HBO, 8:00 p.m. ET
MINISERIES FINALE: The final two hours of David Simon’s six-part miniseries are shown tonight – and with a conclusion that’s well worth the wait, and will linger with you long afterward. Oscar Isaac stars.
AMC, 9:00 p.m. ET
Last week’s series premiere of this prequel companion series to The Walking Dead introduced the major protagonist (a high school guidance counselor, played by Kim Dickens from Deadwood and Treme), but ended at a tense point with some zombie action about to happen. Tonight, the story continues – and even though the zombie and death count are low at this point, it’s a very clever spin on the Dead story to begin with its non-infected characters still obsessed about missed appointments, upcoming tests and other soon-to-be-meaningless distractions.
MTV, 9:00 p.m. ET
Miley Cyrus is back at this year’s awards show – returning to the place where, two years ago, she twerked with a giant foam hand and stuck out her tongue as Robin Thicke sang “Blurred Lines.” But this time she’s the host, of a show that is scheduled to honor Kanye West with a special award, and which features, among its Video of the Year nominees, Taylor Swift’s action-packed, and celebrity-packed, “Bad Blood.” My dream moment for the VMAs this year would be to provide a reverse echo of what happened at these awards in 2009 – and have Taylor Swift, now reportedly friends with Kanye West, to interrupt his acceptance speech like he crashed hers six years ago (pictured).
Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET
Last week’s episode included an amazingly staged scene that had Masters and Johnson visiting a zoo, in hopes of getting a lethargic giant ape to rekindle his sex drive – and they found an eye-opening method of inspiring the surly simian to approach the gorilla his dreams. Many other sexual dysfunctions were addressed in that episode, but the rest of them were totally human. As are the characters in this well-written, superbly acted show. Lizzy Caplan, Michael Sheen star.
TNT, 10:00 p.m. ET
SERIES FINALE: If you’ve stuck with this alien-invasion series to the end, this is the end. Tonight is the final episode of this somewhat-under-the-radar sci-fi show, with Noah Wyle’s Mason leading the resistance to the last. And this is the last…