Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, June 13, and Saturday, June 14. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Blackadder (3 p.m., Friday): Perhaps in all the excitement of last week’s Orange Is The New Black launch, you missed that Kate Kulzick is spending the summer working her way through Blackadder. Well, miss this no longer, for she’s doing a great job, and if you enjoy British sitcoms, or, y’know, things that are good, then you should check in on the show. If you don’t enjoy British sitcoms or things that are good, then why are you here? We’re not suddenly going to start reviewing the classic seasons of Two And A Half Men or anything. Though maybe we should.
ALSO NOTED
Orphan Black (BBC America, 9 p.m., Saturday): Caroline Framke wasn’t so into last week’s episode of the show, with its poorly executed version of the latest clone. But she’s willing to be pulled back onto the train, so make sure you don’t leave her behind, Clone Club!
TV CLUB CLASSIC
Babylon 5 (11 a.m., Friday): In this week’s article, Rowan Kaiser finishes out something called the “Earth Civil War,” which sounds dangerous. He’ll be reviewing three episodes from the fourth season, including “Intersections In Real Time,” “Between The Darkness And The Light,” and “Endgame.”
The Twilight Zone (1 p.m., Saturday): Todd VanDerWerff returns with his thoughts on “Nightmare At 20,000 Feet” and some other episode. But most importantly: “Nightmare At 20,000 Feet”! Make sure you’re crouched outside his window, sticking your face on the glass, while you read it.
ELSEWHERE IN TV CLUB
Hey, it’s still the Game Of Thrones Long Weekend, which means that it’s time for Sonia Saraiya to offer up a For Our Consideration essay on the show’s use of violence. As always, Sonia’s thoughts on the show are well-worth reading. We’re looking forward to blood being shed.
Every so often, our AVQ&A feature overlaps nicely with our TV coverage, and we end up with something like this one, where our staffers discuss their favorite running gags. What’s your favorite running gag? Well, don’t tell us here. Go do it in the comments over there!
WHAT ELSE IS ON
Dennis Miller: America 180° (Epix, 8 p.m., Friday): Dennis Miller presents a special exploring whether “the liberals” have taken over comedy. Since he has a special on the air and he’s not a liberal, we’re going to say no, but a little victimization never hurt anybody. Except it makes people way less funny.
David Beckham Into The Unknown (Showtime, 8 p.m., Friday): It looks like David Beckham has gotten the same case of “no colon” that Star Trek Into Darkness had last year. Seriously: This would look so much better with a colon. Here are a few we had laying around. :::::::::::::::::::::
Monumental Mysteries (Travel, 9 p.m. Friday): This week, our host looks at a bunker built for Adolf Hitler in Hollywood, but the key attraction, obviously, is when he goes to New Jersey to tour a building shaped like an elephant. Television’s Golden Age, everybody!
CMT Crossroads: Katy Perry And Kacey Musgraves (CMT, 10 p.m., Friday): Sadly, this is not just an entire hour of these two collaborating on a duet of “Roar,” our number one summer jam. Shut up. It’s your number one summer jam too. We don’t care that it came out last fall.
AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute To Jane Fonda (TNT, 9 p.m., Saturday): If you’re looking for something fun to do Saturday night, go and find your very conservative father, make sure he’s napping, then turn this on in his presence and see how long it takes him to start shouting obscenities.
BBQ Pit Masters (Discovery America, 9 p.m., Saturday): Or you could just turn this on while he’s sleeping and have him wake up to the beautiful sight of slow-cooking meat. The wonderful, beautiful, delicious sight. The most amazing sight in all of creation! (And then we went on for a while.)
The Break-Up (VH1, 8 p.m., Friday): We don’t know if we’d call this movie “good,” exactly, but it’s one that improves a little bit the more we think about it. There’s a nice, nasty bitterness to it that audiences weren’t quite prepared for but that we very much took to heart.
How To Train Your Dragon (FX, 8 p.m., Friday): With treats as rewards and stern shouts as punishments, same as you’d train any animal, duh. Honestly.
The Shawshank Redemption (IFC, 8 p.m., Saturday): Look, is this movie worthy of being the number one movie of all time, according to IMDB users? Not at all. But it’s also not like it’s terrible. C’mon. Admit it. You kinda like it. You’ve even said “Get busy livin’, or get busy dyin’” unironically at least once.
MLB Baseball: Cubs at Phillies (WGN, 7 p.m., Friday): Someday. Someday the Cubs will be good, and WGN will have the cable package, and all of America will tremble before their might. But that someday is not right now.
2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil: Ivory Coast vs. Japan (ESPN, 8:30 p.m., Saturday): Whichever team wins this game, we’re picking them to win the whole World Cup. We don’t know a goddamn thing about international soccer, but we like our odds.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Comedy Bang! Bang! (Thursday): Nick Offerman was on, and Emily Stephens got to check out his manly, mustachioed presence. What’s On Tonight would grow a mustache, but it just ends up looking like Martin Mull when that happens. And Martin Mull is the opposite of super manly.
TALES OF THE FIERI BEAST
Tales Of The Fieri Beast is on hiatus for retooling.