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What's on your HDTV this week: Watch Dogs, The Life Aquatic, Wil Wheaton, Mario Kart

richard lawler
Senior News Editor
Updated ·6 min read
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With Memorial Day come and gone and the temperatures rising, it's time to get ready for our summer TV schedule. The NBA and NHL are almost ready to enter the championship rounds of the playoffs, and most of the winter TV shows are out of the way. That means we have a few new entrants this week to take their place, including The Wil Wheaton Project, Crossbones and Undateable. HBO's Silicon Valley is also wrapping up with a season finale, but don't worry it will be back. For now, it will be replaced by AMC's new series Halt and Catch Fire, which focuses on a group trying to reverse engineer IBM's PC in the 80s. Also this week, NBC News will interview NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Movie and game fans have a lot of good options, lead by Watch Dogs, Mario Kart 8, and Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou on Blu-ray from Criterion. Still, Game of Thrones watchers are probably focused entirely on Sunday night's episode, and with good reason, while soccer fans can tune in to all of the 30 for 30: Soccer Stories flicks on Netflix, and catch up on the US National team (suddenly without Landon Donovan) with ESPN's documentary series update on Thursday. Check after the break for a list of what's new this week plus a few trailers, and drop in the comments if you see any highlights that we've missed.

Watch Dogs

After Grand Theft Auto V, the next big open world game is here, and it's Watch Dogs. Instead of focusing on crime and mayhem however, this one is more about technology and mayhem, with gameplay centered on hacking the environment around you to gain an advantage. Available on both current and yesteryear gaming systems (and PC), Joystiq has a full review if you need an extra push.

($59.99 on Amazon)

Crossbones

Apparently this year's TV season is all about Pirates. After Michael Bay's Black Sails showed off its interesting take on Blackbeard for Starz, NBC has its own with the new show Crossbones. John Malkovitch will play the legendary swashbuckler, but we wonder if network TV can handle this environment.

(May 30th, 10PM, NBC)

Mario Kart 8

The Wii U needs to dive deep into Nintendo's back-catalog of content to compete with the new systems, and it's finally ready to with Mario Kart 8. The series' jump to HD also brings tracks that run in every direction (gravity is not an issue here) and enhanced online play. Shells and banana peels have returned, as well as the usual cast of characters, so blow the dust off of that system and charge up the GamePad before this one is released on Friday.

(May 30th, $59.99 on Amazon)

The Wil Wheaton Project

Wil Wheaton has stuck around since his days on Star Trek, and tonight he launches his own show on Syfy. He'll be hosting a weekly roundup of things he likes from TV and the internet and he describes it as a sort of "Talk Soup for geeks". This approach has worked well for Aisha Tyler, Joel McHale and others over the years, and it will be interesting to see if The Wil Wheaton Project catches on in this niche.

(May 27th, 10PM, Syfy)

Blu-ray, Streaming movies & Games

  • The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Criterion)

  • Sleepaway Camp

  • Doctor Who: An Adventure in Space and Time

  • Death Spa

  • Gambit

  • Watch_Dogs (PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One. PC)

  • Ace Combat Infinity (PS3)

  • Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)

  • Worms Battlegrounds (PS4, Xbox One)

