Catering to television viewers is a difficult business. But one thing is certain: We just can’t get enough murder. Whether we watch grim true-crime docuseries, formulaic procedurals or “cozy” bloodless whodunits set in “chocolate box” villages, homicide is a given, a gateway to evidence, investigations, deduction, capture and trial.
Blending a “ripped from the headlines” true-crime story and a bucolic British setting, the four-part miniseries “The Sixth Commandment” streams on Britbox, the home to series and movies mostly from the U.K.
“Sixth” stars Timothy Spall (“Life Is Sweet”) as Peter Farquhar, a mild-mannered teacher and minor novelist from a beautiful corner of Britain. After fearing he never will find intimacy and a deep relationship, he is smitten with a much younger student, Ben Field (Eanna Hardwicke), who goes on to seduce him, isolate him from his few friends and colleagues, gaslight him and poison him. Then Field proceeds to do much the same thing with an older woman, Ann Moore-Martin (Anne Reid, “Coronation Street,” “Last Tango in Halifax,” “Years and Years”).
These events, which took place in the quaint Buckinghamshire village of Maids-Moreton between 2014-17, captivated the British public, as did Field’s capture and trial.
“The Sixth Commandment” received near-universal acclaim for its writing, performance and cast and depiction of Field as a cunning contemporary monster.
• While many series are delayed by strikes, “Quantum Leap” (7 p.m., NBC, TV-PG) enters the second season of its reboot.
The premiere includes some wrinkles in time that it would be remiss for me to reveal, but I can say its tale of chronological hopscotching lands Ben (Raymond Lee) on a military transport plane in 1978, ferrying some kind of clandestine cargo well inside the boundaries of the USSR.
Look for “Manifest” star Melissa Roxburgh as a military commander condescended to by her male colleagues at a time when the Army advertising slogan “Be all that you can be!” pretty much applied only to guys.
Ben’s ability to look at her plight (and that of another soldier long before the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” period) with half a century’s hindsight, offers both consolation and confusion.
OK, “Quantum” does make a lot of time shifts, and this episode does take place on a military mission, but why set something in 1978 and then go out of your way to ignore the styles, slang and attitudes relevant to the era of “Saturday Night Fever” and The Knack? Except for the changes in tolerance noted above, there’s absolutely nothing stylistically about this episode that speaks to that time or any reason it might not have been set in 1998 or 2008, for that matter.
I’m a little reminded of the ill-fated “The Godfather Part III,” which also was set in the late 1970s but made no stylistic concessions to the florid, rococo disco excess of the era.
Why set a story in a period and ignore the fun details?
• A pop singer reflects on the documentary “Louis Tomlinson: All of Those Voices,” streaming on Paramount+.
TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
• “America Outdoors With Baratunde Thurston” (7 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings) revisits the Mormon settlement of Utah.
• A travel writer and a bed-and-breakfast operator meet amid stunning scenery in the 2021 romance “Snowkissed” (7 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
• A new client has a dark side on “Magnum PI” (8 p.m., NBC, TV-PG).
• “NOVA” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) uses animation to explain that fundamental question: Why is the sky blue?
• Inspection day on “Chicago Fire” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
• “Evolution Earth” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings) concludes with a look at changing grasslands.
CULT CHOICE
Culinary snobs bite off more than they can chew when they take a ferry to the island retreat of a legendary chef (Ralph Fiennes) in the 2022 satire “The Menu” (6:10 p.m., HBO Signature). A game cast, including Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Janet McTeer, Reed Birney, Judith Light, Aimee Carrero and John Leguizamo play unsuspecting diners.
SERIES NOTES
“Survivor” (7 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) ... “The Masked Singer” (7 p.m., Fox, TV-PG) ... “Celebrity Jeopardy!” (7 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) ... David Spade hosts “Snake Oil” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) ... “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” (8 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) ... “The Amazing Race” (8:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) ... “The $100,000 Pyramid” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
LATE NIGHT
While schedules have not yet been announced, the resolution of the writers’ strike allows “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (10:35 p.m., CBS) ... “The Tonight Show” (10:34 p.m., NBC) ... “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (10:35 p.m., ABC) and “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (11:37 p.m., NBC) to return with original shows tonight.