TV tonight: 'Gotham,' Sleepy Hollow,' 'Scorpion'
Gotham
Fox, 8 ET/PT
NBC and ABC are lost for much of the night in some sad approximation of reality, but never fear: Better TV awaits elsewhere. And that begins with this evocative Batman prequel which steadily improved over the fall, as its script and performances began to keep pace with its already strong sense of atmosphere. We rejoin Det. James Gordon in exile at Arkham Asylum — where he's about to meet a doctor played by Morena Baccarin. So hey, Jim: Life's not all bad.
Sleepy Hollow
Fox, 9 ET/PT
And then there's the opposite trajectory of Sleepy Hollow, which spent much of the fall undoing the goodwill it had earned the year before. Let's hope the writers have used their winter break to reconsider some of the paths they've been following — though it doesn't count as a good sign that tonight's episode finds Katrina searching once again for the humanity in Abraham. While ultimately the show has the right to go in any direction it chooses, here's what I'm searching for: Less Katrina, more Jenny, no bounty hunter and a permanently headless horseman.
Scorpion
CBS, 9 ET/PT
Until Sleepy rights itself, there are simpler pleasures to be had in this entertaining light adventure, which tonight finds Ralph getting into the same kind of computer trouble Walter did when he was a kid. Naturally, the team rides to the rescue.