Visit ‘Wayward Pines’ to get seriously creeped out
Summer’s coming! Time to pull down the shades! Now in its second season, “Wayward Pines” (8 p.m., WHBQ-TV Channel 13) returns viewers to the creepy planned community where everything and everyone seems placid — except for the public executions and the bizarre mutant mayhem just beyond the walls that encircle the village.
There’s a voice-over recap at the beginning of the season opener that will catch viewers up with the revelations and explanations that arrived at the end of season one. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I’ll let those viewers who care find out for themselves.
Jason Patric joins the cast as Dr. Theo Yedlin, mysteriously smuggled into the mystery village by shadowy forces facing a growing rebellion. Like everyone, including much of the audience, he’s a bit baffled about what’s going on. Hope Davis, an actress I’d watch in just about anything, stars as a medical researcher with ominous motivations.
Bottom line: “Wayward Pines” is both murky and rather slow-moving. The ratio of confusion and tedium to action and character development is decidedly high.
Last week, ABC canceled “Nashville” (9 p.m., WATNTV Channel 24). It wraps up its fourth season in typical cliff hanger fashion. Juliette decides to face the truth about Jeff Fordham’s fatal fall. Rayna tries to save Maddie from her decisions, and Scarlett and Gunnar try to figure out their on-andoff relationship.
Fans are hoping that show’s fate is also part of a cliffhanger with a happy resolution. Hopes abound that the series will find a home on cable or a streaming network, much in the same way that Hulu saved “The Mindy Project” or Netflix picked up “Longmire.”
“Nashville” star Connie Britton is already used to this. “Friday Night Lights” had ratings too low for NBC, so that series migrated to DirecTV’s Audience Network.
“Nashville” was always about more than ratings. It attracted a healthy DVR and delayed-streaming audience on Hulu and ABC. com. It was also a tourist boost for Nashville, and its host city gave “Nashville” incentives to film there.
The show’s relationship with Music City may be complicated by the passage of Tennessee’s House Bill 1840, seen as discriminatory against the LGBT community. Both Britton and Chris Carmack (Will Lexington to the show’s fans) have publicly stated that the law makes them uncomfortable about working in the state.
This public clash of values almost seems like it was lifted from a “Nashville” script.
In an appearance last week on “Late Night With Seth Meyers,” Britton struck a valedictory note. She thanked fans and mused, “Look ... to have four years on anything, you can never take that for granted.” That sounds like somebody may already have “Nashville” in her rearview mirror.
TONIGHT’S SEASON FINALES
An outbreak leaves too many lives to save on “Heartbeat” (7 p.m., WMCTV Channel 5).
Love beckons, but duty calls on “Rosewood” (7 p.m., WHBQ-TV Channel 13).
Oliver fights the Darhk side on “Arrow” (7 p.m., WLMT-TV Channel 30).
On two episodes of “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders” (WREG-TV Channel 3): Spain (8 p.m.), Haiti (9 p.m.).
An accused officer’s union plays hardball on “Law & Order: SVU” (8 p.m., WMC-TV Channel 5).
God only knows on “Supernatural” (8 p.m., WLMT-TV Channel 30).
A victim has links to Voight’s son on “Chicago P.D.” (9 p.m., WMC-TV Channel 5).
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
The voices of Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres animate the 2003 fantasy “Finding Nemo” (7 p.m., WATN-TV Channel 24).
Two helpings of “Genius By Stephen Hawking” (8 p.m. and 9 p.m., WKNOTV Channel 10) consider imponderables.
Elizabeth ties up the loose ends of a painful, personal operation on “The Americans” (9 p.m., FX).