What to watch — and what to skip — this Father’s Day weekend:
Don’t miss
“The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation” 7 p.m. Sunday, Cinemax: This year’s Academy Award winner for best animated short, John Canemaker’s “imagined conversation” with his father, who died in 1995, is more personal, more emotional, more compelling than most feature films these days. In an attempt to better understand an often-violent father, Canemaker interviewed his dad shortly before his death, and the resulting 30-minute feature recalls that interview through the eyes of the son. Canemaker’s father had quite the life: ties to the mob, jail time, two Purple Hearts for World War II, where he fought on Omaha Beach. And though the father and son both remember good times, “somehow,” says the hand-drawn son (voiced by John Turturro) to his father (voiced by Eli Wallach), “the unhappy memories are stronger. . . . You were always angry. That’s what I remember most about you.”
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“Father of the Bride,” 8 p.m. Sunday, HBO Family West: For some lighter Father’s Day fare, try 1991’s remake of the Spencer Tracy classic, this time starring Steve Martin as the reluctant father of the bride, a glowing Diane Keaton as his wife/warden and Martin Short as the slightly flamboyant wedding planner. (HBO Family is also playing “Father of the Bride Part II” at 9:45 p.m., but don’t waste your time. Remake good; sequel bad.)
“The Dead Zone,” 9 p.m. Sunday, USA: For meat-and-potatoes genre fare, you can’t go wrong with this stalwart series, which follows the adventures of Johnny Smith (Anthony Michael Hall), who has the ability to see the future when he touches certain objects or people. What sounds like a cheesy premise is actually often evocative and intriguing, though “The Dead Zone” can also slide into the predictable. Still, the overarching plot of recent seasons — about the ascent of sleazy pol Greg Stillson (the wonderfully creepy Sean Patrick Flanery), is good stuff — and it’s at the forefront as the fifth “Zone” seasons begins. (By the way, on his blog at usanetwork.com, executive producer Lloyd Segan puts to rest rumors that this is the show’s last year.)
Don’t bother
“Treasure Hunters,” 7 p.m. Sunday, WMAQ-Ch. 5: I’ll make this quick: NBC’s new and product placement-heavy adventure reality series, in which teams “from every walk of life” compete for a hidden treasure, is a poor man’s “Amazing Race.” Unless you’ve never heard of Visa, Motorola, Ask.com or Orbitz, Sunday’s two-hour premiere is a waste of time.
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