Enjoy a dramatic ‘Turn,’ but ‘Salem’ may be too schlocky

“Turn” (Sunday, 9 p.m., AMC): The newest offering from AMC is the story of America’s first spy ring, set during the Revolution. And while the series was based on Alexander Rose’s book “Washington’s Spies: The Story of America’s First Spy Ring,” it plays a little loose with history, although for the average viewer, most of the historical inaccuracies will range from negligible (the timeline is off by a couple years) to moderately jarring (some modern-sounding phrases are tossed in among the 18th century language). But New York takes center stage as the center of military intrigue, and even with a few alterations, the spy caper promises to be an engaging romp through history.

“Salem” (Sunday, April 20, 10 p.m., WGN America): This series posits the question: “What’s worse than a witch hunt?” Its answer is “a witch.” But Mama thinks what may be worse than a paranoid witch hunt is this series, which transforms a very tragic period in American history into a horror movie a la “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” but less funny. There’s a lot of blood, lust and fires, but the re-imagined tale of Salem, Mass., loses a chance to question why we have a history of fearing that which we do not understand in exchange for an “American Horror Story” wannabe.

“Hawaii Five-0” (Friday, 9 p.m., CBS): Rather than writing their own history, the tropical cop show let its viewers choose their own adventure for the upcoming episode. Fans opted for Jorge Garcia from “Lost,” as their guest star, because apparently all the “Lost” fans formed a voting bloc to reunite former cast mates Garcia and Daniel Dae Kim. Actually, Rob Corddry was selected as the guest star, but somehow Garcia is still sticking around for the winning storyline that has the Five-0 investigating the death of a macadamia nut tycoon’s daughter, who was murdered with a stiletto—which makes Mama question the value of allowing fans to have any say in a TV series.

“Being Human” (Monday, 9 p.m., Syfy): After four seasons of living in what it turns out is the house from hell, the roommates ended their penultimate episode last week with vamp Aidan (Sam Witwer) snapping the neck of wolfie Josh (Sam Huntington) as ghostly Sally (Meaghan rath) screamed in horror at her vision coming true. But Mama doesn’t really expect this scenario to set up the final episode of the series, as they’ve established Sally’s magical powers – besides being a ghost – which means they’ll inevitably undo the history of that episode and finish with a happy-ish ending.

“Game of Thrones” marathon (Friday, 9 a.m., HBo2): If you need a history lesson in this complicated fantasy series (starring Kit Harrington), HBO2 will air the complete series back-to-back, twice. Season 4 premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO.