Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Sunday, August 30th. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Show Me A Hero (HBO, 8 p.m.) The nice thing about this age of endless TV we live in is that anything can get made for television—even a miniseries about a Yonkers housing crisis—and it can turn out to be one of the best things of the year. The superstar tag team of David Simon, Paul Haggis, and Oscar Isaac (as well as a stupidly talented supporting cast) have produced a real gem in the final days of summer, and we’re excited to see how it ends. Genevieve Valentine is on hand to take us through the last two hours, and to take a shot every time a Springsteen track kicks in.
Also noted
Fear The Walking Dead (AMC, 8 p.m.): With over 10 million same-day viewers for its pilot episode, Fear The Walking Dead has paradoxically calmed the fears of AMC executives who may have worried massive audiences wouldn’t show up for another show just because it has zombies in it. Turns out they will, which guarantees there will never not be a Walking Dead show on AMC as long as television lives. Josh Modell wasn’t terribly impressed by the premiere, but hopefully things will speed up as Los Angeles (or rather Vancouver standing in for Los Angeles going forward) begins to collapse.
The Strain (FX, 9 p.m.): “Fet and Setrakian are ready to buy the Lumen but discover they’re not the only ones in the market.” Little did they know that Kyle Fowle has been trying to buy a Lumen for the last three years, and the damn things never show up on eBay. There’s no way he’s letting this one go without a fight!
Masters Of Sex (Showtime, 10 p.m.): John Teti didn’t have many kind words for last week’s episode, which he described with such phrases as “Every plot thread advances in a straight line, like the characters are in a forced march, with Masters’ half-asleep writers manning the bayonets” and “If it’s a sign of the rote plotting we should expect for the second half of the season, Masters is about to go as limp as a lovelorn ape.” Hopefully the gorillas will be less flaccid tonight. (And that is a sentence your brand-new What’s On Tonight correspondent never thought he’d type.)
Rick And Morty (Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.): Tonight’s episode is called “The Ricks Must Be Crazy,” so there’s a real possibility that Rick might drop a beer bottle out of his spaceship and inadvertently cause the fall of an entire alien civilization. Zack Handlen recycles religiously because he’s terrified of that possibility.
TV Club Classic
The Simpsons (3 p.m.): Erik Adams hops behind the wheel of Li’l Bandit to get to his review of “Realty Bites.” Wait, Erik, that smells like regular. She needs premium, dude! Premium! Dude!
Tomorrow in TV Club
What do Worf, Winifred “Fred” Burkle, and Buzz Hickey all have in common? Well, beyond their inherent awesomeness, they’re all part of our latest Inventory, collecting characters who came into their shows late in the run and wound up carrying more than their share of the weight. Elsewhere, Ryan Vlastelica knows you’ve all finished Wet Hot American Summer: First Day Of Camp by now and are sad that you can’t talk about it anymore, so he’s got a For Our Consideration on why it worked and what other reboots could learn from its example.
What else is on
The 2015 MTV Music Video Awards (MTV, VH1, TV Land, 9p.m.) Our very own Amelie Gillette described this annual festivity as “a giant, pulsating, retina-irritating thunderdome where the most exciting thing that could possibly happen is Miley Cyrus giving side-eye to Taylor Swift.” But if you’re into that sort of thing, this year’s list of performers includes Justin Bieber, Demi Lovato, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Pharrell Williams, and Twenty One Pilots with A$AP Rocky. Kanye West is also receiving the Video Vanguard Award, and has zero chance of being magnanimous in his acceptance speech.
Big Brother (CBS, 7 p.m.): “Nominations for eviction are revealed.” We nominated you because frankly if we have to trip over your socks one more time we’re going to scream.
Ray Donovan (Showtime, 8 p.m.): “Romero appears at the Fite Club and challenges Ray to repent for his sins.” This conjures up the image of an awesome confessional brawl.
Falling Skies (TNT, 9 p.m.): It’s the series finale tonight! Your What’s On Tonight correspondent remembers that he reviewed two seasons of this show before the story became too tedious, and all indications are it spiraled into absolute insanity from season four on. Well, here’s hoping for a happy ending for Tom, Weaver, Anne, Pope, and everyone else from the Second Mass.
Shark Alley: Legend of Dynamite: Sharkopedia Edition (Discovery, 7 p.m.): This title is beyond awesome, but the second colon in it creates some issues.
Stolen From The Suburbs (Lifetime, 8 p.m.): Another Lifetime movie! This one stars Finding Carter’s Cynthia Watros and Brooke Nevin of The 4400 and Breakout Kings in the story of a mother who is drawn into the world of human trafficking in an effort to get her daughter back. It’ll never top the excitement of Ashley Judd not being CIA but being a mother looking for her son though.
Sex Sent Me To The ER (Discovery Life, 8 p.m.): “An intimate couple get caught by a nosy mime.” Nothing else to say here.
Identity Thief (FXX, 8:30 p.m.): Melissa McCarthy plays a Melissa McCarthy character who steals the identity of a Jason Bateman character played by Jason Bateman. High jinks ensue!
Lucy (Cinemax, 10 p.m.): Gloriously absurd and absurdly glorious, a film wherein Scarlett Johansson is a drug mule who suffers an unintentional overdose and becomes an omnipotent being. As you do.
Sportsball!
MLB Baseball, Cubs at Dodgers (ESPN, 7 p.m.)
WNBA Basketball, Phoenix at Minnesota (ESPN2, 7 p.m.)
Sunday Night Football, Cardinals at Raiders (NBC, 8 p.m.)
In case you missed it
Hannibal: Good night, sweet prince. May a flight of angels (and Molly Eichel’s series finale review) sing thee to thy rest. We’ll dine on an elaborate peacock dish in your memory.