Best-bets for May 5: One drama perishes, another begins

1) “Parish” season-finale, 9 p.m., AMC, repeating at 10. A great story has an ending that’s merely semi-great. Gray Parish (Giancarlo Esposito, shown here) is a former getaway driver with conflicting goals – revenge his son’s death or withdraw from the crime world, to preserve the rest of his family. Now those collide. The finale is well-crafted and high-octane, yet feels out-of-sync with what preceded it. Read more…

1) “Parish” season-finale, 9 p.m., AMC, repeating at 10. A great story has an ending that’s merely semi-great. Gray Parish (Giancarlo Esposito, shown here) is a former getaway driver with conflicting goals – revenge his son’s death or withdraw from the crime world, to preserve the rest of his family. Now those collide. The finale is well-crafted and high-octane, yet feels out-of-sync with what preceded it.

2) “MaryLand” opener, 9 p.m., PBS. One sister (Eve Best) stayed close to home; she married, had a family, kept an eye on her aging parents. The other (Suranne Jones, who co-created this three-parter), went away; she has a fancy job, a lover and no feeling for her old life. Then some jolts force them together, as they learn about a secret life. A richly layered human story unfolds.

3) More PBS dramas. At 8 p.m., an inconsistent “Call the Midwife” season ends with a shrug. At 10, however, “Guilt” remains intriguing. As last week’s season-opener ended, the brothers were fleeing in a stolen van. Max said they were heading to the only choice they had left. That creates some quietly moving moments, before the wild twists resume.

4) “American Idol,” 8-10 p.m., ABC. Two weeks from the finale, the top seven face two tasks – a dance song and an Adele song. Ciara mentors, Meghan Trainor performs and viewers vote. That will trim down to five; by the end of next Sunday, there will be three.

5) ALSO: At 7 p.m., CW has “Walk the Line” (2005), the terrific story of the Johnny Cash/June Carter romance; Freeform has “Encanto” (2021), the animated delight. There’s more animation on Fox, from “Simpsons” at 8 (Marge secretly spends a windfall on herself) to the season’s second-to-last ”Grimsburg” at 9:30 (a de-aging potion).
— Mike Hughes, TV America

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