Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Thursday, May 26. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 7:30 p.m.): Beloved fanfiction creations Fionna and Cake return to Adventure Time tonight as Ice King shares more of his fanfiction, including a cooking adventure in which the two ladies set off to push Cake’s art to the next level. As always, Oliver Sava is on hand to analyze the episode. Meanwhile, Olivia Sava continues to exist only in our gender-flipped A.V. Club fanfiction where she’s best friends with Carl Siede.
Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement (BET, 9 p.m.): Activist and Grey’s Anatomy’s star Jesse Williams both executive-produced and appears in this original BET documentary about the Black Lives Matter movement. Award-winning director Laurens Grant (Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution) examines the leaderless movement through first-person interviews with activists and protestors like Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, DeRay McKesson, Johnetta Elzie, and Brittany Packnett. Those who hate studying history can do themselves a favor and learn about the game-changing civil-rights movement while it’s still a current event.
Orphan Black (BBC America, 10 p.m.): Lisa Weidenfeld wasn’t a huge fan of last week’s “finale-esque non-finale,” but Orphan Black has a chance to course-correct as it heads into its final four episodes. In “The Antisocialism Of Sex,” Sarah falls back into old patterns and Cosima “attempts a Hail Mary” in her lab. What could possibly go wrong?
Premieres and finales
500 Questions (ABC, 8 p.m.): As part of ABC’s game-show-filled summer schedule, 500 Questions returns for a second season. Contestants have to answer 500 questions without getting three wrong in a row.
Red Nose Day (NBC, 9 p.m.): After receiving a rousing “meh” in response to last year’s Red Nose Day, NBC once again tries to make this British televised charity fundraiser a thing stateside. Celebrities from Emma Thompson to Ludacris to Steve Buscemi come together to raise money to help lift kids out of poverty. Music and comedy also take center stage and host Craig Ferguson is on hand to lend an authentic UK spirit to the event.
Showing Roots (Lifetime, 10 p.m.): Orange Is The New Black’s Uzo Aduba and Lost’s Maggie Grace star in this original Lifetime movie about two beauticians who try to integrate their small Southern town after the debut of the miniseries Roots in 1977. It’s a rather unexpected tie-in to the upcoming History Channel Roots remake, but we’ll take it.
TV Club Classic
Battlestar Galactica (11 a.m.): First up, Starbuck and Kat engage in some not-so-friendly rivalry over which one of them will kill the elite Cylon Raider, “Scar.” Then in “Sacrifice,” Dee and Lee go on a date! Unfortunately said date is cut short when a group of gunmen takes the bar hostage, although depending on your thoughts on the Dee/ Lee romance, that might be a good thing. For his part, Zack Handlen is mentally gearing up for a particularly heartbreaking character death.
Regular Coverage
Steven Universe (Cartoon Network, 7 p.m.)
Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central, 10 p.m.)
Archer (FX, 10 p.m.)
Streaming pick
Black-ish, “Hope” (Hulu): Black-ish takes its comedic examination of black culture to a new level in a slightly more somber episode about police brutality, protest, and hope. As Pilot Viruet explained in their excellent review, “Television is personal, sometimes, and that’s a good thing. We need it.” This episode, along with The Carmichael Show’s “Protest,” would make the perfect sitcom companions to the BET Black Lives Matter documentary.