Newly crowned Internet folk hero Patton Oswalt headlines an hour of Parks And Recreation 

Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Thursday, April 18, 2013. All times are Eastern.

TOP PICK

Parks And Recreation (NBC, 8:30 p.m.): Comedian and friend of The A.V. Club Patton Oswalt has had a fantastic 2013. He put in a deservedly lauded guest stint on Justified, was asked to reprise his role as host of the Webby Awards, and captivated the Internet with an improvised outtake from the first of tonight’s Parks And Rec episodes. (He also helped soothe nerves rattled by the Boston Marathon bombing, but the circumstances don’t really call for putting that one in the “great year” column just yet.) Oswalt’s presence will make the retirement of Garry “Jerry” Gergich weigh less heavily on Steve Heisler.

The Vampire Diaries (The CW, 8 p.m.): Elena “has an outburst” at prom, which, given that particular rite of passage’s twisted history in genre fare, has Carrie Raisler on the lookout for buckets of pig’s blood and anyone who might want to visit harm upon Jamie Lee Curtis.

Community (NBC, 8 p.m.): Snowflakes, garish sweaters, festive atmosphere? It must be Christmas time in Greendale! Either that, or climate change has taken a serious turn. Either way, Todd VanDerWerff will file this week’s review from a doomsday bunker.

Glee (Fox, 9 p.m.): The Regionals theme is “Dreams” this year. Wait—Regionals have themes now, too? And no one in the writers’ room thought to say “Hey, we already used the most obvious song for that theme in the Rumors episode”? Brandon Nowalk just hopes he isn’t subjected to the faux-yodeling of a cover of The Cranberries’ “Dreams.”

Project Runway (Lifetime, 9 p.m.): Your What’s On Tonight? correspondent has taken to skipping out on Runway’s judging sequences—because who has the time, right?—so he has genuinely no idea who survived the cut last week. Perhaps Sonia Saraiya can confirm whether or not Daniel Esquivel and his whimsical mustache are still in the running.

Hannibal (NBC, 10 p.m.): The target of this week’s investigation is an organ harvester who keeps his victims alive—a tantalizing prospect for the show’s eponymous character, assumedly. Molly Eichel deems this premise… good enough to eat?

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (11 a.m.): When a TV series reaches its fifth season, it really needs to shake things up to keep its viewers’ attention—or so it would seem for DS9, which made trips to the past and questions of identity a major component of season five. And when crew members find themselves in the bodies of Bajorans from the past, Zack Handlen starts to question if he even knows himself.

Gilmore Girls (1 p.m.): A visit from The Bangles prompts one of those tricky TV scenarios where the characters are in love with a musical act for an episode, and then never mention them again. Kind of like the week in 1999 when David Sims was the world’s biggest Len fan. When was the last time you even listened to “Steal My Sunshine,” David?

Which Way Is The Front Line From Here?: The Life And Time Of Tim Hetherington (HBO, 8 p.m.): After earning well-deserved accolades for the Afghanistan-war documentary Restrepo, photojournalist and filmmaker Tim Hetherington was killed while covering the Libyan civil war. He’s remembered in this retrospective, helmed by his Restrepo co-director Sebastian Junger. Phil Dyess-Nugent has the review.

NFL Network Special: Schedule-Release Show (NFL Network, 8 p.m.): It’s hard to come up with year-round programming for a network devoted to a league whose regular season only lasts for 17 weeks. And that’s how you end up devoting an entire evening to the announcement and analysis of that season’s schedule.

Nathan For You (Comedy Central, 10:30 p.m.): Nathan For You, reviewed for you by Nathan Rabin. Nathans doing things. For you. With chances for big laughs, if the previous episodes of this reality-show send-up are any indication.

Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell (Adult Swim, 11:59 p.m.): It’s difficult to describe this live-action workplace comedy from Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies co-creator Dave Willis—largely because of the way it literalizes most of the terms we use for shitty jobs. It’s about a soul-sucking corporate hellscape that sucks souls and actually is Hell. Hopefully Eric Thurm has better luck than we did.

War Horse (TMC, 8 p.m.): Or as it’s correctly referred to in certain, fictional corners of Chicago, Warbiscuit. Duh.

The Terminator (Cinemax, 8:15 p.m.): Discussion topic: In a world where robots are taught to chuck cinder blocks, are The Terminator and its sequels even necessary? Or are they the most necessary?

X Games Foz Do Iguaçu (ESPN, 7 p.m.): Tonight in the action-sports event that reads like lorem ipsum: Big Air skateboarding finals, Men’s and women’s Enduro X, and consectetur adipisicing elit.

Suburgatory: An hour-long double-shot rearranges its pieces, leaving behind a Chatswin that’s changed enough to catalyze a third season, yet different enough to prove that things did happen in season two. If you need Brandon Nowalk, he’ll be in the corner humming “Suddenly Everything Has Changed” to himself.