Show Excursions for This Week

TV will be getting more and more exciting over the coming weeks as we approach season penultimate and finale episodes.  Here's what I think is worth watching this week:

MONDAY, APRIL 22

Admittedly I know very little about this new, six-part series - which asks the question "What happens when you take a man who has been freed from death row and put him back into the world that has tried to shed him for nearly 20 years?" - except that it has an incredible trailer that pulls you right in and it's from the producers of Breaking Bad, one of the most outstanding series in recent years.  Enough to get me to watch.  Rectify premieres at 9 p.m. on Sundance Channel.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24

Supernatural welcomes back Felicia Day for a third appearance as Charlie Day (possibly channeling her inner Dana Scully Dean Winchester's (Jensen Ackles) Mulder?).  This is a terrific character that Day plays her with gusto and humor and Charlie is actually one of the few female characters that has managed to survive for return visits to the show (It is well-known that rabid female fans of the show do NOT like female guest star characters hoarding the attention of the boys.  Charlie is accepted most likely because she plays for the other team ...). Supernatural airs at 9 p.m. on the CW.

THURSDAY, APRIL 25

Tonight's episode of The Vampire Diaries is serving as a sort of pilot episode of the CW's new upcoming spin-off The Originals, which will follow the Original vampires - including Klaus (Joseph Morgan), Elijah (Daniel Gillies) and Rebekah (Claire Holt), among others - to New Orleans to tell their own ongoing stories.  If the new show is as compelling and addictive as its "sire" series, I'll definitely be tuning in.  The Vampire Diaries airs at 8 p.m. on the CW.