‘Strain,’ VMAs, national parks highlight weekend
Fans of grotesque, shuffling, evil, possessed creatures that threaten humanity and must be destroyed should not miss “The Strain” (10 p.m. Sunday, FX, TV-MA), now entering its third season.
Based on a graphic novel by series co-creator Guillermo del Toro, this show differs from “The Walking Dead” in several gory and gothic details. While much of “The Walking Dead” takes place in a blighted heartland, “The Strain” is set mainly in New York City. And for those who take such things seriously, “The Walking Dead” is about zombies while “The Strain” concerns an intricate vampire conspiracy. And “The Strain” has a much more exotic and lurid visual style.
I’m sure both series are laced with political meaning and metaphor. But for some of us, once you’ve seen one evil creature’s head explode you’ve seen ’em all.
GROWN-UP GIBSON
Former teen pop star Debbie Gibson looks and acts her age in the otherwise formulaic romance “Summer of Dreams” (9 p.m. tonight, Hallmark). She plays Debbie Taylor, a singer of a certain age hoping to make a comeback in a transformed music industry.
“Dreams” is not without self-deprecating humor. We see Debbie anxious for her new gig and watch her performance, only to have the camera pull back to reveal that she’s performing for a sales event at a mattress store. We also see her treatment at the hands of a dismissive young music executive, clearly not born when she was at the top of the charts.
But after these moments of semi-realism, “Summer” becomes a Hallmark movie again. Debbie decides to leave New York and move in with her sister in heartland America. There she finds work as a substitute music teacher at the local high school. After a magical transformation — “School of Rock” by way of “Glee” — she’s got her groove back.
On a similar theme, “Oprah: Where Are They Now?” (10 p.m. Saturday, OWN) visits with Spice Girl Geri (“Ginger Spice”) Horner and former MTV VJ Ed Lover. We also meet Kathy Garver, who played teen big sister Cissy on the 1960s sitcom “Family Affair,” who reunites with her former co-star Johnny Whitaker.
Garver, who has enjoyed a career doing voices and producing and composing music for cartoons, has not left her signature sitcom behind. She has written “The Family Affair Cookbook” (2009) as well as her autobiography, “Surviving Cissy: My Family Affair of Life in Hollywood” (2015).
MTV AGAIN
A sure sign that summer is winding down and school is just around the corner, the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards (9 p.m. Sunday, MTV, MTV2, MTV Classic, BET, CMT, Comedy Central, Spike, TV Land, VH1, TV-14) will air live from New York’s Madison Square Garden.
This marks the first time the VMAs have taken place in the sports arena. The very first ceremony took place at Radio City Music Hall in 1984 and was hosted by Bette Midler and Dan Aykroyd. Over the past 30 years, the ceremony has become the place where the unexpected has come to be expected, if not contrived.
As this is a video and not a music award, it seems fitting that the most VMAs have gone to Madonna, whose career is all but synonymous with the art form. She has won 20 to Beyonce’s 15. Peter Gabriel has 13. This year’s scheduled performers include Nick Jonas, Ty Dolla $ign, Britney Spears and G-Eazy. Rihanna will receive the Video Vanguard Award.
PROUD OF PARKS
What started as an effort to protect and preserve a place of “boiling sulphur springs” has grown to be called “America’s best idea.”
“America’s National Parks at 100” (8 p.m. Sunday, Smithsonian) commemorates a century of National Parks and the more than 400 places now managed by the Park Service. While many associate the National Park Service with iconic locations including Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, the service has come to preserve and protect caverns, rivers and historical sites like Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg and Antietam.