Your weekly guide to TV’s best and worst one-hour shows
A few final summer vestiges wrap up this week:
“Copper” (Sunday, 10 p.m., BBC America)
As we close in on the end to the first season of this Civil War-era police drama, Corcoran (Tom Weston-Jones) finally realized that his loving wife and daughter are not missing. Instead, he tracked wayward wife Ellen (Alex Paxton-Beesley) to a mental institution, and through an interrogation worthy of “Homicide’s” Pembleton, Corcoran learned the soapy truth: his unfaithful spouse mistakenly killed little Maggie when Ellen confused the girl’s cries for those of the dead baby Ellen aborted after getting knocked up by her lover — and Corcoran’s partner — Francis (Kevin Ryan). If Mama flips on the closed captioning, she can typically follow about three-quarters of the story, which is actually quite good. But devoting that much effort to a cop show that we essentially know the ending to requires too much energy amid an already packed schedule.
“Alphas” (Monday, 8 p.m., Syfy)
After Rosen went all Jack Bauer on Scipio, torturing him for info on bad guy Stanton (John Pyper-Ferguson) last week, the Alpha leader took a bullet to the stomach. And even though she knows David Strathairn is too good for the show and the character is bordering on irredeemable, Mama can’t deny that she’s rooting for the doc to pull through. The “X-Men” wannabes’ second season actually improved by recognizing that Strathairn is the reason everyone is tuning in, and handing him the strongest story. And after an entire season of moustache twirling, the everlasting Stanton revealed his evil master scheme to super charge the Alphas and wipe out everyone else, harnessing the brainy power of geek fantasy goddess Summer Glau, who returns for the second half of the finale.
“Boss” (Friday, 9 p.m., Starz)
Last week’s episode — Kane’s (Kelsey Grammer) betrayal of Mona (Sanaa Lathan) in exchange for casinos on the Lennox Gardens site, opponent Walsh’s (Amy Morton) lesbian revelation and Tina’s (Rebecca Spence) death — was so packed with action, it could have served as a season ender. However, we still have one-time adviser and loose-cannon Kitty (Kathleen Robertson) on the prowl, so Mama will be interested to see what other twists they can throw at us before the second season bows.
Oh, baby:
Speaking of finales, longtime Port Charles resident Jason Morgan, aka Steve Burton, checks out of “General Hospital” Monday after 21 years on the show. Mama had high hopes that the Quartermaine black (shirted) sheep would die saving his son, whom crazy Heather dangled off the hospital roof last week, but it looks like he’ll exit in less dramatic fashion, leaving the door open for his return.