-believe medical melodrama? Too often, the direct approach hits too close to home, or simply seems phony. After 9/11, there were many clumsy attempts to incorporate the tragedy into plotlines; few were memorable.
Often, an approach from an oblique angle works better. The first episodes of the Fox series “24” had already been shot before the terror attacks. But the Jack Bauer thriller debuted just after 9/11 and seemed to capture the paranoid zeitgeist better than any show that directly discussed the then-recent tragedy.
Other crises have inspired similar approaches. Far from the McCarthy era, the 1952 Western “High Noon” still explored the responsibility of the individual against an atmosphere of conformity and cowardice. TV wasn’t ready for a series about Vietnam during the war itself, but “MASH” managed to make points from its Korean War setting.
It may take a while for a television show to capture our weird era of contagion, fear and quarantine. For my money, the best series to reflect our current dread is the 2019 miniseries “Years and Years,” a joint project between HBO and BBC.
Clearly inspired by the twin shocks of Brexit and Trump, “Years” follows the unraveling of society through political convulsions, war, repression and disorienting technological leaps over the course of years and decades. Its focus on a single family provides the narrative glue that keeps the story from getting too far-flung to follow. Spoiler alert: A pandemic does not happen in “Years and Years,” but it would not be out of place. This superior series can now be streamed on HBO Max.
— Dramas aren’t the only series to incorporate COVID into their plotlines. The Martones scramble to save their family-run nail salon after quarantine robs them of their manicure trade on the second season opener of “Unpolished” (10 p.m., TLC, TV-14).
— What if Carlos Castaneda created a teen drama? CW imports another Canadian series, “Trickster” (9 p.m., TV-14).
Joel Oulette stars as an indigenous teen from a troubled home who is slowly coming to realize that the weird stuff happening to him may not have anything to do with his family’s drug scene, but with him realizing his own magical nature. Talking crows are a dead giveaway that we’re in shaman territory.
Set in British Columbia, the series is adapted from the 2017 novel “Son of a Trickster” by Eden Robinson.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
— Zoey finds it hard to carve out alone time with Max on “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson star in the 2014 comic book adaptation “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG), a “Wonderful World of Disney” presentation.
— The anthology shocker “Two Sentence Horror Stories” (8 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., CW, TV-14) enters its second season.
— House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Norah O’Donnell and Zac Posen appear on “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr.” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) to research their immigrant roots.
— A crowded school bus goes missing on “FBI” (9 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— Randall faces his past on “This Is Us” (9 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— Bright’s sister upsets everything on the Season 2 premiere of “Prodigal Son” (9 p.m., Fox, TV-14).
— The 2016 literary period piece “Genius” (9 p.m., HBO Signature) explores the relationship between editor Maxwell Perkins (Colin Firth) and author Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law).
— A dead terrorist’s wife seems set on completing his work on “FBI: Most Wanted” (10 p.m., CBS, r, TV-14).
— A new boss upsets everybody on “Nurses” (10 p.m., NBC, TV-14).
— “Frontline” (10 p.m., PBS, r, check local listings) repeats a report on the global plastics crisis, the efforts to clean up the mess and efforts by the industry to increase production under the guise of “recycling.”
CULT CHOICE
An overscheduled mom hires someone to throw together her daughter’s Sweet 16 bash, but has no idea she has invited a “Psycho Party Planner” (8 p.m., LMN, TV-14) into her life. “Killer Prom” (10 p.m., TV-14) follows.
SERIES NOTES
A case reaches back to Pearl Harbor on “NCIS” (8 p.m., CBS, r, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
Marshawn Lynch appears on “Conan” (11 p.m., TBS r) … Jimmy Fallon welcomes Anne Hathaway, Lilly Singh and Jazmine Sullivan on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Carey Mulligan, Leslie Jordan and Neil Gaiman visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC).