Tuesday

  • America's Got Talent (season premiere), NBC, 8PM

  • Coming Back with Wes Moore (season finale), PBS, 8PM

  • Rangers/Canadiens Game 5, NBC Sports Network, 8PM

  • Riot, Fox, 8PM

  • Spurs/Thunder Game 4, TNT, 8PM

  • I Wanna Marry "Harry", Fox, 9PM

  • Heroes of Cosplay (season finale), Syfy, 9PM

  • Deadliest Catch, Discovery, 9PM

  • The World Wars, History, 9PM

  • Growing Up Fisher, NBC, 9:30PM

  • The Wil Wheaton Project (series premiere), Syfy, 10PM

  • Comic View, BET, 10PM

  • Freakshow, AMC, 10 & 10:30PM

  • Fargo, FX, 10PM

  • Awkward, MTV, 10PM

  • The Listener, ION, 10, 11 & 11:59PM

  • Wild Things with Dominic Monaghan, BBC America, 10PM

  • Tosh.0 (spring finale), Comedy Central, 10PM

  • The Night Shift (series premiere), NBC, 10PM

  • Inside Amy Schumer, Comedy Central, 10:30PM

  • Faking It, MTV, 10:30PM

  • Small Town Security, AMC, 11PM

Wednesday

  • World Music Awards, NBC, 8PM

  • Rogue (season premiere), DirecTV 101, 8PM

  • Kings/Blackhawks NHL WCF Game 5, NBC Sports Network, 8PM

  • Melissa & Joey, ABC Family, 8PM

  • So You Think You Can Dance, Fox, 8PM

  • Baby Daddy, ABC Family, 8:30PM

  • Heat/Pacers NBA ECF Game 5, ESPN, 8:30PM

  • One Night Only: An All-Star Comedy Tribute to Don Rickles, Spike TV, 9PM

  • Rake (season premiere), DirecTV 101, 9PM

  • Nova, PBS, 9PM

  • Dual Survival, Discovery, 9PM

  • The 100, CW, 9PM

  • NBC News: Inside the Mind of Edward Snowden, NBC, 10PM

  • The World Wars (season finale), History, 10PM

  • Motive, ABC, 10PM

  • Catfish, MTV, 10PM

  • The Ultimate Fighter, Fox Sports 1, 10PM

  • Deal With It, TBS, 10:30PM

Thursday

  • Inside US Soccer's March to Brazil, ESPN, 8PM

  • Hollywood Game Night, NBC, 8PM

  • NHL ECF: Canadiens/Rangers Game 6 (if necessary), NBC Sports Network, 8PM

  • The Sixties (series premiere), CNN, 9PM

  • Undateable (series premiere), NBC, 9 & 9:30PM

  • Gang Related, Fox, 9PM

  • Anger Management, FX, 9:30PM

  • Last Comic Standing, NBC, 10PM

  • Maron, IFC, 10PM

  • Real World/Road Rules Challenge, MTV, 10PM

  • Black Box, ABC, 10PM

  • Comedy Bang! Bang!, IFC, 10:30PM

  • Loiter Squad, Cartoon Network, 11:59PM

Friday

  • Derek (season premiere), Netflix, 12:01AM

  • WWE SmackDown, Syfy, 8PM

  • NBA ECF: Heat/Pacers Game 6 (if necessary), ESPN, 8:30PM

  • NHL WCF: Blackhawks/Kings Game 6 (if necessary), NBC Sports Network, 9PM

  • Crossbones (series premiere), NBC, 10PM

  • Continuum, Syfy, 10PM

Saturday

  • 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, HBO, 8PM

  • NHL ECF: Rangers/Canadiens Game 7 (if necessary), NBC Sports Network, 8PM

  • NBA WCF: Spurs/Thunder Game 6 (if necessary), TNT, 8:30PM

  • Orphan Black, BBC America, 9PM

  • Da Vinci's Demons (season finale), Starz, 9PM

  • The Secret Sex Life of a Single Mom, Lifetime, 9PM

  • Sing Your Face Off (series premiere), ABC, 9PM

  • In the Flesh, BBC America, 10PM

Sunday

  • NASCAR Sprint Cup Series @ Dover, Fox, 12:30PM

  • Enlisted, Fox, 7PM

  • Pirates/Dodgers, ESPN, 8PM

  • NBA ECF: Heat/Pacers Game 7 (if necessary), ESPN, 8:30PM

  • Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, CNN, 9PM

  • Cosmos, Fox, 9PM

  • Game of Thrones, HBO, 9PM

  • Catching Hell (series premiere), Weather Channel, 9PM

  • Believe, NBC, 9PM

  • Nurse Jackie, Showtime, 9PM

  • The Normal Heart, HBO, 9PM

  • Turn, AMC, 9PM

  • Californication, Showtime, 9:30PM

  • Halt and Catch Fire (series premiere), AMC, 10PM

  • Silicon Valley (season finale), HBO, 10PM

  • Crisis, NBC, 10PM

  • Penny Dreadful, Showtime, 10PM

  • Veep, HBO, 10:30PM

  • Robot Chicken, Cartoon Network, 11:30PM

  • Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, HBO, 11PM