Prefer watching your TV on the edge of your seat? Then here are shows you can’t miss this week:
“Orphan Black” (Saturday, 9 p.m., BBC America): Every week, half of the fun of this show is guessing what they’re going to throw next at star Tatiana Maslany. Whether it’s adopting yet another accent seamlessly, sporting an Audrey Hepburn “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” look for a funeral, playing mom, kissing a girl both as a lesbian and a hetero pretending to be a lesbian, or singing in a musical about asthma, you almost forget that this young woman doesn’t in fact have three or four duplicates running around. No one is safe in this clone thriller.
“Game of Thrones” (Sunday, 9 p.m., HBO): At the end of last week, Dany (Emilia Clarke) made an offer to the Meereen slaves that they couldn’t refuse, and with the capture of the final slave city, she’ll get control of enough ships to sail to Westeros, where the Iron Throne is currently occupied by the recently deceased Joffrey’s (Jack Gleeson) seemingly weaker brother. And with the blood-thirsty Wildlings turning their attention to the undermanned Night Watch, we can expect no less than two battles that makes those bloody weddings look like, well, normal weddings.
“Fargo” (Tuesday, 10 p.m., FX): Want a crime series that isn’t the usual procedural? This series extracts some of the best elements of the 1996 Coen brothers flick and transforms it into the must-watch new series of the season. By the end of last week’s episode — the series’ second — we were already invested in each of these off-kilter characters, but if there was any justice in this world, Billy Bob Thornton would beat out the vaunted Matthew McConaughey for an Emmy, because Thornton manipulative psychopath killer is one of his juiciest roles.
“The Americans” (Wednesday, 10 p.m., FX): Amid the sinister international intrigue that has Philip (Matthew Rhys) asking the beautiful Annalise (Gillian Alexy) for help and Stan (Noah Emmerich) finally getting a clue this week, The Who’s Pete Townshend will lend an original song to this ’80s Cold War spy drama — although his previous work has been used for the theme songs to the various “CSI” iterations.
“Bates Motel” (Monday, 10 p.m., A&E): There are only two episodes left until the season finale, and let’s face it, Norman (Freddie Highmore) has already bought his ticket for the crazy train — his channeling his mother earlier this season was a highlight — although he is TV’s most sympathetic future serial killer. You don’t want to miss out on the conclusion to this psychologically challenging season, even if you already know the ultimate ending.