Super Sunday kicks off with 3 don’t-miss shows
That nail-biter of a Super Bowl may have been last Sunday, but today is Super Sunday for TV fans.
Check these out and warm up the DVR: Tonight brings the highly anticipated debut of AMC’s Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul; the even higher anticipated midseason premiere of fan favorite The Walking Dead; and the threehour musical extravaganza of the Grammy Awards.
Let’s take them in that order.
Better Call Saul. It’s so good, AMC is giving us twice the pleasure. The series premieres at the special time of 9 p.m. today after The Walking Dead, and a second episode airs at 9 p.m. Monday. The series will then continue to air Mondays at 9 p.m.
From Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan and writer Peter Gould, the series focuses on the evolution of the popular Breaking Bad supporting character Saul Goodman, portrayed by Bob Odenkirk, before he became Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) lawyer.
We’ll learn that Saul wasn’t always the slick top criminal lawyer in Albuquerque, N.M.
Starring with Odenkirk are series regulars Jonathan Banks ( Breaking Bad) as Mike Ehrmantraut; Michael McKean ( This Is Spinal Tap) as Chuck McGill; Rhea Seehorn ( House of Lies) as Kim Wexler; Patrick Fabian ( Big Love) as Howard Hamlin; and Michael Mando ( The Killing) as Nacho Varga.
The characters represent the legit and shady sides of the law.
Better Call Saul is set six years before Saul meets crystal meth mastermind White. When first we meet him, the man who will become Saul is known as Jimmy McGill, “a small-time lawyer searching for his destiny and hustling to make ends meet.”
Working alongside (and frequently against) Jimmy is “fixer” Ehrmantraut, a beloved character from Breaking Bad. The series will track Jimmy’s transformation into Saul, a man, AMC says, “who puts the criminal in criminal lawyer.”
Better Call Saul will have 10 episodes in Season 1 and already has the green light for a 13-episode second season.
The Walking Dead. Almost 15 million tuned in to the Season 5 first half finale Nov. 30. It was a tear-jerker because we bade farewell to sweet little Beth Greene (Emily Kinney), who had just stabbed evil hospital cop Lt. Dawn, who then reactively blew Beth’s head off, before being dispatched by an outraged Daryl. It was epic. OK. What now? The word is that Beth’s death will have “a significant effect on the direction” of our heroic little band and that things go exceedingly bad.
Eight episodes have aired this season, leaving eight more to go. Tonight’s offering, “What Happened and What’s Going On,” airs at 8 p.m. and comes with this deliberately nebulous summary: “After all the recent trials the group has faced, a slight detour might prove to be the solution they’ve been looking for.”
Detour? Let’s take stock: 1. Beth is dead. 2. The group now knows that no zombie cure is waiting in Washington. 3. They have no base of operations as they did in the prison. 4. They are living day to day with no goal to guide them.
What’s there to detour to? The last detour to Terminus didn’t work out too well.
Showrunner Scott Gimple told Variety that “things are gonna get super hard” in the last half of the season.
“Every eight episodes, it’s a new show,” Gimple said, “and these eight episodes coming up are very much aligned with that, maybe the starkest example of that so far.
“We begin in a very dark place and our group is broken by what’s happened. And then things change, but who are they by the time things change? That’s the question. Have they been so hardened that they won’t be able to recognize opportunities in front of them?”
Talking Dead. Stick around at 10:15 p.m. (a special time after Better Call Saul) for Chris Hardwick and the live chat show about tonight’s episode. Subsequent episodes air at 9 p.m. Sundays after The Walking Dead.
Grammys. The 57th Annual Grammy Awards takes up the entire evening (plus) on CBS, airing from 7 to 10:30 p.m. L.L. Cool J returns as host for the live event from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Each year, some of the best fun comes from the unusual duet performances of icons paired with relative newcomers. This year the collaborations include Tony Bennett singing with Lady Gaga; Hozier and Annie Lennox; Jessie J and the venerable Tom Jones; and Adam Levine with Gwen Stefani.
They join other performers, including AC/DC, Eric Church, Common with John Legend, Ariana Grande, Miranda Lambert, Madonna, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Usher, and Pharrell Williams.
Beyonce, Smith and Williams lead all artists with six nominations each, with all three in the running (along with Beck and Sheeran) for Album of the Year — considered the most prestigious award at the ceremony.