This week I think I’ll just share some thoughts, or mini-reviews, on a couple of different things I’ve been watching on TV lately.

Since college basketball season is over, I’ve been trying to fill the void with the NBA playoffs. But considering that I didn’t pay attention during the regular season, I’m struggling a bit to keep up. But I do learn something new every time I attempt to watch a game. Like, for example, the Utah Jazz is a team that exists! (Their tagline is “take note” which feels appropriate.) I was surprised and pleased to see former Louisville basketball player Donovan Mitchell thriving on the Jazz team. He was fun to watch in college, and now just as fun to watch professionally.

Another NBA team I’ve been kind of interested in is the Philadelphia 76ers. After years of being pretty darn awful, they’ve finally got a team good enough to make it to the playoffs. It’s apparently all thanks to something called “The Process,” a method they used to get better players. Even player Joel Embiid recently called himself “The Phantom of the Process.” (For reference, he’s been playing with a facemask due to injury.) I hope their team manages to stick around for a while if only just to see what Embiid might say or do next.

Switching gears to scripted television: BBC America is airing new show “Killing Eve” on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. It stars Sandra Oh (you might remember her from a little show called “Grey’s Anatomy”), Jodie Comer, and Fiona Shaw. I’ve only seen the first two episodes but it’s certainly a thriller. The plot revolves around Oh’s character, Eve, who starts investigating a very prolific assassin. I think the assassin takes out about eight people in the first two episodes alone. The show isn’t for the faint of heart, but the plot and characters seem well-developed enough that I want to know more. Plus, there’s a dark sense of humor present on occasion which serves as a breath of relief between the tense gory moments.

At the same time on Sunday nights, CBS is airing “Instinct” starring Alan Cumming and Bojana Novakovic. The series is a very typical procedural drama and has no qualities that make it stand apart from all the other procedural series on the network. (It’s based on a James Patterson novel, so that probably doesn’t help). I’ve seen five episodes so far, and I’m not impressed. Novakovic’s character is a New York police detective, and Cumming’s character is an ex-CIA agent turned college professor turned part-time police consultant. Together they fight crime! It’s the same old thing we’ve seen a million times before, but with very dull murder mysteries.

Perhaps I just don’t like “Instinct” because it seems like a rip-off of another CBS procedural: “Elementary.” That show also features a quirky guy and girl teaming up to solve murders. But “Elementary” is based on the Sherlock Holmes novels, stars Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu, and already has five successful seasons under its belt. If I had to pick between the two, I’d watch this one because the writers are committed to incorporating interesting character development and growth each week. Season six will start airing on CBS on Monday, April 30 at 10 p.m. I’m excited to have new episodes to look forward to each Monday, especially because season five ended almost a year ago.

So that’s just a few things I’ve been watching lately. I’ve still got plenty of other shows to catch up on too (like season two of both “Legion” and “Atlanta”).

What’s on your TV?

Holly Taylor is a Staff Writer for Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact her at holly.taylor@r-cnews.com or by phone at 252-332-7206.