We need a Hero! We’re holding out for a Hero in the Yonkers light
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.