Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Tuesday, April 28. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
The Flash (8 p.m.): The CW’s superhero universe is going absolutely bonkers, people. Arrow basically blew itself up last week, and still nothing it did was quite as seismically huge for its future as was Barry Allen finally discovering the Reverse Flash’s secret lair. There really is no other way to say it…
Now, at long last, the open war between the Flash and his greatest enemy looks set to begin. Oh, also, Joe is again totally not being cool about boundaries with respect to Eddie and Iris’ relationship. So that’s still a thing. Just heady times all around on The Flash, and Scott Von Doviak will be there to steer you through it.
The people’s top pick, now and forever
Person Of Interest (CBS, 10 p.m.): We’re nearing the end of the season, and if we hadn’t already busted out the Bad Boy 2 clip for The Flash, we’d be tempted to do so again here. To wit: “Reese and Fusco are caught in the war between crime lords Elias and Dominic; a clue to Shaw’s whereabouts leads Finch and Root into a possible trap; and Control goes rogue to learn the truth about the Samaritan program.” We bet that’s even crazier to a person who actually, you know, knows the first thing about this show. (It’s on our to-do list!) Thankfully, Alexa Planje is just such a person.
Also noted
Community (Yahoo!, 3:01 a.m.): Look, we could tease you with details about today’s episode, but we’re pretty sure we only need to share four simple words from the episode description to make this your most anticipated entertainment of the season. Ready? Here we go: “guest star Steve Guttenberg.” That’s all Joshua Alston needed to hear!
New Girl (Fox, 9 p.m.): It feels like forever since this show was new. (It was actually like three weeks ago, but we’ve had a lot going on, you know?) Anyway, the show is ready to hit the ground running as Schmidt’s councilwoman girlfriend Fawn faces a political scandal; probably not coincidentally, the episode is called “Panty Gate.” Erik Adams wonders whether this will truly be a scandal worthy of the –gate suffix, or if this will actually just be a much-overhyped Pantghazi.
iZombie (The CW, 9 p.m.): “A pregnant woman is murdered but her baby survives. After Liv consumes the victim’s brain, a fierce maternal instinct kicks in.” Seriously, do the writers just come up with plots through a series of escalating dares? How the hell is that ever going to be charming and witty instead of horrifying and wrong? And yet, substitute reviewer Noel Murray is fully prepared for this episode to pull off the latest disquieting premise.
Regular coverage
Marvel’s Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. (ABC, 9 p.m.)
Finding Carter (MTV, 10 p.m.)
Younger (TV Land, 10 p.m.)
Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central, 10:30 p.m.)
Elsewhere in TV Club
Joshua Alston looks at two of the more obscure corners of the Dick Wolf-verse with a One-Season Wonders, Weirdos, and Wannabes on Law And Order: Trial By Jury and Law And Order: Los Angeles. Somewhere, Conviction is just weeping to itself quietly. That show had the murderers’ row of J. August Richards, Anson Mount, and Eric Balfour. What more does it have to do to get a look-in? (Other than, you know, retroactively retitle itself Law And Order: Conviction, we guess. And so ends the most anyone has thought about Conviction in at least seven or eight years.)
What else is on?
The Day The ’60s Died (PBS, 8 p.m.): It’s always an interesting historical debate as to precisely when a decade ended from a cultural, rather than chronological perspective, and this hour-long special looks at a particularly interesting candidate: Richard Nixon’s announcement on April 30, 1970, that the United States had entered Cambodia, which was the now oft-forgotten impetus for the student protests that led to the Kent State shootings. The documentary features interviews with those who were at Kent State, in Cambodia, and at another, also oft-forgotten shooting incident at Mississippi’s Jackson State University.
Marvel’s Avengers Assemble (Disney XD, 8:30 p.m.): So, uh, in case you don’t really feel like committing hours of your life to watching Avengers: Age Of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, it looks like this 30-minute episode is going to cover pretty much all the same ground: “The Avengers reunite when Captain America and Iron Man learn to appreciate their differences while trying to save the world from Ultron.”
Planet Earth: The Frozen Planet/Planet Earth: The Making Of Frozen Planet (BBC America, 9 p.m./10 p.m.): The first hour is another exploration of incredible Arctic wildlife, and then the second hour is a behind-the-scenes documentary. This is the rare instance where a making-of video could be just as awe-inspiring as the original show.
Sons Of Winter (Discovery, 10 p.m.): Apparently there’s no shortage of people living off the grid who are also totally cool with cameras documenting their every move. This latest entry features the Barks family of Saskatchewan, because if your last name is Barks and you live in Saskatchewan, how are you not going to go live off the grid?
X-Men: Days Of Future Past (HBO, 6:45 p.m.): So, uh, we just watched this, and, man, is this a good movie. And we say that as someone who really hadn’t cared much for any of the X-Men movies—or, honestly, just the whole X-Men deal, irrespective of medium—up until then. (Well, First Class was pretty good, but it had some of that origin story clunk on it.) Anyway, much like, say, Iron Man 3 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (and The Wolverine, for that matter), this feels less like a superhero movie than just a cool genre movie that just happens to have a bunch of superheroes in it, which represents a fun evolution for this strain of cinema. Definitely worth checking out.
The Game (Sundance, 10 p.m.): For some insane reason, the image TV Guide attaches to the capsule for this David Fincher-directed mindbender is not, say, a poster for the movie, but rather a poster for the old Popeye cartoon. Which … what? Oh man, this is the start of our own preposterous descent into impeccably stage-managed madness, isn’t it? We knew our brother was planning something fun for our birthday.
NBA Playoffs: Mavericks At Rockets/Spurs At Clippers (TNT, 8 p.m./10:30 p.m.): In the all-Texas undercard, Dallas is looking to just stay alive against Houston and avoid the gentleman’s sweep, although they’ll have to do it without the services of Rajon Rondo (actually a good thing) and Chandler Parsons (definitely a bad thing, he’s pretty much the NBA’s most talented bro, or at least its bro-iest player who’s pretty good). Then in the main event, a first round series that really ought to be a conference finals continues as the Clippers look to keep home court and push the defending champion Spurs to the brink. History says never to bet against the Spurs, but seriously: These are two awesome, awesome teams, and it’d be foolish to put limits on what either is capable of.
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