TV This Week May 11 - 17: ‘Penny Dreadful’ and more

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This week’s TV Movies

SUNDAY

Keep calm and get animated: John Oliver brings a bit of his trademark Britishness to a new episode of “The Simpsons.” 8 p.m. Fox

“Guy’s Grocery Games” is back for another go-round. 8 p.m. Food Network

Pray for “Rosemary’s Baby” — again. Zoe Saldana and Patrick J. Adams star in a new two-part miniseries based on the Ira Levin thriller. 9 p.m. NBC; concludes Thurs., 9 p.m.

Spend Mother’s Day with everyone’s favorite foulmouthed fourth-graders in the special “South Park: Momma’s Boys.” 9 p.m. Comedy Central

Eva Green bewitches, bothers and bewilders in the new Victorian-era supernatural drama “Penny Dreadful.” Josh Hartnett and Timothy Dalton also star. 10 p.m. Showtime

MONDAY

Jane Fonda, Rosie O’Donnell and other women who lost their moms in childhood share their stories in the poignant new documentary “The (Dead Mothers) Club.” 9 p.m. HBO

A clash between police and a radical group that led to a deadly conflagration in Philadelphia in 1985 is recalled in “Let the Fire Burn” on a new “Independent Lens.” 10 p.m. KOCE

Will Castle and Beckett (Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic) finally tie the knot? Find out on the sixth-season finale of “Castle.” 10 p.m. ABC

“Sons of Anarchy” creator Kurt Sutter and his real-life old lady, series costar Katey Sagal, hold court in “The Writers’ Room.” 11 p.m. Sundance

TUESDAY

The season finale of “NCIS” remembers the dearly departed Ralph Waite, who had a recurring role as Gibbs’ (Mark Harmon) father on the hit drama. 8 p.m. CBS

Hail, HYDRA? Not if “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” have anything to say about it in the series’ season finale. 8 p.m. ABC

“30 Rock’s” wonderfully wacky Kristen Schaal guest stars on the season finale of “Glee.” 8 p.m. Fox

The three-part special “Coming Back With Wes Moore” details the struggles some veterans face when returning home after serving in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. 8 p.m. KOCE

“Nick News With Linda Ellerbee” offers strategies for children on how to handle peer pressure. All the cool kids will be watching it. 8 p.m. Nickelodeon

There’s a “Riot” going on in this new series that subjects assorted celebs to outrageous in-studio stunts and improv challenges. First up: Steve Carell. 9 p.m. Fox

“Surviving the Kill Zone” is job one for a wide array of African wildlife in this nature documentary set in Zambia’s Luangwa Valley. 8 p.m. Animal Planet

“Frontline” takes an exhaustive, expansive look at the controversy surrounding the National Security Agency in the two-part episode “The United States of Secrets.” 9 p.m. KOCE

WEDNESDAY

“American Idol” hits the 500-episode mark. Which means Ryan Seacrest has intoned the phrase “This is ‘American Idol’!” something like 500 times. 8 p.m. Fox

Who gives a dam? Beavers, that’s who. Watch them get busy on a new episode of “Nature.” 8 p.m. KOCE

A 60-something singer who could show those “American Idol” whippersnappers a thing or two does so in the 2011 documentary “Charles Bradley: Soul of America.” 8 p.m. Epix

The so-called Beltway sniper shootings that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area in 2002 are revisited in the 2013 drama “Blue Caprice.” Isaiah Washington stars. 8 p.m. TMC

Cam and Mitch (Eric Stonestreet, Jesse Tyler Ferguson) are fixin’ to get hitched on a new “Modern Family.” Nathan Lane and Elizabeth Banks guest star. 9 p.m. ABC

Why tunnel out … when you could simply fly away? See just how far some British POWs got with their plans to build a glider and “Escape From Nazi Alcatraz” on a new edition of “Nova.” 9 p.m. KOCE

THURSDAY

Cristina, we hardly knew ye: Sandra Oh bids “Grey’s Anatomy” adieu on the medical drama’s 10th-season finale. 9 p.m. ABC

Street magician Michael Carbonaro plies his trade in the new series “The Carbonaro Effect.” 10 and 10:30 p.m. Tru TV

FRIDAY

The two-hour retrospective “Barbara Walters: Her Story” presents an over-”View” of the about-to-retire journalist and daytime-TV host’s decades-long career. 9 p.m. ABC

The late, great journalist who made a profession out of trying other people’s professions is celebrated in “Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself” on “American Masters.” 9 p.m. KOCE

Tom Hanks is “Captain Phillips” — at least until some Somali pirates seize control of his ship — in this taut, fact-based 2013 thriller directed by Paul Greengrass. 9 p.m. Starz

SATURDAY

The gang’s all here: Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez and the late Paul Walker star in 2013 franchise entry “Fast & Furious 6.” 8 p.m. HBO

Minnie Driver and Paul Adelstein play a couple grieving their stillborn first child in the 2014 drama “Return to Zero.” Alfred Molina and Kathy Baker also star. 8 p.m. Lifetime