Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Sunday, June 2. All times are Eastern.
TOP PICK
The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim, midnight): When last we left the Venture brothers—wait, we last left the Ventures almost three years ago? Now that little “catch up” video with 21 seems seriously necessary. The ultimate animated meditation on failure (as filtered through a permanent man-child of the 1970s’ pop-culture memories) finally gets around to airing a sequel to “Operation P.R.O.M.,” a fifth-season première that’s an hour long because Zack Handlen had to wait long much longer than that to see this, goddammit!
REGULAR COVERAGE
The Killing (AMC, 8 p.m.): And now a double episode of another show we never thought we’d see again—though in this case, we were sort of hoping we wouldn’t see it again. Killing rookie Phil Dyess-Nugent steps up to the assignment, hoping against hope that Peter Sarsgaard provides enough of a reason to take this thing back off the shelf.
Game Of Thrones (HBO, 9 p.m.): These final chapters of the third season are pretty much just one big, Westeros-set TLC wedding show, aren’t they? This week, it’s the marriage that Robb Stark dodged—and if Edmure turns out to be a groomzilla, Todd VanDerWerff and David Sims will be cleaning up flaming arrows for weeks.
Mad Men (AMC, 10 p.m.): After spending the past week debating the true meaning of Megan Draper’s T-shirt, here’s a theory we’re fairly sure hasn’t been floated yet: There are so many Planet Of The Apes allusions in season six because Todd VanDerWerff reviews these episodes surrounded by hairy beasts who control his every action (in Todd’s case, they’re cats).
Veep (HBO, 10 p.m.): Furlough plot! Timely! It may take a while for the review of this episode to post, because Robert David Sullivan has been furloughed himself, temporarily replaced by one of Todd’s cats. (They work cheap!)
The Borgias (Showtime, 10 p.m.): Catherina aims to ruin Rome’s Jubilee celebration, probably while sailing down the Tiber, singing incendiary songs about the pope. Les Chappell wants to be anarchy—in the Vatican.
Family Tree (HBO, 10:30 p.m.): Tom gets in touch with his athletic heritage, thanks to a relative who participated in the 1948 Olympics, a.k.a. “The Austerity Games.” Coincidentally, that’s also the name of Erik Adams’ Hunger Games ripoff, where the dystopic society is even more of a bummer.
TV CLUB CLASSIC
Farscape (11 a.m.): In a rare moment of TV Club Classic singularity, all three of today’s shows are starting new seasons on the same day. Alasdair Wilkins is sure his première episode is the only one that involves hiding a baby in an asteroid field.
Saturday Night Live (Classic) (1 p.m.): TV Club Classic’s infancy coincided with the DVD release of the first five seasons of SNL—more specifically the second season, which is why Phil Dyess-Nugent is the first A.V. Clubber to step to the sketch-comedy institution’s earliest, weirdest, most uncertain days. Enjoy your visit to Land of Gorch, Phil!
The Simpsons (Classic) (3 p.m.): Erik Adams moves onto Evergreen Terrace, and he’s installed a pool so that everyone will like him. Won’t you be his friend and/or well-wisher?
WHAT ELSE IS ON?
The Gold Rush (NatGeo Wild, 8 p.m.): The only information we can seem to find about this special involves this online slideshow of bear photos, so we can only assume that the mining industry is just the latest sector where hard-working Americans are being pushed out of their jobs by bears. Typical.
Princesses: Long Island (Bravo, 9 p.m.): Long Island isn’t just the home of a sentient hairdo that can talk with ghosts—there’s apparently royalty living beyond the Nassau County border, too. Claire Zulkey investigates the monarchy living in exile along the LIE.
Keeping Up With The Kardashians (E!, 9 p.m.): Kim Kardashian learns the gender of her baby in what’s undoubtedly the strangest/most involved marketing ploy for Yeezus to date.
Top Hooker (Animal Planet, 10 p.m.): We feel no need to elaborate on Todd VanDerWerff’s email response to Top Hooker: “Please be about fishing. Please be about fishing…”
American Gangster (BET, 8 p.m.): We remember this based-on-a-true-story gangster flick being a pretty good time in the theater—but maybe that’s just residual affection for Jay-Z’s spin-off concept album of the same name. This is probably how we’ll feel about The Great Gatsby in time, too.
The Court Jester (TCM, 8 p.m.): Danny Kaye plays the titular joker, who gets mixed up in a plot to restore the rightful king to power—sort of like a Game Of Thrones subplot, only with more tongue-twisting exchanges about vessels with pestles and fewer graphic beheadings.
Stanley Cup Playoff: Game 2: Kings at Blackhawks (NBC Sports, 8 p.m.): Your What’s On Tonight? correspondent isn’t at all sore about this Western Conference finals matchup. After all, as Hawks superfan Shawn Ryan slyly pointed out, Chicago did win the last game of its series with the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 in overtime.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Orphan Black (Saturday): A terrific spring for new dramas winds all the way down, with sleeper sci-fi favorite Orphan Black joining The Americans and Rectify in the Hiatus Hotel. Caroline Framke hopes all three series have the strangest, most suspicion-and-mistaken-identity-filled vacation together.