Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Friday, June 3, and Saturday, June 4. All times are Eastern.
Top picks
Outcast (Cinemax, 10 p.m., Friday): The Walking Dead and Fear The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman looks to expand his undead, comics-based TV empire beyond the whole “dead walking” realm with this new supernatural series trading in zombies for supernatural possession and whatnot. Patrick Fugit stars as a troubled guy who’s been possessed by demons for his entire life and would very much like the demons to knock it off now, please. There’s a solid supporting cast, including David Denman, Wrenn Schmidt, and the always-welcome Reg E. Cathey, whose sonorous gravitas is going to chase off evil spirits if anything will. In preparation for all the possessing, check out Alex McCown’s interview with Kirkman and his cast. (Alex is pulling double-Outcast-duty, and his TV Review calls the series, among other things, “terrific.” Trust in Alex.)
Carol Burnett’s Favorite Sketches (PBS, 9 p.m., Friday): What else do you want to know, people? Fine, Carol’s favorites include: “As The Stomach Turns: Close Encounters,” “The Dentist,” “Went With The Wind,” “Nora Desmond: The Commercial,” “The Oldest Man: Galley Slaves,” “The Family—Sorry!”, “Tudball And Wiggins,” and “As The Stomach Turns: Mother Marcus.” Tune in and laugh like Harvey Korman trying not to laugh.
Premieres and finales
Hibana (Netflix, 3:01 a.m., Friday): The first Japanese original series by Netflix is this adaptation of the acclaimed novella by comedian and haiku poet Naoki Matayoshi about a pair of standup comics attempting to hone their odd comedy act. Just a thought, wouldn’t television be more interesting if more shows were written by comedian/haiku poets?
Bo Burnham: Make Happy (Netflix, 3:01 a.m., Friday): New standup special from former YouTube and Vine sensation Burnham is an hour long, theoretically putting that whole “he’s only funny in seven second chunks” label to rest for good. Our John Hugar is still recovering… from all the laughter.
Marriage Boot Camp (We, 9 p.m., Friday): The seventh season premiere continues to ask the question, “Is heavily edited, manufactured conflict for the sake of an exploitative reality show really the best medicine for troubled relationships?” The answer… may surprise you. (The answer will not surprise you.)
Fender Bender (Chiller, 9 p.m., Friday): Chiller keeps on swinging, bringing out another original horror movie. This time, The Good Wife’s Makenzie Vega gets in an automobile altercation of some unknown stripe with a seemingly understanding older stranger (Hal Hartley alum Bill Sage) who turns out not to be the straight-shooter he appears first appeared. Who knew, right?
Ben Gleib: Neurotic Gangster (Showtime, 10 p.m., Friday): More standup comedy for your weekend, with Chelsea Lately regular Gleib bringing his improv-heavy satirical comic stylings to Showtime.
Comedy Bang! Bang! (IFC, 11 p.m., Friday): CB!B! is so confident that you’re going to like the new comedy super team of Scott Aukerman and latest bandleader and second banana “Weird” Al Yankovic that they’ve had the season premiere (featuring Kevin Bacon, Veep’s Matt Walsh, and Comedy Bang! Bang! all-star Ben Schwartz) online since last week. But don’t let that stop you from tuning in to this consistently, brilliantly loopy faux talk show, especially since Friday’s premiere is a double-shot, with the second episode bringing in The Lonely Island, agreeably pimping Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. As ever, your CB!B! Wonder Twins LaToya Ferguson and Emily L. Stephens are on hand this season to alternate reviews, with two coming out every Friday this time around. (And check out Erik Adams’ 100 Episodes feature about this little, weird, weird, weird show that could.)
MTV’s Proudest Moments (MTV, noon, Saturday):
Regular coverage
Lady Dynamite (Netflix, Friday)
Outlander (Starz, 9 p.m., Saturday)
And the What’s On Tonight’s Watch… falls
Look, the weekend WOT has resisted the wrestling contagion that’s infected nearly every other outpost of The A.V. Club’s otherwise staid and stalwart TV programming information journalism. But certain, let’s call them motivated and persuasive A.V. Clubbers who shall not be named (Kyle and LaToya) picked up one idle wrestling joke on Twitter and just would… not… stop sending clips. So, here’s the one that wormed its way in. Fine—it’s pretty much pure fun. Hope you’re happy, you two. The What’s On Tonight’s Watch has fallen.
Streaming pick
“The Devil Is In The Details… And The Upstairs Bedroom,” Psych (season four, episode four) (Netflix): Sure, Outcast is going to try to make demonic possession scary—which is fine, if you want to do it the easy way. But how about this all-time fun Psych episode that managed to make the specter of, well, specters unnerving while still maintaining this still-missed series’ peerlessly insouciant buddy comedy vibe. James Roday’s fake psychic Sean and Dulé Hill’s sensible Gus investigate a suicide at a Catholic college alongside all-star guest star Ray Wise and start to suspect something’s gone all demonic, what with the speaking in tongues and spider-walking and Ray Wise being there and so forth.