Entertainment

Drama Mama

The dramas are breaking out their best episodes for November sweeps:

“Scandal” (Thursday, 10 p.m., ABC)

Look for familiar faces when Brenda Strong guest stars as the wife of Tom Amandes’ governor, whom Olivia (Kerry Washington) helped defeat in the previous election in this under-the-radar drama about DC rumor mongers. But you don’t hire a former “Desperate” housewife and the new queen bee of “Dallas” to play a fragile little victim, and you don’t cast the weasely “Everwood” alum to portray a blemish-free hero, so expect a longer and much more complicated story to unfold.

In Olivia’s other world of the increasingly creepy White House, the team makes their best effort to turn the phrase “All Roads Lead To Fitz” into the new “Let Bartlet Be Bartlet.”

“Boardwalk Empire” (Sunday, 9 p.m., HBO)

Do you ever wonder why HBO gave Steve Buscemi his own show? Sunday’s episode will answer your question.

Buscemi’s Nucky Thompson lost his mistress and his waning power to last week’s explosion, courtesy of Gyp Rosetti (Bobby Cannavale). Through the haze, our favorite corrupt politician is left reeling from the aftermath and trying to coordinate his gang-organizing efforts — providing Buscemi more than enough material for his Emmy reel.

“Burn Notice” (Thursday, 9 p.m., USA)

Mama’s favorite summer escape intrudes on her regular TV schedule again with a two-hour fall season premiere. Last we left Michael (Jeffrey Donovan), he was still mourning his dopey brother’s death when he realized that mentor Tom Card (John C. McGinley) had betrayed him. Now the brother’s murderer, Lem from “The Shield” (Kenny Johnson), is Michael and his team’s only hope as the gang is stuck in Panama as the government hunts them. The wonderful Sharon Gless gets a little more action as Michael’s mom, who is the only one left in the States to help her boy get home.

“CSI: NY” (Friday, 9 p.m., CBS)

While Mama may be geographically biased, the underloved Gary Sinise CSI has always been her favorite, mostly because they don’t seem to take themselves as seriously as those other CBS police procedurals. This week, the team is forced to engage in a game of Clue when a psychiatrists’ patients are killed off one by one. And considering how many board games everyone has collectively played in the past two weeks, deducing the murderer should be easy enough, especially considering that there’s only one guest star whose character shares the same name as a Clue suspect.