The first week of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver begins… tonight!
Here’s what’s up in the world of television for Sunday, April 27. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
This Week Tonight With John Oliver (HBO, 11 p.m.): There’s not much indication of what John Oliver’s new satirical look at the news will look like—mostly because news needs to happen before a John Oliver type satirizes it. So, if you like that sort of thing, Oliver will be right here at 11 o’clock to provide it, hopefully not cursing his decision to leave Comedy Central when he did. Erik Adams will be cursing the decision to volunteer for this assignment, because he’ll probably still be writing about Game Of Thrones while This Week Tonight airs.
ALSO NOTED
Bob’s Burgers/Family Guy (Fox, 7 p.m./8:30 p.m.): Everybody’s running away! For differing reasons! The Belcher kids hit the road due to dental trauma, while Chris leaves the Griffin homestead for love. Alasdair Wilkins and Eric Thurm, meanwhile, are pulling up stakes because they can’t be fenced in, man.
Turn (AMC, 9 p.m.): Paul Revere rides with urgent word for fans of Genevieve Valentine’s Turn reviews: Not enough people are reading Genevieve Valentine’s Turn reviews. It’s probably due to unfortunate timing—it’s sandwiched between two of TV Club’s biggest shows, after all—and certainly not due to Genevieve’s reviews, which are wonderful. So get the word out—preferably by horse-mounted messenger!
Game Of Thrones (HBO, 9 p.m.): Word of warning: This week’s Game Of Thrones reviews will post later than usual, as Erik Adams and Todd VanDerWerff are without screeners. And the experts review might post even later, because Todd, a TV-reviewing masochist, also has Mad Men tonight.
REGULAR COVERAGE
American Dad (Fox, 7:30 p.m.)
Once Upon A Time (ABC, 8 p.m.)
The Simpsons (Fox, 8 p.m.)
The Good Wife (CBS, 9 p.m.)
Revenge (ABC, 10 p.m.)
Mad Men (AMC, 10 p.m.)
Silicon Valley (HBO, 10 p.m.)
Veep (HBO, 10:30 p.m.)
TV CLUB CLASSIC
Doctor Who (11 a.m.): Alasdair Wilkins’ journey through recent time and nearby space undertakes a marathon overview of new Who’s fourth season. We don’t know how he compressed so much content into such a small space—must be some sort of quantum physics thing.
The Simpsons (Classic) (3 p.m.): You there! Fill up Erik Adams’ review of “Scenes From The Class Struggle In Springfield” with petroleum distillate and re-vulcanize the tires! Posthaste!
WHAT ELSE IS ON
Radio Disney Music Awards (Disney, 8 p.m.): The Radio Disney Music Awards celebrates its 12th birthday, which means they’re probably getting too old for the Radio Disney Music Awards.
Running From Crazy (OWN, 9 p.m.): See, everyone is running away tonight. Of course, in the case of this documentary’s subject, Mariel Hemingway, that’s more of a metaphorical running away tied to the Hemingway family’s history of mental illness.
Jim Gaffigan: Obsessed (Comedy Central, 10 p.m.): The man of 1,000 high-pitched inner voices brings his latest stand-up special to Comedy Central. We’ll have a review of the album version of Obsessed on Tuesday; here’s what that album would would look like with pictures.
Romancing The Stone/Jewel Of The Nile (6:30 p.m., TVGN): We don’t know if there was some multi-network plan to broadcast frothy 1980s action-comedies alongside they’re sequels tonight, but we won’t argue with four solid hours of Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner arguing within Robert Zemeckis’ Saturday-morning matinee fantasies.
Beverly Hills Cop/Beverly Hills Cop II (CMT, 6 p.m.): Yes, because if there’s anything that says “country music,” it’s Eddie Murphy as a Detroit police detective investigating shady deals in a tony West Coast city.
TOMORROW IN TV CLUB
Think Spring and think rebirth with TV Club pieces on shows that receive second comings in the coming weeks. Before 24 comes back as 24: Live Another Day, Todd Vanderwerff pulls the show out of a memory hole with a 100 Episodes column. Meanwhile, Molly Eichel looks at the first few episodes of Playing House, Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair’s second chance to make the show they couldn’t with Best Friends Forever (because Playing House is fortunate enough to be airing on USA in 2014, rather than NBC in 2012). After that, extend this already paper-thin connective tissue to an Inventory on the differences between Game Of Thrones and its source material, which is a “rebirth” of a sort…
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Hannibal: The weekly mystery centers on a body that could’ve been torn apart by two different species of animals, but Molly Eichel knows better: It was probably torn apart by one species of Hannibal Lecter.