TV is mostly empty, but take heart—football is finally coming back

By Les Chappell | August 7, 2016 | 5:00am

TV Features TV

Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Sunday, August 7. All times are Eastern.

Top picks

NFL/Hall Of Fame Game, Green Bay Packers Vs. Indianapolis Colts (ESPN, 8 p.m.): Television has entered a deeply fallow period right now. The August doldrums mean there’s not a lot of new content available on any given day, so those of us who write What’s On Tonight have to reach ever deeper to entertain you. But take heart, football is here to save us! Well, okay, it’s preseason football, but at this point we’ll take anything we can get. The NFL begins to stir back to life with tonight’s Hall Of Fame game, closing out the “Enshrinement Weekend” and representing the first meeting between the Green Bay Packers and the Indianapolis Colts in almost four years. Green Bay’s quarterback Aaron Rodgers is sure to be hungry for victory tonight, between the memories of their narrow loss in 2012 and his brother Jordan’s recent victory on The Bachelorette. Don’t worry Aaron, win or lose, you’re still the man John Teti wants to see in the Oval Office.

Most Popular

2016 Summer Olympics (NBC, 7 p.m.): Oh right, there’s also that other sporting event going on that doesn’t have Aaron Rodgers in it and therefore is uninteresting to talk about. In all seriousness, day three of the Rio Olympics is a jam-packed one, with the live women’s swimming finals, women’s team gymnastics, and the women’s diving springboard synchronized final. We’ll be honest, though: Wake us up when curling starts. That’s where it’s at.

Power (Starz, 9 p.m.): Not enough of you are reading Joshua Alston’s coverage of this, which is a shame since the third season is getting steadily better with each episode. Last week, the show introduced a brand new character named Jukebox, a ruthless former cop who’s linked to Kanan’s vengeance and who’s bringing a level of energy to the show that’s “tough to overstate.” (Could one call her a jukebox hero, then?) Fun fact, Jukebox is played by Anika Noni Rose, who voiced Tiana in The Princess And The Frog. No word on whether or not this character sings in between getting embroiled in murders, but the message is clear: Don’t fuck with a Disney princess.

Premieres and finales

Inspector Lewis (PBS, 9 p.m.): The Masterpiece mystery returns for its eighth season, where Lewis will try to learn “if there’s a connection between a body found in a well and a murdered artist.” Detective 101, first you should probably ascertain if the body in the well is in fact the artist.

Bar Rescue (Spike TV, 9 p.m.): Season five premieres and Jon Taffer is heading to Las Vegas to deal with a bar owner who’s accused of being “too nice.” Do you think Sam Malone ever had to deal with that accusation?

It Takes A Killer (Oxygen, 10 p.m.): Oxygen’s doing its best to feed the appetite for true crime with this new series, looking first at “the slaying of a woman who advertised on social media.” To be fair, they were advertising for someone to slay them, which is not even in the top tier of the weirdest stuff you can find on Craigslist personals.

Regular coverage

BoJack Horseman (Netflix, 4 p.m.)

The Night Of (HBO, 9 p.m.)

Vice Principals (HBO, 10:30 p.m.)

Streaming pick

Batman: The Animated Series, “Heart Of Ice” (Amazon Prime): We’re heading into the hottest month of the summer, so it’s time to keep cool. Thankfully, your What’s On Tonight correspondent has been on a serious animation kick over the last few months, and has been revisiting old favorites like this one. Paul Dini’s triumphant reinvention of Mr. Freeze, which Oliver Sava dubbed “poetic and crushing,” should give you the right chill down the spine.