Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel
Correspondent Jon Frankel talks to dogsled-racing legend Lance Mackey, who won four consecutive Iditarod races while battling throat cancer. Other segments include a profile of Lane Kiffin, the controversial new head coach of the USC Trojans who left the Tennessee Volunteers after only one season, as well as an update on Kyle Maynard, who became a championship high school wrestler and a martial artist, despite being born without forearms or lower legs. Finally, Real Sports takes a look at a surprising new trend: barefoot running. Tuesday, May 18, at 10 p.m., HBO
Independent Lens: Project Kashmir
Two friends, American women of South Asian descent—one Indian Hindu, the other Pakistani Muslim—travel to Kashmir in search of Kashmiris’ own perspectives on the ethnic conflict that has divided the region for 60 years. Amid breathtaking scenery, they find bitterness and distrust, but also signs of hope. Tuesday, May 18, at 10 p.m., PBS; check local listings
Rough Aunties
This documentary follows the work of Operation Bobbi Bear—an interracial group of women who investigate cases of child molestation and neglect in AIDS-ravaged South Africa. Using brightly colored bears with which the children can demonstrate the often horrific abuses that they have suffered, these self-described “rough aunties” pursue perpetrators that authorities ignore. Wednesday, May 19, at 8 p.m., HBO2
Vanguard
This Peabody Award–winning series begins its fourth season with a story about itself: In 2009, correspondents Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were working for Current TV in North Korea, were detained and held for four months in captivity. In addition to interviews with both reporters and their producer, the episode presents previously unseen footage and correspondence. Wednesday, May 19, at 10 p.m., Current TV
Lost
After six seasons of outlandish plot twists, alternate timelines, cryptic numbers, and philosophical allusions—not to mention nine Emmys—the final fates of the best-loved fictional castaways since Robinson Crusoe will be revealed in the two-and-a-half-hour series finale. Lost: The Final Journey, a recap of the preceding 120 episodes, airs at 7 p.m. Sunday, May 23, at 9 p.m., ABC
Other highlights
The Office
In the Season 6 finale, the hunt is on for the whistle-blower who leaked some inconvenient news to the press about Dunder Mifflin’s corporate parent: The printers they manufacture tend to catch fire. Thursday, May 20, at 9 p.m., NBC
Shameless
The award-winning British drama about a rowdy clan in working-class Manchester returns for a new season. Friday, May 21, at 9 p.m., Sundance Channel
Masterpiece Mystery! Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Series V
Julia McKenzie returns as the spinster sleuth, out to solve a series of poisonings that have occurred in the wake of a Hollywood actress’ arrival. Sunday, May 23, at 9 p.m., PBS; check local listings