NBC, 8:00 p.m. ET
After presenting as many audition shows as it could get away with, The Voice now shifts to phase two – a less satisfying phase, the battle stage, when two singers enter a boxing-type “ring” and perform duets. They’re trying to stand out more than blend, though, so it’s always an odd dynamic. But here we go…
Fox, 9:00 p.m. ET
I’ve stayed with this series, trying to find enough reasons to justify my continued loyalty. And so far, the scripts have let me down, and only a few performances – by Kevin Bacon as the haunted ex-FBI agent Ryan Hardy, Natalie Zea as the cult leader’s ex-wife, and Valorie Curry (pictured) as cult follower Emma. But last week, the show finally served up a genuine surprise: a flashback in which young Hardy was shown forcing the drugged-out killer of his father to inject himself with a fatal overdose. It may be too little, too late, but it’s a start. Finally.
Sundance, 9:00 p.m. ET
MINISERIES FINALE: Elisabeth Moss, who’s back as Peggy on Mad Men, concludes her run in this imported miniseries, playing a detective who returns home to New Zealand and ends up pursuing a missing-persons case. The miniseries’ final two episodes are shown back to back tonight, so watch or record accordingly.
PBS, 10:00 p.m. ET
This new documentary is fairly lightweight, like a comic book – but, like a comic, there’s plenty of subtext and symbolism to be found if you look for it. Interview subjects discussing the role of Wonder Woman, and other female heroines, through pop-culture history include Lynda Carter, who played the Amazon on TV in the 1970s, and Gloria Steinem, who selected the comic-version Wonder Woman as the cover of the first issue of
Ms. magazine that same decade. Trace the lineage, from the 1940s Wonder Woman to the more modern
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
Xena: Warrior Princess. For a full review, see Eric Gould’s
Cold Light Reader. Check local listings.
Showtime, 11:00 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: Even though this is a talk series about comedy, David Steinberg saved the most serious installment for last. It’s an interview with Robert Schimmel, a standup comic who endured and survived, and drew comic material from, his bouts with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. But shortly after recording this interview with Steinberg, Schimmel died in a car crash in 2010, making this a sort of salute, retrospective, and last laugh, all in one.