Run sprints into its off-season
Here’s what’s happening in the world of television for Sunday, May 24. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
Run (HBO, 10:30 p.m., season-one finale): As it closes in on the end of its first season at the pace of an easy jog, we must acknowledge that Run has had a number of stumbles in this final sprint. (Here end the references to running, we promise.) Here’s Vikram Murthi on “Tell,” the penultimate episode of the season:
Wever and Gleeson still retain good chemistry, and whenever the show locks into their exchanges, it regains spark, or it generates something productive that can possibly be developed later. But the series constantly veers too rapidly between muted naturalism and slightly-off-the-wall hijinks to the point where it’s unclear if certain scenes are supposed to be a lark or very serious or both. Run is a show that clearly wants to allow for secondary characters to be impaled on spikes and its two leads to engage in witty banter not long after such an event occurs. Again, this is fine, welcome even, but its muddled tone renders many of these scenes confused, making it difficult to take the serious parts seriously or find the funny parts funny.
Here’s hoping that this finale regains its footing. Keep an eye out for Vikram’s recap.
Can you binge it? If you’ve got HBO, the complete first season awaits—or it will, after tonight.
Regular coverage
Killing Eve (BBC America and AMC, 9 p.m.)
Snowpiercer (TNT, 9 p.m.)
Penny Dreadful: City Of Angels (Showtime, 10 p.m.)
Insecure (HBO, 10 p.m.)
Rick And Morty (Adult Swim, 11:30 p.m.)
Homecoming (Amazon, complete first season available): episode 3 recap
On stage At home
The Winter’s Tale (YouTube, through May 31): Sure, you probably read Hamlet and Romeo And Juliet, and you saw your cousin in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and maybe you picked up Macbeth or King Lear after making your way through Slings & Arrows. But there’s a decent chance that even a Shakespeare enthusiast may not have had a chance to see The Winter’s Tale, one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays.” It’s a weird but fascinating one, and is home to one of the Bard’s greatest stage directions: “Exit, pursued by a bear.” Here’s your chance to see it as performed at Shakespeare’s Globe—that is, unless a bear unexpectedly enters your living room and chases you offstage.
Wild card
30 For 30: Lance, Part 1 (ESPN, 9 p.m., documentary special premiere): No doubt hoping to capitalize on the enthusiasm surrounding The Last Dance, ESPN bumped up the release of this Marina Zenovich documentary on Lance Armstrong. The first half of the film airs tonight; the second half arrives next Sunday. Will Michael Jordan watch parts of it on a tablet with his comfy pants on? Unclear.