Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, May 25, and Saturday, May 26. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
Angel (1 p.m., Friday): It’s only taken him the better part of four years, but Noel Murray is at the end of his long journey through Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, as he watches the final two episodes of the latter today. We assume he’s not going to pick up the comics and review those, but who knows? As for us, though, we’re just going to assume that this is it for Noel and Joss Whedon… at least until he starts reviewing Firefly with Donna Bowman next week. (Also, is it just us, or is the Angel finale even better than the Buffy one? Discuss.)
REGULAR COVERAGE
Young Justice (Cartoon Network, 10:30 a.m., Saturday): While most everybody else takes Memorial Day weekend off, just to celebrate the start of summer or commemorate America’s war dead or something, the Blue Beetle is still on the case, and Oliver Sava will take his Saturday morning off to tell you about it.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
The Adventures Of Pete & Pete (3 p.m., Friday): It’s a weekend for long-running TV Club Classic features to end, as Marah Eakin brings her coverage of the seminal Nickelodeon series to a close, with “Saturday,” an episode we really love that Marah is less enthusiastic about. Still, we’re sad it’s done.
WHAT ELSE IS ON
Goat Rodeo Live: Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile (PBS, 9 p.m., Friday): Classical and bluegrass musicians get together to play you a few tunes. Why did they call themselves Goat Radio? We don’t know, but now we really want to hear a radio station programmed entirely by goats.
Magic City (Starz, 9 p.m., Friday): If you haven’t seen the first six episodes of this show—and we’re not saying you should have—Starz is letting you take this weekend to catch up, airing three tonight and three Saturday. Get all the Jeffrey Dean Morgan action you can handle, with bonus Jackie Kennedy!
The Ricky Gervais Show (HBO, 9 p.m., Friday): The guys talk about what they like about being Englishmen, then also discuss where they’d like to be from if they weren’t from England. Karl’s answer may shock and amaze you, as most everything the man does will. Oh, okay, we’ll spoil it. It’s Italy.
Paul Simon’s Graceland Journey: Under African Skies (A&E, 10 p.m., Friday): A documentary on the process of recording Paul Simon’s most famous solo album makes its televised debut this season. Travel back to the late ‘80s, and be reminded that it’s nice to live in a world where apartheid no longer exists.
How To Be A Gentleman (CBS, 8 p.m., Saturday): Summer burn-off theater commences, with CBS airing the few remaining episodes of this quickly canceled sitcom, two at a time, over the next few weeks. If you just need a Kevin Dillon fix, here’s your chance to get one before the show disappears for good.
River Monsters: Unhooked (Animal Planet, 9 p.m., Saturday): Even most cable networks are taking this evening off, thanks to the holiday, but Animal Planet is airing a bunch of episodes of this show over the weekend for some reason. Tonight, the show hunts something called the “Asian Slayer.” All right.
Avatar (FX, 6:30 p.m., Friday): You know what would make the biggest movie of all time even better? If you could watch it without the 3D that made it such a popular hit and with frequent commercial interruptions! That will give you plenty of time to focus on how terrific the storytelling is, right?
Alien 3 (IFC, 8 p.m., Friday): Yeah, this is pretty clearly a step down from the first two Alien movies, and it’s easily the worst movie David Fincher’s ever directed, but there’s still some fun stuff in this one. If you’ve never seen it before, turn it on and find something else to do. It’ll be better that way.
Dinner At Eight (TCM, 8 p.m., Saturday): George Cukor directed this screen adaptation of the Edna Ferber and George Kaufman play about the way various Americans coped with the Great Depression. It’s a great play, and it’s a solid film, as well, with two Barrymores, a Wallace Beery, and a Jean Harlow in it.
Champions Tour Golf: Senior PGA Championship (Golf, 6:30 p.m., Friday): Got nothing better to do tonight? Want to contemplate the ravages of age and your own mortality? Then you could do far worse than watching a bunch of old golfers well past their prime hit the links in Benton Harbor, Michigan.
International Soccer: U.S. Vs. Scotland (NBC Sports, 8 p.m., Saturday): The States takes on Scotland in a “friendly” in Jacksonville. We assume that “friendly” means the match is low-stakes or something similar. We think you should watch and break out your worst Mike Myers’ Scottish accent impressions.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
So You Think You Can Dance (Thursday): Oliver Sava is going it alone this season of SYTYCD, and the show has been demoted to one show per week. Is this the end for America’s second favorite dancing competition show? Oliver watches the auditions and sees whom the series has dragged up this year.