CW, 8:00 p.m. ET
All the Greg Berlanti DC Comics superhero shows for the CW mount a cross-series narrative of some type each season, imitating the common practice, in both DC and Marvel Comics, to encourage sampling of the less popular titles by spreading a continuing plot among several of them. The same technique works on TV, or makes the attempt, as tonight’s Supergirl launches a new mini-miniseries story line, called “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” that eventually will envelop such sister CW series as Batwoman and The Flash, and include, before it’s over, not only those title characters, but Green Arrow, White Canary, the Atom, and even Superman.
Showtime, 8:00 p.m. ET
There’s a lot of change washing over Ray Donovan this season. Jon Voight, as Ray’s father, has been killed, resurrected and exiled out of the country – and those are only the events of three successive, respective episodes. Also in the third episode of this season last week: one of the show’s best supporting players, Katherine Moennig as Lisa, Ray’s private eye assistant, said goodbye and was last seen at the airport heading west – presumably, in real life, so that Moennig could free herself up for another Showtime series, reprising her role as the sultry Shane in the new incarnation of The L Word. And in tonight’s episode, Ray begins seeing a woman from his past… with typical complications.
HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
By sheer dint of its storytelling and directorial flair, Watchmen has become Sunday’s best TV show – and the closest thing to brilliantly told graphic novel television since FX’s Legion left the air. Once Angela (Regina King) followed the IV line patched into her arm and discovered that the other end was hooked to an… elephant, while Jeremy Irons’ Smartest Man in the World was convicted in court by a jury of his… pigs, I gave up trying to predict what was happening in this zoo. But I do believe it, I do believe it’s true. Or, at least, fascinating.
Showtime, 10:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: This sequel to The L Word, which ran from 2006-09 on Showtime, returns with some of the same characters – but, a decade later, also introduces and follows a new generation of characters, expanding its universe in other ways as well. Jennifer Beals, Leisha Hailey and the aforementioned Katherine Moennig reprise their original roles.
HBO, 10:05 p.m. ET
SERIES FINALE: This long-running HBO comedy, Mike Judge’s caustic and prescient satire of Silicon Valley, ends tonight. And given Judge’s sense of humor, and perspective, don’t be surprised if the ending to this take on Internet profiteers is more than a little apocalyptic.
HBO, 10:55 p.m. ET
SEASON FINALE: HBO has promoted this dramatization of the Tom Perrotta novel as a “limited series,” which should mean a miniseries with a definite end, which, in turn, should mean that tonight’s season finale is indeed the show’s final episode, period. But Big Little Lies was promoted and described by HBO the same way, and its popularity prompted an initially unplanned Season 2. So we’ll see. And, as long as HBO keeps making Mrs. Fletcher, I’ll be watching.
MGM HD, 12:00 a.m. ET
Jennifer Beals returns to TV tonight in The L Word: Generation Q, which premieres 10 years after the original L Word ended in 2009. But a full 20 years before that, in 1989, Beals starred opposite Nicolas Cage in this wildly original, criminally underappreciated black comedy film, about a lowly book editor (Cage) who becomes convinced the girl he met at a party actually was a vampiress who bewitched him and turned him into one of the walking undead. Having a knowledge of the silent vampire film Nosferatu will make Cage’s oversize performance more understandable – and given how Beals still looks and carries herself, 30 years later, lends some credence to the eternal vampire theory as well.