This Week on Sling TV
The first nine episodes of Better Call Saul have been far better than they had any right to be. Where fans once feared the show might tarnish the legacy of the near-perfect run of Breaking Bad, it’s turned out to be every bit as compelling, thanks to stellar writing, inventive direction of a piece with the Breaking Bad house style, and a lead performance by Bob Odenkirk that his past work has never even hinted at. Last week’s episode was probably the best of the series so far – something I think we’ve said three separate times so far – and the stage is set for a great season finale. (10pm Monday, AMC)
The war between North and South can be seen through a different lens with the two-part documentary Blood and Glory: The Civil War in Color, which tells the story through painstakingly colorized 19th-century photographs. Even realer than a re-enactment, because no one will be wearing sneakers or a watch! (9pm Tuesday and Wednesday, HISTORY)
Magician Penn Jillette and comedian Judy Gold take part in a Celebrity Wife Swap, trading an unconventional house and atheist worldview with a orthodox Jewish tradition in a New York City apartment. (9pm Thursday, Lifetime)
It’s pretty weird that a magazine once best known for snarky captions under candid photos of New York hipsters has transformed into a 60 Minutes for the 21st century, but that’s exactly what HBO’s VICE has done, and it returns from a hiatus this week with stories on the future of illegal drugs in America and the reality of sex-change surgery in the Muslim world. (11pm Friday, HBO)
The most anticipated 8-day span on the television calendar started with last week’s final- season premiere of Mad Men, and wraps up with the fifth season premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones. I have hungrily devoured every episode of this series and it occurs to me that I have almost no memory of where the story left off. Maybe this will help: (9pm Sunday, HBO)