With the end of winter come the season-finales of popular and niche shows such as “The Walking Dead,” “Girls” and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” We’ve already said goodbye till next year to “Downton Abbey” and “True Detective” — and will soon see “How I Met Your Mother” sign off for good — but there’s lots more to watch starting this week and in the coming month with the return of “Game of Thrones,” “Mad Men” and “Orphan Black” and the premieres of “Fargo,” “Black Box” and the controversial remake of “Rosemary’s Baby.”
March 31
“Friends with Better Lives” (9 P.M., CBS)
Six friends at different stages in their lives — married, divorced, newly engaged and single — worry if they are truly happy. First world problems? You bet. A happily married couple with one toddler and another baby on the way miss their old lives as swingers. A divorced dude preaches the single life but pines for his ex. A career woman is headed for a breakdown when she realizes her last remaining single girlfriend just got engaged.
April 6
“Game of Thrones” (9 p.m., HBO)
“Game of Thrones” fans know that last season’s Red Wedding isn’t the only ceremony to take place in Westeros. Coming up quick in Season 4 of HBO’s fantasy epic is the Purple Wedding, which has even bigger ramifications for the War of the Five Kings. The show sets a fast pace this season, with fighting continuing to rage across the continent, with Danaerys (Emilia Clarke) and her three dragons in the South, Jon Snow at the Wall in the North, and plenty of machinations going on in the center at King’s Landing. While arrows, poison and dragons all prove to be deadly foes in “Game of Thrones,” scheming can be equally fatal.
“Turn” (9 p.m., AMC)
Based on the Alexander Rose book “Washington Spies,” “Turn” is the true story of the Culper Ring, a group of friends who helped George Washington gather intelligence during the Revolutionary War. The ringleader is Abraham Woodhull (Jamie Bell), a struggling farmer who is recruited by Ben Tallmadge, a Continental dragoon in Washington’s army, to feed information on soldiers and naval transports to the general through a courier. The real-life aspect of the story (the production values include a series of maps that document locations such as Setauket, LI, Brooklyn Harbor and even New Jersey) will hold viewers’ attention as the plot clicks into place.
“There are a lot of surprising elements in this story,” says Seth Numrich, who plays Tallmadge. “We all know how it ends, right? But I think what will be surprising is how we get there. A lot of people know the end result but not all the complicated steps along the path.”
“Silicon Valley” (10 p.m., HBO)
Geeks will rejoice as their experiences as the world’s maladjusted are told — yet again! — in another half-hour comedy. This one is called “Silicon Valley.” Here, the setup finds four geeks who live together in a house owned by a dot-com millionaire who asks for a 10 percent stake in their projects in exchange for monthly rent. Created by Mike Judge (“King of the Hill”), a Silicon Valley engineer himself, the series stars Thomas Middleditch and T.J. Miller.
April 13
“Nurse Jackie” (9 p.m., Showtime)
Here we go again. On the first anniversary of her sobriety last season, Jackie (Edie Falco) fell off the wagon and popped a pill. Co-star Merritt Wever won a surprise Supporting Actress Emmy, too.
“Mad Men” (10 p.m., AMC)
How long can you go, Don Draper? Low enough to deliver a monologue about your mother the prostitute during an important sales pitch. Or get caught boning the downstairs neighbor by your eldest child and then begging her not to rat on you. As the final season of “Mad Men” begins — the series concludes next summer, in 2015 — we think back to where we left off with Don (Jon Hamm). He was standing across the street from the house he grew up in, showing it to his kids. Will he finally own his past? Or, as the opening credits have suggested now for six seasons, will he jump off the building where he works? Many people found Season 6 of this show depressing. The glamour was still there but we could also see the rot beneath the show’s shiny veneer.
April 15
“Fargo” (10 p.m., FX)
CBS tried to make a series out of the Oscar-winning movie with Edie Falco in her pre-“Sopranos” days, but it didn’t take. Now FX makes another valiant attempt. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Lorne Malvo, a rootless man who meets and forever changes the life of small-town insurance salesman Lester Nygaard, played by Martin Freeman (“Sherlock”). Colin Hanks plays Duluth Police Deputy Gus Grimly and Allison Tolman also stars as deputy Molly Solverson.
April 19
“Orphan Black” (9 p.m., BBC America)
The amazing Tatiana Maslany returns as Sarah Manning, subject of the Dyad Institute’s Orphan Black Neolution clone experiment. Maslany plays Manning as well as her still-living clones — Alison, Cosima and Rachel. This season, Sarah is in a desperate race to find her missing daughter Kira, a wild pursuit that brings her head-to-head with ruthless pro-clone Rachel (Maslany). Meanwhile, Sarah’s clone sisters Alison and Cosima struggle to keep their clone world a secret while dealing with the harsh reality that no one around them can be trusted
April 24
“Bad Teacher” (9:30 p.m.,CBS)
Based on the hit film starring Cameron Diaz, a former trophy wife masquerades as a teacher in order to find a new man after her wealthy husband leaves her penniless. Meredith Davis (Ari Graynor) is inspired by her friend’s stepdaughter to devise the perfect three-step plan: 1) Pose as a teacher at Lily’s ritzy middle school; 2) Meet and marry a rich single dad; 3) Return to a lavish lifestyle. Using a phony résumé, Meredith effortlessly charms Principal Carl Gaines, who is easily duped and oblivious to her agenda, and she is on her way.
