1) “Gotham” series finale, 8 p.m. Fox. “This has been a long time coming,” Penguin tells Jim Gordon, as he prepares to kill him. It has, indeed; for five years, bad guys kept coming close to victory … then kept talking until someone intervened. Now all trends continue. As usual, this hour is too gory and too repetitious … with cops incapable of holding prisoners. And as usual, it has stunning, movie-quality sights and sounds. We jump ahead 10 years, with just enough glimpses of Batman to stir our souls.
2) “The Big Bang Theory,” 8 p.m., CBS. With only five episodes left for TV’s best comedy, Sheldon and Amy could be headed for happiness and a Nobel Prize. Tonight, we can worry about some of the others: Raj worries that he won’t be taken seriously, after saying he might have discovred alien life. Leonard wants to be in charge of a study, so Penny pushes him to be assertive.
3) “The Orville,” 9 p.m., Fox. The second – and, possibly, final — season concludes with more woes Last week brought time-twist trouble, with Ed dating a young version of his ex-wife Kelly, who’s on the crew. Tonigh, that leads to a crisis.
4) NFL draft, 8-11:30 p.m., ABC and ESPN. So far, ESPN has had this to itself. But now it must share the coverage with its sister network, ABC. They’ll simulcast Saturday (noon to 7 p.m.), but have separate coverage for Round 1 today and Rounds 2 and 3, from 7-11:30 p.m. Friday. ESPN leans to the hard-core fan; ABC aims mainstream with Robin Roberts (a former ESPN reporter), Jesse Palmer (a former pro quarterback) and – because this is in Nashville – Luke Bryan and Bobby Bones.
5) “Better Things,” 10 p.m., FX. Every detour here seems interesting. In last week’s episode, rerunning at 10:30, Pamela Adlon stepped aside and mostly focused on the fictional version of her mother and brother. Tonight skips her entire family: First, we see Sam (Adlon) at the club of her late father, a comedy writer; then we see her rehearse a Broadway play, with lots of others – Mark Feuerstein, Holland Taylor, Norm Lewis – as themselves. As usual, it’s oddly meandering and oddly enjoyable.