TVWW Update — Flesh-eating zombies and a nuclear apocalypse are on the way this week. No, that’s not what’s in store for the third presidential debate on Wednesday, but two films scheduled for the same night. David is still off with his return pending, TVWW readers, so here’s the abbreviated rundown for the upcoming week. (All listings are Eastern Standard and are subject to schedule changes.)
Saturday, October 15 — TVWW fave The Graham Norton Show, BBC America, airs at 10 p.m. with Danny DeVito, Miranda Hart, and Sam Neill scheduled as guests. Amy Schumer: Mostly Sex Stuff, gets repeated on Comedy Central at 10 p.m. and Robert Plant shows up on PBS’s Austin City Limits, PBS, at 11 p.m. Saturday Night Live is clearly building on last year’s successes, so if you’re looking for more, and more of Alec Baldwin’s affected and super-creepy rendition of the Republican nominee, we’re sure the SNL cold-open on NBC at 11:29 p.m. will be certain to please.
Sunday, October 16 — Sunday night continues to keep most DVR’s over-heated with quality overload. PBS premieres a new dramatic saga at 8 p.m. the tale of a mid-20th-century British widow gone to Greece with her young family in Masterpiece: The Durrells in Corfu, (check local listings). Anthony Bourdain gets his mouth burned eating in Sichuan on Parts Unknown at CNN 9 p.m. Wonder Boys (2000), based on the novel by Michael Chabon, stars Michael Douglas as a burned-out college professor reeling from one mishap to another is on Flix at 8 p.m. (with Frances McDormand and Tobey MacGuire). HBO continues its Sunday night domination with Westworld at 9 p.m., Divorce at 10 p.m., Insecure, at 10:30 p.m., and finishes with more of John Oliver’s stellar rants on Last Week Tonight at 11 p.m. Movie channel Epix is getting into the original scripted content game with two new series tonight with spy thriller Berlin Station premiering at 10 p.m., and the tale of an ex-President gone aggressively honest in Graves, airing at 11 p.m. (see Ed Bark's review here.)
Monday, October 17 — Family favorite The Voice airs on NBC at 8 p.m. and TVWW fave Jane the Virgin premieres its third season on the CW 9 p.m. For episodic escapism with stylish period dress, Timeless continues its Quantum Leap-styled adventures into the past at 10 p.m. on NBC. Hugh Laurie returns to a new series again as a doctor in Chance, this time as a forensic neuropsychologist, available tonight, streaming on Hulu.
Tuesday, October 18 — NBC continues its buzz-worthy drama, This Is Us at 9 p.m. PBS airs its profile of the visionary inventor and electrical engineer who early on envisioned worldwide wireless technology (and now the brand name of luxury electric cars) in American Experience: Tesla, at 9 p.m. TVWW guilty pleasure Drunk History runs on Comedy Central at 10:30 p.m., with the inebriated historical recounting of the Roosevelt family, including Teddy, Franklin, and Eleanor.
Wednesday, October 19 — You can get your popcorn or your Xanax for The Third Presidential Debate airing on all networks and cable news channels at 9 p.m… or you can start earlier with similarly macabre human destruction in World War Z (2013) which envisions a future global zombie war (written by Mel Brooks’ son Max) on FX at 7:30. If you’d rather stare into the abyss of another post-election scenario — nuclear apocalypse — Fail-Safe (1964) airs on TCM, 8 p.m. This classic cautionary Cold War thriller envisions what happens when electronic error launches bombers loaded with atomic bombs towards Moscow, past their recall point (with Henry Fonda and a very young Larry Hagman).
Thursday, October 20 — Fox resurrects another pop culture monument when it revives The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Timewarp Again at 8 p.m. Sitcom The Good Place runs on NBC 8:30 p.m. and Frontline repeats “The Choice,” the recent PBS documentary that profiles the two major presidential candidates at PBS, 9 p.m. (check local listings). Key & Peele Sportsball Spectacular gets repeated, complete with Ozamataz Buckshank and the rest of East-West All-Stars on Comedy Central at 9 p.m. FX has ordered a second season of Pamela Adlon’s Better Things and the latest episode airs at 10 p.m. USA’s trippy series about those sharing the same dreams, Falling Water, airs at 10 p.m.
Friday, October 21 — Last year’s comedy hit and TVWW fave Crazy Ex-Girlfriend returns for its second-season premiere on CW at 9 p.m. Emmy-winning Rebecca Bloom stars in this engaging musical comedy as a thirty-something lawyer and her obsessive, unrequited love interest. BBC America premieres the newly reimagined take on Douglas Adams’ (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency on BBC America at 9 p.m. [Note: BBC America has moved the premiere of Dirk Gently to tomorrow night, Saturday, 10/22 @ 9 p.m.] The third season of Netflix’s Twilight Zone-styled import, Black Mirror, is made available for streaming tonight, as well. Oddly, Bill Maher happened to schedule an off day just a few weeks out from the election, so there will be no Maher Meltdown on Real Time tonight.
As always, thanks for your patience and much more for continuing to follow TVWW while David is away. —TVWW