This weekend: ‘Falling Skies’ season finale; Lucille Ball celebrations; ‘Breaking Bad’ brilliance

Lucille Ball, Bryan Cranston and Steven Spielberg all have a chance to shine this weekend.

TNT’s “Falling Skies” from executive producer Spielberg ends its first season with passionate performances, stellar special effects and a chilling yet moving cliffhanger. The two hours, beginning at 9 p.m. Sunday, set up a 10-episode second season next summer.

The season finale echoes the vivid style of Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “War of the Worlds.” His touch is evident in the heroic children, the history lessons and the childlike wonder in technology. Still, it’s a bleak backdrop, one reminiscent of ”Saving Private Ryan,” as survivors struggle to carry on after extraterrestrials wiped out 90 percent of humanity.

Noah Wyle supplies most of the hope as Tom Mason, a history professor turned resistance fighter. Driven by concern for his three sons, Tom pushes himself and stands up to the resistance leader, played with creepy efficiency by Will Patton. And Tom must outwit the aliens, who are startling in their look and vicious in their intentions.

That cliffhanger should keep people talking about “Falling Skies.” It’s a game-changer, for sure.

Also of note:

***Bryan Cranston continues his brilliant run on “Breaking Bad” at 10 p.m. Sunday on AMC.

***”In Plain Sight’ ends its fourth season with an episode called “Something Borrowed, Something Blew Up.” Mary McCormack continues her winning ways at 10 p.m. Sunday on USA.

***Tom Brokaw delivers a major report on “Dateline NBC” at 7 p.m. Sunday. He reports “The Road Back,” which examines how the Iraq war affected three families in profound ways.

***Saturday would have been Lucille Ball’s 100th birthday. Hallmark Channel will salute her with a 48-hour, 96-episode marathon of “I Love Lucy” episodes. The fun starts at 6 a.m. Saturday.

TCM salutes Ball with a day of movies that start at 6 a.m. Saturday. Her beauty in showcased in all its Technicolor glory in “Du Barry Was a Lady” at 6 a.m. She upstages Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn — not an easy thing to do — in “Without Love” at 9:30 a.m. “The Long, Long Trailer,” her best movie with Desi Arnaz, plays at 2:30 p.m. “Stage Door,” a wonderful comedy-drama with Ball supporting Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, airs at 8 p.m. “The Big Street,” at 9:45 p.m., is Ball’s most dramatic film.