AMC, 7:00 p.m. ET
Last week, the new CNN series The Movies celebrated “The Seventies,” and smack-dab in the middle of that decade was Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller about a killer shark. That documentary about moviemaking marveled at the difficulty of what Spielberg was attempting at every turn, and how unfailingly he stuck the landing. There was particular praise for the fabulous scene, between shark attacks in a small craft on the open sea, in which the show’s three leading actors sat back and had a long, unforgettable conversational exchange about injuries, the U.S.S. Indianapolis, and sea shanty songs. Watch it again, and watch Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss and Roy Scheider captivate you with the sheer force of their performances. In fact, watch the entire movie again. Every summer, I always do, and always love it all over again.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
Legion is about to end. Three seasons of time-tripping, mind-blowing and reality-warping drama has just two more episodes – tonight’s and next Monday’s – to conclude what I consider the most dazzlingly visual, surrealistic, and imaginative TV series since The Prisoner and Twin Peaks. And the way I watch Legion is the way I remember watching 2001: A Space Odyssey the first time: I’ll experience it now, and try to make as much sense of it as I can, but I’ll count on understanding it later. Much later. Tonight’s penultimate episode begins with Dan Stevens, who stars as David, setting up quick catch-up scenes from previous episodes by saying, “Evidently, on Legion.” A perfect place-setter for what’s to come, which starts with a red-velvet theater scene that would have been right at home in Blue Velvet, and involves trips to the astral plane, a Garden of Eden tree of knowledge variant substituting cake for apples – and the start of a showdown that involves not only David, but his father, and the evil Farouk, and plenty of other Davids as well (pictured). That’s not to mention the time-travelers and the time-eaters – though I just did. What a wild, wonderful series.
