Smash 9 p.m., Channel 7
Let’s see if the show, which has a new showrunner, can shake off the excesses and shortcomings of its first season. Tuesday night, “Smash” returns for 18 episodes with a number of tweaks, including a concerted effort by the writers to jettison cheesy subplots and get back to the making of a stage musical. Among the characters who won’t be returning: the scheming Ellis and Katharine McPhee’s two-timing boyfriend Dev. And among the season’s guest stars: Sean Hayes, Jennifer Hudson, and Liza Minnelli. Jazz hand fingers crossed.
Justified 10 p.m., FX
I am loving this season so far, though not because of those snakes. Timothy Olyphant is as slick and appealing as ever as Raylan the cowboy, staring down the most primitive of Kentucky criminals. And I finally feel as though I understand Walton Goggins’s Boyd Crowder, a too-chameleonic character who has been a preacher, a mine worker, and a crook and yet never fully any of them. He makes sense this season, as a committed drug kingpin with Ava as his partner. Pictured (from left): Goggins and Jere Burns.
Advertisement
Southie Rules 10 and 10:30 p.m., A&E
Where have all the R’s gone? Wicked long time passing.
Redrum 10 p.m., ID
Luof.
Wild Things With Dominic Monaghan 10 p.m., BBC America
Not Penny’s boat, unless it had a hairy thick-tailed scorpion on it.
Matthew Gilbert can be reached at gilbert@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewGilbert.