‘White Lotus’ Finale, ‘Heels’ on Starz, ‘Chesapeake Shores,’ An Unforgettable Ending, Brothers Battle on HGTV

Season Finale

9/8c

SUNDAY: Parting is usually such sweet sorrow, but the end of vacation may actually be a relief for the miserable travelers and the harried staff at the Hawaii resort as the addictive first season wraps on a sourly bittersweet note. We’ve known from the start that someone gets carried out in a coffin, but first there are plenty of meltdowns, reconciliations and reckonings—and an act that’s shocking even by pay-cable’s standards. The happiest news: There are more White Lotus resorts out there, and a future second season will introduce us to a new locale with new guests and hospitality workers who we can only hope will be as memorable.

Series Premiere

9/8c

SUNDAY: Few worlds interest me less than that of pro wrestling, which is why the wrestling drama Heels succeeds by focusing on a Cain-vs-Abel rivalry, emphasizing family and business strife over the staged and scripted mayhem in the ring. (It also made me wish Netflix would rethink its premature cancellation of the more whimsical GLOW.) Arrow’s Stephen Amell is the strong center of the series as Jack Spade, who runs the rural Duffy Wrestling League in Georgia. He’s an earnestly good-guy family man who plays the villainous “heel,” taunting the fans, while giving the glory to his bad-boy younger brother Ace (Vikings’ Alexander Ludwig), the heroic “face.” Conflict arises when the struggling Duffy League is challenged by more lucrative rivals to hold on to their talent, especially the rebellious Ace. And lest you think it’s all macho posturing, keep an eye on a strong female supporting cast including Kelli Berglund as Ace’s ambitious “valet” and the wonderful Mary McCormack as Willie, Jack’s frustrated business partner.

Season Premiere

8/7c

SUNDAY: The romantic drama is in for a shake-up in the fifth season, as divorced heroine Abby (Meghan Ory) parts ways with Trace (Jesse Metcalfe, who has left the series) and initiates a love-hate rom-com rapport with free-spirited self-made billionaire entrepreneur Evan McKenzie (iZombie’s Robert Buckley). He’s come to Chesapeake Shores to build a boutique hotel, a project nicely timed to Abby’s decision to join her dad Mick (Treat Williams) at O’Brien Construction. Sounds like the foundation for a new love story.

Season Finale

9/8c

SUNDAY: The compelling Masterpiece Mystery! series wraps its fourth season on a somber note, when the cold-case team is rocked by a tragic accident that leaves their leader Cassie’s (Nicola Walker) life in the balance. But there’s still a murder to be resolved, with dire consequences for everyone involved in the 30-year-old cover-up. This is British mystery drama at its best, but also sometimes at its darkest.

Series Premiere

10/9c

SUNDAY: First seen on discovery+, this cooking competition pits Top Chef veterans Bryan and Michael Voltaggio in a team contest where each mentors a group of chefs through challenges, with the ultimate winner getting the chance to take over a Voltaggio restaurant. (For those keeping score, Michael won season 6 of Top Chef, with Bryan a perennial runner-up, including in the All-Stars L.A. season and in Top Chef Masters.)

Inside Weekend TV:

• Eden: Untamed Planet (Saturday, 8/7c, BBC America, AMC and AMC+): The dazzling nature series heads to the remote Pacific paradise of the Galapagos Islands, home to 2,000 species of reptiles and mammals found nowhere else.
• Sealed with a Kiss: Wedding March 6 (Saturday, 9/8c, Hallmark Channel): In the sixth installment of the movie franchise, reconnected college sweethearts Mick and Olivia (Melrose Place alums Jack Wagner and Josie Bissett) finally tie the knot. But first they have to make sure an A-list actor (Nathan Witte) and his fiancée (Caitlyn Striker) get the wedding of their dreams.
• Dateline NBC (Saturday, 10/9c, NBC): While three kids from Carlsbad, CA, are downstairs watching morning cartoons in August 2012, a domestic dispute upstairs results in murder. Keith Morrison reports on the fallout.
• The End (Sunday, 8/7c, Showtime): The Australian dark comedy about euthanasia wraps its season with back-to-back episodes that lurch into melodrama when a double suicide invites a police raid into the retirement village, threatening to unravel Edie’s (Harriet Walter) enterprise. Back at home, daughter Kate’s (Frances O’Connor) neglected children encounter mortal danger during a storm.
• Wellington Paranormal (Sunday, 9/8c, The CW): The New Zealand horror-comedy import moves right into its second season with Officers Minogue (Mike Minogue) and O’Leary (Karen O’Leary) going oceanside to investigate reports of a sea monster from Maori legend that may be responsible for the disappearance of 10 anglers from Wellington Harbour.
• Invisible Monsters: Serial Killers in America (Sunday, 9/8c, A&E): A three-night docuseries, airing through Tuesday, draws links among five notorious modern murderers—Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, the Green River Killer and BTK—to try to explain their reigns of terror.
• A Discovery of Witches (Sunday, 10/9c, AMC): The final episodes of the second season, airing back to back, bring vampire Matthew (Matthew Goode) and witch-in-training Diana (Teresa Palmer) even closer together before they head back from Elizabethan England to modern times.
• The Walking Dead Season 11 Preview Special (Sunday, 9/8c, AMC): With the final season’s premiere a week away—unless you’re an AMC+ subscriber with access this Sunday—Chris Hardwick teases all of the zombie action and interpersonal conflict with executive producer Angela Kang, longtime regular Norman Reedus (Daryl) and newcomer Michael James Shaw, who plays the Commonwealth’s ruthless, red-armored leader Mercer.
• Tuca & Bertie (Sunday, 11:30/10:30c, Adult Swim): Renewed for a third season, the cult animated comedy finishes its second by recounting the time when Bird Town was coping with a natural disaster and Bertie (Ali Wong) helps Tuca (Tiffany Haddish) deal with some personal ghosts. After all, that’s what friends are for.