“Black Box” (10 p.m., ABC)
Being bipolor did not stop Carrie Mathison from becoming a top CIA agent on “Homeland” and neither will it stop Dr. Catherine Black, a renowned neurologist played by Kelly Reilly (“Flight”), from treating rare, highly visual, often hallucinogenic and startling conditions while keeping her own a secret. Black is medical director at a New York brain hospital known as the Cube. She has a good shrink (Vanessa Redgrave), and two gentlemen callers — a chef (David Ajala) and a Romeo in a lab coat (Ditch Davey) — who can deal with Black’s highs and lows. “Black Box” is an edgy, character-driven medical procedural that focuses on the world of progressive medicine.
MAY 5
“24: Live Another Day” (8 p.m., Fox)
Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) returns with a new adventure set completely in London. Best part of all: Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is with him. The clock is ticking.
May 11
“Penny Dreadful” (10 p.m., Showtime)
Showtime is cooking up a real monster mash: A supernatural drama called “Penny Dreadful.” The series is set in 1891’s Victorian England and combines some of the greatest stars of the monster universe, including Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein. And while that may feel like overworked territory, creator John Logan, best known for writing the feature film “Skyfall,” promises that the subject matter will explore very modern themes.
“I started thinking about why we are still reading ‘Frankenstein,’” says Logan. “And I think it’s because the monsters break my heart. And personally speaking, growing up as a gay man before it was as socially acceptable as it is now, I knew what it was to feel different, to feel alienated.”
Series stars include Josh Hartnett (“Black Hawk Down”), who plays an American intrigued by ghouls, and French actress Eva Green (“Casino Royale”), who plays a rebel trying to break free from a repressive society.
The title, “Penny Dreadful,” comes from the name given to inexpensive suspense stories published in the 19th century. Logan says he was inspired by the old Universal horror flicks of the ’40s and ’50s “where all of a sudden they would start mixing and matching the Wolf Man with Dracula and Frankenstein. And I thought: I wonder if there’s a way to do that now and to take the characters seriously.”
May (Date TBA)
“Rosemary’s Baby” (NBC)
The tag line for the 1968 Roman Polanski masterpiece was “Pray for Rosemary’s Baby.” News of a remake could have many devotees of the movie reaching for their rosaries. Why would anyone remake a perfect film? We will soon find out.
The setting has been moved from the Dakota apartment building in New York to a pad in Paris, where Rosemary (Zoe Saldana) and Guy Woodhouse (Patrick J. Adams) move to leave a troubled past behind. Everything seems wonderful at first. The neighbors, Roman (Jason Isaacs) and Margaux Castevet (Carole Bouquet), are so friendly. Well, maybe a little too friendly. Then, Rosemary becomes pregnant and Guy’s career takes off. But something isn’t right. Rosemary’s quizzical nature leads her to investigate the building and its past residents. She realizes her husband may have made a diabolical pact with the Castevets, one that could endanger her unborn child.
Interviewed on the Paris set of the film, Saldana addresses the controversy this way:
“I wasn’t brought in to do a remake of Mia Farrow’s performance, but do a part of the telling of the book,” she says. “Mia did do a very beautiful job. She was also playing a woman of that era, one who was more innocent and fearful of defying authority. Had I played Rosemary like that, I don’t think a lot of women today would be able to identify with that.”
May 25
“The Normal Heart” (9 p.m., HBO)
Ryan Murphy, creator of “Glee” and “American Horror Story,” tackles the most serious subject of his eclectic career when he adapts Larry Kramer’s play “The Normal Heart.” The incendiary work depicts the early years of the AIDS epidemic as the disease devastates a group of professional young men in New York City, some of whom are based on real-life figures. A revival of the play was staged on Broadway a few years ago and won several Tony Awards.
Murphy has reeled in some big names who will have subvert their star wattage to Kramer’s polemics. Julia Roberts plays the German Dr. Emma Brookner (without any accent and in a wheelchair). Mark Ruffalo plays Ned Weeks, a gay activist. The supporting cast includes Matt Bomer, Jonathan Groff, Jim Parsons (who reprises his role from the revival), Taylor Kitsch and Denis O’Hare.
Additional reporting by Robert Abele, Paige Albiniak, Reine Marie Melvin and Deborah Starr Seibel