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Thursday, September 11, 2014

Television

Oliver Irwin/Syfy

"Z Nation": From left, Harold Perrineau, Tom Everett Scott and Kellita Smith in this apocalyptic Syfy series, which has its debut on Friday evening.

Television Review

If Driving Past Zombies, Don’t Stop

“Z Nation,” a series about life during a zombie apocalypse, has its premiere Friday on Syfy.

A ‘Downton’ Darling Turned Mr. Hyde

Dan Stevens, best known as the valiant Matthew Crawley in “Downton Abbey,” is going against type in a variety of new roles.

Lena Dunham Is Not Done Confessing

The creator of “Girls” takes her comedic oversharing into print with her first book.

Snapshot | Justin Elizabeth Sayre

Hitting Hollywood With Wit and Hankie

Justin Elizabeth Sayre is busy, as a writer of “2 Broke Girls” and host of the monthly variety stage show, “The Meeting*.”

The Death of Adulthood in American Culture

Charting the final, exhausted collapse of the adult white male, from Huck Finn to “Mad Men.”

The TV Watch

A World, From Scratch

“Utopia,” a new reality show on Fox, lets an odd assortment of types be themselves, together.

The TV Watch

Meet the Host: Defying the Rules

Chuck Todd began his new role as host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday and provided a reprieve from the pomposity and punchy diction common on the Sunday talk shows.

At Joan Rivers’s Memorial, Celebrities, Cameras and Crowds

Hundreds of people gathered in Manhattan to say goodbye to the comedian, who once wrote of the funeral she wanted: “a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action.”

So Good to Be Bad

Hope Davis (“Allegiance”), Yael Grobglas (“Jane the Virgin”), John Carroll Lynch (“American Horror Story” and Robin Lord Taylor (“Gotham”) embrace their roles as the season’s bad guys.

Diversity in Action, as Well as in Words

New ABC shows feature an Asian family comedy, a black actress as the star of a new drama, and a black family comedy.

Characters Inspired by You-Know-Who

“Madam Secretary,” “State of Affairs” and other new prime-time dramas offer heroines who advise the Oval Office and influence global events.

It Was Good Enough for Frasier and Mary

The coming season will have TV series set in Battle Creek, Mich., and Seattle, among other places.

Looking Back at Love, and Memories Differ

“The Affair,” a new Showtime drama series, is about an extramarital romance in which both parties, a married waitress and a married schoolteacher, are not easy to judge.

Modern Romance, With Laughs

ABC’s “Manhattan Love Story” and NBC’s “A to Z” are taking the same unusual approach to romantic comedies.

Television

Nucky Thompson, Back in the Day

HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” begins its fifth and final season, debuting Sunday.

Critic’s Notebook

Getting a Real Charge Out of Ghostly Visitations

Based on “Ghost Asylum” and “Angels Among Us,” there just may be an alternative energy source to harness in the spirit world.

The Upshot

Looking for John McCain? Try a Sunday Morning Show

The Upshot has created the McCain Count, a measure of how often figures from politics, journalism and other walks of life appear on the Sunday morning news programs.

Robin Roberts Forms TV Production Company

The company, Rock’n Robin Productions, will focus on creating documentaries, lifestyle reality series and live special events.

Fall Arts Preview — Times 100

How to wade through the crush of culture coming your way this season? Here’s a guide to 100 events that have us especially excited, in order of appearance.

Series Recaps
‘Masters of Sex’

Weekly recaps of the Showtime period drama.

‘The Leftovers’

Weekly recaps of the HBO drama.

‘True Blood’

Weekly recaps of the gothic horror drama on HBO.

‘Orange Is the New Black’

Weekly recaps of the Netflix prison drama.

‘Halt and Catch Fire’

Weekly recaps of the AMC 1980s tech drama.

‘Game of Thrones’

Weekly recaps of the HBO fantasy epic.

‘Fargo’

Weekly recaps of the FX crime drama.

‘Orphan Black’

Weekly recaps of the sci-fi thriller on BBC America.

‘Mad Men’

Weekly recaps of the period drama on AMC.

‘Penny Dreadful’

Weekly recaps of the Showtime horror thriller.

‘The Americans’

Weekly recaps of the Cold War spy drama on FX.

‘Downton Abbey’

Weekly recaps of the PBS costume drama, which ends its current season on Sunday.

Multimedia
A New Host for “The Late, Late Show”

James Corden, a British comedian who is relatively unknown in the United States, has just been tapped as the next host of CBS’s “The Late, Late Show.” A sampling of Corden’s recent appearances.

Shades of Hillary in TV Dramas

Shows like “State of Affairs,” “Madam Secretary” and “Political Animals” have characters with uncanny similarities to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Fashion at the 2014 Emmys

Looks from the red carpet at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards.

Emmy Award Winners

The 66th Primetime Emmy Awards took place at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles on Monday.

Tonight in Prime Time