The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching

The best programs on TV this week

The Third Presidential Debate

Foreign policy will be the focus of the third and final debate between President Obama and Mitt Romney, to be held at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla. Bob Schieffer of Face the Nation will moderate and select the six topics for discussion. With more than 67 million viewers, the candidates’ first debate, on Oct. 3, was the most watched such event in more than 30 years. Monday, Oct. 22, at 9 p.m., various networks

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Former geek Emily Owens often reminds herself that she’s both a doctor and a grown-up as she walks the halls of the hospital where she interns. Mamie Gummer (The Good Wife) gives this new series’s heroine just the right amount of awkward earnestness. Though hospital life, with its cliques and gossip, may not be so different from high school, it offers Emily a chance to leave her inner geek behind. Or so she hopes. Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 9 p.m., CW

Frontline: Climate of Doubt

When Mitt Romney used his speech at the Republican National Convention to make a sarcastic remark about Obama having promised to “slow the rise of the oceans,” it was one of the few references to climate change by either candidate this season. With public concern about global warming measurably waning, John Hockenberry visits a few of the organizations that worked to seed doubt about the seriousness of the threat. Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 10 p.m., PBS; check local listings

The Girl

Legendary film director Alfred Hitchcock was sexually obsessed with actress/model Tippi Hedren, according to this TV movie starring Toby Jones and Sienna Miller. This 90-minute drama suffers from a glum tone and a sometimes sluggish pace, but good performances and interesting details about the making of The Birds, the pair’s first film together, offer some compensation. Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 8:30 p.m., HBO

Nostalgia for the Light

This visually striking documentary reflects on the bitter legacy of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship by traveling to Chile’s otherworldly Atacama Desert, where astronomers scan the stars and archaeologists hunt for ancient civilizations. Juxtaposing science’s quests with those of women who seek the remains of loved ones “disappeared” under Pinochet, the film makes a potent statement about time and memory. Thursday, Oct. 25, at 10 p.m., PBS; check local listings

Other highlights

Into the Abyss

Director Werner Herzog (Grizzly Man) interviews a Texas death row inmate as well as those affected by his crimes in this award-winning documentary. Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 8 p.m., Investigation Discovery

The Office

For Halloween, Andy (Ed Helms) invites his college a cappella group to perform at the office, spurring a confrontation with his ex-schoolmate Broccoli Rob, played by guest star Stephen Colbert. Thursday, Oct. 25, at 9 p.m., NBC

Large Dangerous Rocket Ships

Kari Byron of Mythbusters brings viewers along to a colorful competition among amateur rocket enthusiasts. Sunday, Oct. 28, at 10 p.m., Science