Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Sunday, September 1. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Low Winter Sun (AMC, 10 p.m.): Labor Day weekend is the unofficial last blast of summer, so why not mark the occasion by doing something a little out of the ordinary? Have a party on the roof, set up a Slip ’N Slide on a staircase, or maybe, just maybe, do something totally crazy like watch Low Winter Sun! The series critics hail as “The best 30 minutes you can spend waiting for a preview of a show you actually want to watch—after which there’s half an hour of an okay cop show” is running virtually unopposed tonight, so there’s never been a better time to dive right into this competently constructed crime drama. You only live once—why not live for 60 minutes with the series The A.V. Club’s own Dennis Perkins calls “decent”?
REGULAR COVERAGE
Breaking Bad (AMC, 9 p.m.): Tonight’s episode is called “Rabid Dog,” with calls back to season four’s “Problem Dog”—in which Jesse uses that titular term in a euphemism for some particularly dastardly doings. We won’t say which dastardly doings (or advance any theories about connections between the episodes) because we like Donna Bowman too much to expose her to the ire of the Spoiler Police.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
Saturday Night Live (Classic) (1 p.m.): The first-season SNL crew’s desire to rip TV up and start again meets head on with its reverence for the medium’s first Golden Age in an episode hosted by Desi Arnaz. PHIL DYESS-NUGENT! You’ve got some explaining to do!
The Simpsons (Classic) (3 p.m.): Erik Adams arrives at the third part of the “Where do Simpsons come from?” trilogy, “And Maggie Makes Three”—which he dares to argue is the best of these classic-era flashback episodes. How dare he say such preposterous things! Grab the pitchforks and torches and run him out of Internet Town!
WHAT ELSE IS ON?
My Little Pony Equestria Girls (The Hub, 12 p.m.): Bronies rejoice: After a direct-to-DVD-and-Blu-ray release in August, the Mane Six’s first feature-length adventure is available in your usual, non-Internet source for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Gwen Inhat has the review, but she’s uncertain on the franchise’s current stance on colons.
ABC Special: Fall Preview Presented By The Chew (ABC, 7 p.m.): Mario Batali and company discussing Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. prompts our annual reminder that it just isn’t a cheaply produced in-house fall TV preview if it doesn’t involve Cousin Larry and Balki discussing Slimer And The Real Ghostbusters.
Deadline: Crime With Tamron Hall (ID, 9 p.m.): That’s read as if crime is the deadline, as opposed to “crime with Tamorn Hall” being the deadline. If that was the case, the MSNBC anchor would be investigating crimes she committed—and this show would be airing on Syfy.
TV’s Funniest Of The Funniest: A Paley Center For Media Special (NBC, 9 p.m.): In addition to capping off a night of old-school schedule-fillers (along with the ABC preview), this Betty White-hosted countdown of TV’s 30 funniest moments will someday help to kill time at the bicoastal locations of the Paley Center, running on a constant screening-room loop alongside the likes of Classic Stand-Up Comedy Of Television and Behind The Laughs.
Dr. No (Encore, 8 p.m.): Encore’s schedule is roughly 85 percent classic Bond movies these days, but the premium network is taking the next couple of days to run every 007 film from Dr. No through Never Say Never Again, so that’s certainly worth a mention. (A mention for your eyes only, shaken not stirred, we think you get the point, we don’t expect you to talk Mr. Bond, very shagadelic, yeah—this string of pop-culture spy catchphrases will self-destruct 5 seconds. Missed it by that much.)
Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift (MTV, 7:30 p.m.): Say goodbye to the summer of Fast & Furious 6 and wait for the summer of Fast & Furious 7 with a reminder that the pinnacle of human expression and really cool looking cars is merely building to the events of Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift.
MLB Baseball: Mets at Nationals (ESPN, 8 p.m.): Speaking of the changing of the seasons: The boys of summer are now jostling with the warriors of the gridiron for space on the TV schedule—not that the Mets or the Nationals, both a length or two out of the playoff run, will mind the season coming to an end.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Continuum (Friday): Farscape’s out of the TV Club Classic rotation until at least October, freeing Alasdair Wilkins up to give a look to the latest season finale from this ongoing Syfy series. Will it… continue? Ugh, sorry—blame the bad joke on the long weekend.