There are scores of TV shows out there, with dozens of new episodes each week, not to mention everything you can find on Hulu Plus, Netflix streaming, and HBO Go. How’s a viewer to keep up? To help you sort through all that television has to offer, Flavorwire is compiling the five best bets for the coming week. We all know Game of Thrones’ sixth season is coming to an end on Sunday; if you’re looking to escape the shadow of the dragon, check out these five selections.
Friday: Nathan Fielder on Comedy Bang Bang
TV’s favorite Canadian gonzo comic Nathan Fielder (of the brilliant Comedy Central reality spoof Nathan For You) is a guest on this week’s Comedy Bang Bang — alongside “Weird Al” Yankovic, to whom Fielder offers a bit of unsolicited business advice. This show is weird enough as it is, but Fielder’s appearance is bound to up the crazy quotient. Enjoy!
Friday: The Night Of Preview
HBO’s eight-episode limited series about a Pakistani-American college student (Riz Ahmed) who’s arrested for murder and winds up on Rikers Island awaiting trial doesn’t technically premiere until July 10. But the channel is previewing the first episode today on HBO GO, HBO NOW, and HBO On Demand. Created by veteran screenwriter Steve Zaillian (Schindler’s List, All the King’s Men, Gangs of New York, Mission: Impossible) and Richard Price, a Bronx native who wrote for The Wire, The Night Of takes a magnifying glass to the criminal justice system in New York City.
Sunday: Veep Season 5 Finale
It’s official: Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss) will not be the first elected woman president of the United States. Last week’s conceptual masterpiece, “Kissing Your Sister” — the title of both the episode and the documentary that Selina’s daughter has been making throughout the whole season — summed up the events of Season 5 while establishing that Selina’s frenzied bid for the Oval Office has been in vain. In the finale, Selina faces the possibility of landing back in the Vice President’s office yet again.
Sunday: Silicon Valley Season 3 Finale
A particularly twisty season of the tech satire comes to a close on Sunday, and the finale lets Erlich (T.J. Miller) shine. Miller — Silicon Valley’s MVP in my book — is hilarious in this episode, in which Richard (Thomas Middleditch) risks losing the support and loyalty of the Pied Piper team following the revelation that Jared (Zach Woods) bought a “click farm” in Bangladesh in order to boost the app’s daily active users.
Thursday: Night Train with Wyatt Cenac
Wyatt Cenac, the former Daily Show correspondent who was nominated for a 2015 Grammy for his comedy album Brooklyn, hosts a weekly stand-up showcase at Brooklyn’s Littlefield called Night Train. In February, several episodes of the live show were taped for a series set to premiere on NBC’s new subscription-based video service Seeso. If you don’t live in NYC, this is a great opportunity to check out some of the city’s best and brightest up-and-comers, all wrapped up in a very stylish package.