What’s on TV this week—Conversations With Friends, The Time Traveler’s Wife, Angelyne

Welcome to What’s On, our weekly picks of must-watch shows. Here’s what you need to watch from Sunday, May 15 to Thursday, May 19. All times are Eastern. [Note: The weekend edition of What’s On drops on Fridays.]

The biggies

Conversations With Friends (Hulu, Sunday, 12:01 a.m.)

Author Sally Rooney’s specialty is love stories that wreck you, as seen in Hulu’s adaptation of Normal People. Next in line: Conversations With Friends, based on her 2017 book of the same name. The show centers on the quiet Frances (Alison Oliver) and her outgoing BFF Bobbi (Sasha Lane). They befriend novelist Melissa (Jemima Kirke), with Bobbi instantly developing a crush on her, while Frances falls for Melissa’s husband, Nick (Joe Alwyn). What follows are messy triangles that threaten to ruin multiple lives. All 12 episodes will drop on the same day. In his review, Manuel Betancourt writes:

As Nick and Frances’ relationship blooms (and ebbs and flows), Conversations With Friends offers glimmers of a fascinating proposition. Namely, Rooney’s book. “The novel is better” feels like such a tired line but there is something to be said about the expansive interiority prose allows and the way a TV adaptation can reduce rather than distill such a sensibility.

Steven Moffat does time travel yet again. The Doctor Who writer and showrunner brings Audrey Niffenegger’s novel to life in six new episodes. The Time Traveler’s Wife follows Henry DeTamble (Theo James), whose ability to fall through time (while always naked!) impacts his relationship with his wife Clare (Rose Leslie). But the show is less a complex sci-fi romance and more unwittingly corny and creepy. As Will Hughes writes: “It’s just a shame that The Time Traveler’s Wife sometimes feels, like its hero, as if it’s being pulled in a hundred different directions at once.”

Emmy Rossum follows up her long Shameless run with a starring role in her dream project, Angelyne. An unrecognizable Rossum plays the titular Angelyne, who was famous for being famous in 1980s Los Angeles, when more than 200 billboards featuring her likeness popped up across town. Rossum fully loses herself in the role and leads a cast that includes Hamish Linklater, Martin Freeman, Alex Karpovsky, and Lukas Gage. Keep an eye out for The A.V. Club’s review of the show, as well as an interview with Rossum, who’s a co-producer.

Hidden gems

Vampire In The Garden (Netflix, Monday, 3:01 a.m.)

Directed by Ryoutarou Makihara and produced by Tetsuya Nakatake, this anime is set in a world where humans and vampires once co-existed peacefully. However, tensions between the two species fractured their relationship, and now the hope for peace rests in the hands of a vampire queen and an ambitious violin player.

This three-part docuseries, co-produced by Darren Aronofsky, recounts an epic scandal and coverup. The story follows a boss in a trillion-dollar industry who discovers a shocking truth and creates a black ops conspiracy to hide the evidence. The thriller’s characters include a CEO nicknamed Iron-Ass, Exxon whistleblowers, and a NASA scientist.

After the success of the Australian dating series Love On The Spectrum, Netflix is following up with a U.S.-set version that will tell the unique, diverse stories of singles on the autism spectrum as they search for romance.

More good stuff

Katt Williams: World War III (Netflix, Tuesday, 3:01 a.m.)

Comedian Katt Williams hits Netflix with his new stand-up special, World War III. Filmed last January at Las Vegas’ Dolby Live Theater, the special features Williams diving into the the wildest and most popular conspiracy theories out there.

As the Cold War rages, Army sergeant Harry Palmer (Joe Cole) finds himself jailed for eight years, his prospects abruptly torn away. But an intelligence agency makes him, ahem, an offer he can’t refuse: avoid prison time by becoming a spy. The cast of this ’60s-set British espionage thriller includes Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander.

Adam Conover brings his signature blend of irreverence and insight to a comedic docuseries that pulls back the curtain on how the U.S. government impacts our everyday lives.

Can’t miss recaps

Barry (HBO, Sunday, 10 p.m.)

Better Call Saul (AMC, Monday, 9 p.m.)

This Is Us (NBC, Tuesday, 9 p.m.)

Atlanta (FX, Thursday, 10 p.m., season three finale)

Ending soon

The Equalizer (CBS, Sunday, 8 p.m., season two finale)

The Rookie (ABC, Sunday, 10 p.m., season four finale)

9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star (Fox, Monday, 8 p.m.-10 p.m.)

The Good Doctor (ABC, Monday, 10 p.m.)

The Resident (Fox, Tuesday, 8 p.m.)

Mr. Mayor (NBC, Tuesday, 8:30 p.m.)

The Goldbergs, The Wonder Years, The Conners, Home Economics, A Million Little Things (ABC, Wednesday, 8 p.m.-11 p.m.)

Halo (Paramount+, Thursday, 3:01 a.m.)

Made For Love (HBO Max, Thursday, 3:01 a.m.)

Station 19 (ABC, Thursday, 8 p.m.)

Young Sheldon, United States Of Al (CBS, Thursday 8 p.m.- 9 p.m.)

Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime (NBC, Thursday, 9 p.m.-11 p.m.)

The Big Sky (ABC, Thursday, 10 p.m.)