Best-bets for Aug. 20: Season ends for two potent dramas

1) “Animal Kingdom” season-finale, 9 p.m., TNT. For four seasons, this has been all about “Smurf” Cody (Ellen Barkin), guiding her sons (including Craig and Deran, shown here) and grandson in a brutal crime family. Now she’s gone – dying of cancer, she forced them to kill her – and the family is in limbo. “Smurf’s dead,” someone says. “Cody don’t mean (bleep) anymore.” That’s said twice in this hour – the second time met with vigorous dissent. Setting up next season, it’s a deeply emotional hour that returns people from Smurf’s past. Read more…

1) “Animal Kingdom” season-finale, 9 p.m., TNT. For four seasons, this has been all about “Smurf” Cody (Ellen Barkin), guiding her sons (including Craig and Deran, shown here) and grandson in a brutal crime family. Now she’s gone – dying of cancer, she forced them to kill her – and the family is in limbo. “Smurf’s dead,” someone says. “Cody don’t mean (bleep) anymore.” That’s said twice in this hour – the second time met with vigorous dissent. Setting up next season, it’s a deeply emotional hour that brings back people from Smurf’s past.

2) “Pose” season-finale, 10 p.m., FX, rerunning at 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. The first season of this richly crafted series is up for six Emmys, including best drama series and best actor. That’s Billy Porter as Pray Tell, the vibrant emcee of the balls and an all-purpose mentor; tonight, the proposal of a new category stirs his old traumas. But the real focus is on Bianca (Mj Rodriguez), battered lately by a health setback and by departures; as the second season ends, she tries to reassemble her household.

3) “America’s Got Talent,” 8-10:01 p.m., NBC. Here’s the second of three quarter-final rounds, with 12 acts performing. On Wednesday, seven of them will advance. The same thing happens next week, giving us 21 semi-finalists – plus a wildcard. Those 22 reach the semi-finals, Sept. 3 and 10.

4) “FBI,” 9 p.m., CBS. After being on the shelf for half the summer, this is doubling (and more) its reruns. It will be Tuesdays and Thursdays for several weeks … adding a Saturday this week. Tonight, a leak has led to the murder of a key witness and a U.S. marshal.

5) “Cash Pad,” 10 p.m., CNBC. After spending the first few weeks turning tiny spaces – an Airstream and a storage unit – into short-term rentals, JoJo Fletcher and Jordan Rodgers switch to spots that are large and historic. Last week was a former munitions warehouse in Dallas; this one is a former bank building in Granbury, a Texas town of 8,000.

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