HBO, 9:00 p.m. ET
Now that we’re already two episodes into Years and Years, and the near-future plot has moved more than five years ahead, we’ve seen how Russell T. Davies has imagined our political tomorrow – which has us witnessing, in this what-if global political drama, not only the re-election of Donald Trump, but the election, in 2024, of… President Pence. And Emma Thompson, as a reactionary British headline-grabber who ascends to MP, has just taken the reins of power back in the U.K. Add all the inventive, slightly scary technical innovations imagined here, and Years and Years feels like a miniseries offshoot of the brilliant, provocative Black Mirror – also from England, which is generating some terrific TV of late.
VH1, 9:00 p.m. ET
SERIES PREMIERE: This is not a recommendation. For two seasons, this forgettable TV spinoff of the Scream horror movie franchise was shown on MTV. Season 3 was planned for a 2016 debut on MTV, but has sat on the shelf until now – and now, three years later, appears not on MTV, but on sister network VH1. And not as a weekly series, but burned off as quickly as possible: two back-to-back episodes tonight, with two more televised Tuesday and Wednesday. In other words, VH1, presenting this in. a clump after a summer holiday weekend, is showing what amounts to a three-day version of “Write-Off Theater.” In summer, no one can see you, Scream.
FX, 10:00 p.m. ET
A future version of Syd (Rachel Keller) fears that the powerful mutant psychic David (Dan Stevens) is the reason the world ends, and travels back in time to kill him before that happens. David, meanwhile, hopes that if he travels back in time himself, he can put things right, and establish a new time line that doesn’t involve destroying the planet. And in the weird world of Legion, it’s quite possible they’re both right…