This Week On Sling TV
Bates Motel, A&E’s prequel series to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic 1960 horror film Psycho, has turned out much more compelling than anyone expected, thanks to a magnetic lead performance by Vera Farmiga as Norman Bates’ mother Norma. The show is in the middle of a critically acclaimed third season. (9pm Monday, A&E)
The Revolutionary War is the setting for AMC’s TURN: Washington’s Spies, depicting the espionage of the men who turned America from an English colony into the United States. The second season begins with back-to-back episodes. (9pm Monday, AMC)
Because of its increasingly silly sequels, it’s easy to forget that First Blood, the movie that introduced Sylvester Stallone’s haunted Vietnam veteran John Rambo, is really, really great, with possibly Stallone’s best performance, plus great supporting turns from Brian Dennehy and Rickard Crenna. (8pm Wednesday, AMC)
A new episode of ESPN’s stellar documentary series 30 For 30 is always worth noting, and the latest, “Sole Man,” focuses on sports marketer Sonny Vaccaro, who created Nike’s “Air Jordan” campaign, which had a lasting impact on basketball from the 1980s up to this very day. (9pm Thursday, ESPN)
Tatiana Maslany has been giving the best performance – actually performances – on television in the first two seasons of Orphan Black, the story of a woman who learns she’s one of several identical clones with wildly different personalities. The series originated on BBC America, but AMC has licensed broadcast rights to the third season, which begins this week. (9pm Saturday, AMC)
Nobody needs to be told to watch Game of Thrones anymore, but you may need to be told to keep it locked on HBO afterward for Veep, for my money the funniest show on television, thanks to the best comic actress alive in Julia Louis-Dreyfus, a stellar supporting cast, and a focus on the grasping pettiness that comes with politics, rather than policy. (10:30pm Sunday, HBO)