Here’s what’s up in the world of television for Thursday, July 6. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Mosquito (Discovery, 9 p.m.): The channel that brings you Shark Week presents a closer look at an animal that actually manages to kill tons of people every year: the mosquito. Sure, sharks have big mouths full of razor-sharp teeth—rows of the things!—but shark bites remain incredibly rare, and tend not to transmit diseases across multiple continents. So, you know, maybe not as fearsome as a shark, or as worthy of serving as the mascot for a professional hockey team in Northern California, but definitely deserving of a sober documentary airing on an otherwise sleepy night in early July.
Regular coverage
The Mist (Spike, 10 p.m.)
Wild card
Zoo (CBS, 10 p.m.): Of course, if you want to get irrationally afraid of larger, CGI fauna, there’s always Zoo, CBS’ ape-shit adaptation of the bestselling James Patterson novel, in which the animals of the world rebel against humanity. Well, joke’s doubly on humanity now, because the cliffhanger from last season involved the accidental sterilization of every surviving person on Earth. And if you’re going to complain about having that fact spoiled, don’t—you were never going to watch Zoo without knowing that twist, right? Working backward from the outlandish nuts and bolts of Zoo is the only way to get into Zoo, because it can only get weirder from “Totally infertile humans race against extermination at the hands of animals gone wild.”