Shark Week Turns 30, a ‘Pose’ Showdown, CBS Comedy Finales
A critical checklist of notable weekend TV:
Bear Vs. Shark (Sunday, 8/7c, Discovery): Jaws turned 40 a few years ago, and Sharknado is airing its final chapter later this summer. And here’s another milestone: Discovery’s iconic Shark Week franchise turns 30 this year, and Sunday’s opening night features a star-heavy lineup including naturalist Bear Grylls facing off with ocean predators. This is followed by Shaq Does Shark Week (9/8c), in which Shaquille O’Neal attempts to overcome his fear of sharks, and Ronda Rousey Uncaged (10/9c), where the Olympian, MMA champ and WWE Superstar dives uncaged in New Zealand with the fearsome mako shark. As always, enter at your own risk.
Pose (Sunday, 10/9c, FX): RuPaul’s Drag Race, step aside. In the first-season finale of this flamboyantly impassioned celebration of the 1980s ballroom subculture in New York City, it’s time for the Princess Ball. Vying for top honors of “Mother of the Year” (also the episode title) are the House of Evangelista, run by Blanca (MJ Rodriguez), and the newly formed House of Ferocity, founded by House of Abundance refugees Lulu (Hallie Sahar) and Candy (Angelica Ross). Does that mean the fabulous but fallen Elektra Abundance (Dominique Jackson) is sitting it out on the sidelines? You know you have to watch to find out.
CBS Comedy Burnoffs: Remember Me, Myself & I? Or Living Biblically? These sitcoms, each unceremoniously booted from CBS’s Monday night lineup before they could finish their one and only season, air their final episodes on Saturday in a two-hour block. Three consecutive episodes of Myself begin at 8/7c, telling the story of Alex at three stages of life: Bobby Moynihan as mid-life Alex, John Larroquette as Older Alex and Jack Dylan Grazer as young Alex). In the finale (9/8c), each version of Alex has relationship issues. At 9:30/8:30c, Biblically delivers its last comic parable when Chip (Jay R. Ferguson) is fired for trying to get his boss (Camryn ManheiM) re-hired, prompting a confrontation with Corporate. Bless his heart.
Inside Weekend TV: Me, Myself & I may be history, but Bobby Moynihan resurfaces to play a round of ABC’s The $100,000 Pyramid (Sunday, 9/8c) opposite Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Melissa Fumero. Her co-stars Andre Braugher and Terry Crews face off in the show’s second half. … Another canceled comedy, Fox’s paranormal parody Ghosted (Sunday, 9:30/8:30c), gives up the ghost with its final episode, in which Leroy (Craig Robinson) and Max (Adam Scott) hope to prove their worth to The Bureau Underground by following new leads to the whereabouts of Agent Checker (Linc Hand). … The fractured family of HBO’s Succession (Sunday, 10/9c) should know better by now than to throw parties. But Tom (Matthew Macfadyen), who’s about to marry into this viper’s den, has a bachelor party anyway and may live to regret it.