Your weekly guide to TV’s best and worst one-hour shows
A mom’s guide to what to watch when the kids are home from school and what to watch after they head to bed:
“Parenthood” (Tuesday, 10 p.m., NBC)
If you haven’t been watching the close-knit Braverman clan because they’re just too perfect, you missed out on Tuesday’s sucker-punch episode when the usually annoyingly bossy Kristina (Monica Potter) dropped the bomb on hubby Adam (Peter Krause) that she has breast cancer. Even if you’re not the touchy-feely mommy type, you will appreciate how thoughtfully this series delves into the complex emotions of a family dealing with a crisis.
“Cookie Jar TV” (Saturday, 7 a.m., CBS)
Answering NBC’s kid-programming block that launched this summer, CBS gives us some “educational” TV that tries to trick kids with a marketing ploy by including the word “cookie” in the title. Appealing to the history nerd residing within Mama is the one-time PBS series “Liberty’s Kids” (since syndicated), which, I kid you not, is about the exciting adventures of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and the Revolutionary War. Three young siblings are placed at the center of the thrilling historical conflict to keep your kids from turning over to real cartoons. They also toss in younger-skewing “Doodlebops” and “Busytown Mysteries.”
“Call the Midwife”
(Sunday, Sept. 30, 8 p.m., PBS)
Feeling like your modern-mom life is too crazy-busy? Get some perspective by discovering midwifery and family life in 1950s England in this British import. Or as Mama refers to everything on PBS, “What we watch until ‘Downton Abbey’ comes back.”
“NickMom” (Monday, Oct. 1, 10 p.m.)
After the kids are supposed to be in bed, Nick Jr. overthrows Dora and Diego in favor of a four-hour “mom-friendly” programming block of potty stories, “Fifty Shades of Grey” jokes, and videos of cute kids whom you don’t know or care about. There’s the stereotypical “Housewives” reality show, “MFF: Mom Friends Forever”; some stand-up comedy that makes this Mama cringe (“You ever notice that dads don’t change diapers? Am I right, ladies?”); and “What Was Carol Brady Thinking?” a pop-up video treatment of “Brady Bunch” episodes featuring “Carol’s” thoughts.
“Don’t Divorce Me! Kids’ Rules for Parents on Divorce”
(Thursday, 6:30 p.m., HBO)
It’s a good thing this show is only a half an hour long, as its length is the only way this light documentary about kids offering advice to parents about how to break up their homes is able to avoid the slit-your-wrists depressing motif.