EMPIRE: L-R: Toby Onwumere and Jussie Smollett in the "Never Doubt I Love" episode of EMPIRE airing Wednesday, April 24 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2019 Fox Media LLC CR: Chuck Hodes/FOX.

Best bets for April 24: Smollett’s moving farewell

1) “Empire,” 8 p.m, Fox. In a grim year for Jussie Smollett, here’s good news: He’s perfect in his final “Empire” episode. Smollet was fired amid suspicion that he faked a crime report; by then, however, this episode had been filmed, centering on the scheduled wedding of Jamal (Smollett) and Kai. We won’t say if the wedding happens – Jamal’s dad faces a federal probe and his own discomfort about a gay wedding – but we will say this: Smollett, an understated actor, is superb in a deeply moving hour. Read more…

1) “Empire,” 8 p.m, Fox. In a grim year for Jussie Smollett, here’s good news: He’s perfect in his final “Empire” episode. Smollet was fired amid suspicion that he faked a crime report; by then, however, this episode had been filmed, centering on the scheduled wedding of Jamal (Smollett) and Kai. We won’t say if the wedding happens – Jamal’s dad faces a federal probe and his own discomfort about a gay wedding – but we will say this: Smollett, an understated actor, is superb in a deeply moving hour.

2) “What We Do In the Shadows,” 10 p.m., FX. Sure, it seems pleasant to be a vampire, transforming at will into a bat. But what if you get clobbered in your bat form and then wake up later, a full-grown man wedged into a cage in the animal shelter? That’s one of the things to worry about in this fairly funny episode. It reruns at 11, surrounding a rerun of last week’s hilarious episode.

3) “Brockmire,” 10 p.m. ET, IFC. Everything seems to depress Jim Brockmire, including Florida, built on “swampland, mosquitoes and the last remnants of the Seminole empire.” Now he’s there for baseball spring training … and meets the one person more cynical than he is: It’s the mother who abandoned him as a child; she’s played by Linda Lavin, 81, in scenes that (like Brockmire) are both fun and depressing.

4) “Jane the Virgin,” 9 p.m., CW. Now that her husband Michael is no longer dead, Jane is floundering; so is the show. As her 30th birthday party (complete with unicorn) nears, she’s blowing her love for Rafael and their son. For now, this comedy-drama has fairly good drama and vanishing comedy.

5) “The Perfectionists,” 8 p.m., Freeform. Taylor is another character who’s back from the dead. (That seems to be a TV thing; it’s less common in real life.) As a few people find out, they worry about other things: Was it Mason who killed Taylor’s nasty brother Nolan and crashed a car into Caitlin? In some rather silly scenes, Ava tries to solve everything while putting on a big fashion show.

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