Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Sunday, August 24. All times are Eastern.
Top pick
True Blood (HBO, 9 p.m.): In a premium cable environment in which no hit show is allowed to die with dignity (pray for Game Of Thrones) True Blood has lived the most painfully prolonged existences. Tonight, however, it all comes to a merciful end, with a finale that hopefully won’t conclude with Sookie seeking employment in the lumber trade or the surprise reveal that this has all been the fanciful invention of a mortal citizen of the real-life American south. Carrie Raisler has been seeking a cure for True Blood all season, and it looks like it’s finally been discovered.
Also noted
Teen Wolf (MTV, 7 p.m.): As a lead-in to tonight’s main basic-cable event, MTV offers this reminder that teenage werewolves are just as important (if not more important) to the network in 2014 as music videos are.
2014 MTV Video Music Awards (MTV, 9 p.m.): The VMAs had their twice-a-decade flashpoint last year thanks to Hannah Montana’s scandalous brush with Beetlejuice (and cultural appropriation) last year, so this year’s ceremony will probably wind up on the conservative side. Then again Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj spent their pre-VMA week releasing highly butt-centric videos, so maybe that’s what we’ll all be outraged about tomorrow.
Breathless (PBS, 9 p.m.): In the meantime, Jack “Smash’s Jack Davenport” Davenport is outraged about… something mysterious in this period medical drama that isn’t The Knick or Masters Of Sex (or even Call The Midwife) but is going to be reviewed by Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya in part of her ongoing study of British history through TV Club pieces.
Regular coverage
The Strain (FX, 10 p.m.)
The Leftovers (HBO, 10 p.m.)
Masters Of Sex (Showtime, 10 p.m.)
TV Club Classic
Clone High (3 p.m.): Caroline Framke wanted to file this week’s reviews from the Olive Garden, but the The Secret Board Of Shadowy Figures insisted that it be filed from her house. But guys! It’d be like filing a TV review from the private kitchen of a delightful Italian stereoptype!
What else is on
Wipeout (ABC, 7 p.m.): Just when you think the Wipeout producers are running low on naughty puns based on the show’s most prominent feature, they whip out their “Big Balls Inc.”
The Last Ship (TNT, 9 p.m.): True Blood isn’t the only cockamamie cable drama celebrating a finale tonight—this Outbreak-on-a-boat series is bringing its first season into port.
The Musketeers (BBC America, 9 p.m.): And then this show ends its seasons, too, relieving Peter Capaldi of his Cardinal Richlieu duties so that he can devote all of his energies to piloting the TARDIS. (Good news for Whovians; bad news for Richlieu.)
Rising Star (ABC, 9 p.m.): Keeping in line with the trends: This is also a finale, introducing viewers to another singing-contest winner doomed to be forgotten in a week.
Veronica Mars (HBO, 7 p.m.): And now, the proper finale to the high-school-P.I. series of the 2000s.
Shrek The Third (TBS, 8 p.m.): And what, in a just world, would’ve been the finale of the Shrek franchise.
Fox Sports Special: NFL Preseason: San Diego Chargers at San Francisco 49ers (Fox, 4 p.m.): The only preseason matchup of 2014 that will be directly determined by the whims of Saints Francis of Assisi and Didacus of Alcalá.
Tomorrow in TV Club
Tomorrow’s Inventory asks the all important question “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”, answered by a dozen actors who guest starred on a show before joining its cast. Just don’t ask that of regular TV presence Paul F. Tompkins (or his one-time Speakeasy guest Judy Greer), partially because it’s not one of the 11 Questions The A.V. Club recently posed to him. Still, you might recognize some episodes from our TV Club 10 on True Blood—even if they’re unrecognizable from the show that’s ending tonight.
In case you missed it
Intruders: Developed by Glen Morgan (of the X-Files Morgans), this new supernatural series from BBC America starts off slow and mysteriously. Next week, Genevieve Valentine should have a better idea of what the hell’s going on here.