TV Picks: ‘black-ish,’ ‘Indian Summers,’ ‘The Player’

“black-ish” The Johnson family is back for the fall, and if you missed last week’s premiere, in which young Jack (Miles Brown) drops the N-word during a talent-shown rendition of “Gold Digger,” you should go to www.abc.go.com and watch it. Creator Kenya Barris and his cast miraculously manage to directly discuss the word and all its implications from virtually every side while remaining true to the show’s heart as a modern family comedy.

And that’s exactly what it is. Any early consternation and conjecture over its title before last year’s premiere only outlined the absurdly narrow slice of American life previously seen in television comedies. In a freshman class with “Jane the Virgin” and “Fresh of the Boat,” which are also returning this year, “black-ish” set a new template for the genre: a middle-class family dealing with its issues, many of which revolved around what means to be black in America today.

And this season looks to be even stronger. Welcome back, “black-ish.” You were missed.

ABC, Wednesdays, 9:30 p.m.

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“Indian Summers” “Downton Abbey” meets “The Jewel in the Crown” in the latest Masterpiece series, another lush and addictive artisanal soap.

It’s India in 1932, the height of British colonialism, and as the summer heat rises, those few who run a country of millions flee to the Himalayan foothills and into the arms of Cynthia Coffin (Julie Walters), the charming doyenne of the English social club.

The absurdly complicated caste system, both native and British, quickly emerges. At the center of the story is Ralph Whelan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), currently private secretary to the British viceroy, and his sister Alice (Jemima West) who has just returned to India with her young son after many years in England. But there’s also the local missionary and his fretful wife; a pair of American siblings with an agenda; and a young man come to join the uncle he believes runs the local tea industry.

But this is 1932 and Mohandas Gandhi is gaining followers and preaching Indian independence, a political shift that divides even families. As Aafrin Dalal (Nikesh Patel) falls under the spell of Ralph and Alice, his sister Sooni (Aysha Kala), who follows Gandhiji, is openly contemptuous.

It’s a complicated tale, crisscrossed and star-crossed and at times a little silly for all the lush settings and Bollywood charm. But it’s a star-turn for Walters, who shines in a constellation of strong performances. Known to millions as Mrs. Weasley in the “Harry Potter” films and an embodiment of the “Rule Britannia” culture, Walters’ Cynthia reveals unabashed racism and the icy political calculations at its core. Maggie Smith’s Dowager may be the tarter-tongued, but Walters’ doyenne feels more like the real thing.

PBS, Sundays, 9 p.m.

“The Player” Providing a solid follow-up to the “The Blacklist,” which returns Oct. 1, “The Player” has a meta narrative but a streamlined core.

Meet Las Vegas security expert Alex Kane (“Strike Back’s” Philip Winchester) a man with all the super-skills, snappy humor and roiling darkness we love to see in a former military op who has been saved from a life of mayhem by his now ex-wife, for whom he still has feelings. When she is apparently murdered, all bets are off. Or rather, on.

Mr. Johnson (Wesley Snipes) and Cassandra King (Charity Wakefield) are the mysterious tech-ed-out orchestrators of a high-stakes “game” in which billionaires bet on violent crime. He’s the Pit Boss, she’s the Dealer and they want Kane to be the Player. He will attempt to solve or prevent these crimes; the gamblers will bet for or against him. It’s an efficient if mass-produced engine — every week a different race against crime and time — but it’s the chemistry between Cassandra and Kane that ignites “The Player.” And Mr. Johnson, who is pretty darn cool.

NBC, Thursdays, 10 p.m.